CRAIGFIN

I put an old mobile phone of mine on ebay to sell at a starting price of £15. The bid ended with a winning bid of £310, way over the value. I then received the message below.....

I'm not overly experienced on eBay so what are my options? Do I just relist the item and ignore any further emails?

Craig.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Report it as unpaid to get your fees back and then try relisting it. I think the best thing to do is bar bidders with low feedback. Phones are a real problem on ebay

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Er, how does this scam work? Paypal payment is bulletproof isn't it ...

TX.

Dave1980

i had the same problem selling a phone for a mate, happened three times with people in africa and china.

in the end i gave up

CRAIGFIN

I don't know for sure that it isn't a scam, but having never heard of a successful transaction with words "Africa" and "PayPal", I'm going to assume that it is.

2000TLondon

they are such a pain in the ****, but at least that one had a reasonable grasp of English. Ignore them, do not reply or your address will be all over the web, and as said previously, mark as unpaid, relist, and be picky about who you let bid!

Sbradley

Paypal is about as bulletproof as damp tissue paper, I'm afraid.

Scamming ******* pays his paypal with stolen or otherwise duff card.
Pays you out of his paypal account.
You send goods.
Some time later Paypal realise they've been had.
They then claw the money back from your account.
You have no appeal or recourse.
If the money isn't in your account they come after you for it...

Yep, they're scamming *******s too!

SB

CRAIGFIN

2000London,

What do you mean about being picky about who I let bid? Do I have control over that? As I said I'm not really a big ebay user, only on occasion.

Craig.

Dazza01

You can state in your add that people will 5 or (whatever number you like) less feedback pls contact me first with address/home and mobile number or bid will be canx

CRAIGFIN

Yippee, they have just paid me £340......



.....or not!!!!

CrisPDuk

I would forward that to ebay, and get them to check with the paypal a/c holder to see whether she's aware that she's just paid over the odds for a s/h mobile phone
I wouldn't hold out much hope though, ebay areas good at policing their users as Gordon Brown is at looking after pension funds

In the meantime take the funds out of your paypal a/c and cancel any automatic payment system they may have conned you into setting up, then leave it 3 months before you post the phone.

I wouldn't hold out much hope though, ebay areas good at policing their users as Gordon Brown is at looking after pension funds

BTW I don't honestly think that a woman with a name like Beth Klopping, is that likely to name her offspring Akinola Adebayo

Mogsi

I got the same thing earlier this week on a Sony PSP I was selling. I contacted Ebay and they informed me that the account used to bid on my PSP had been hijacked :0/ Seems to have the same quality of English as yours:

I also got the same email from Paypal ( yeah right ) claiming the funds were ready, but would only be released once I provided them a valid tracking number.

Just use the second chance offer to the next 'valid' bidder...

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

just like your "get out clause" with selling something for a tenner and £450 postage lol.

andy

p.s. seriously though, contact paypal about this obvious scam and reclaim paypal/ebay fees respectively. next time you auction, request low feedback sellers to email before bidding, bit like when buying a car.

andy

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

Put some dog poo in a plastic container an parcel it off to the address in Africa, saying "eat this".

F

Trout

iTrader: (1)

I had my credit card details stolen (no idea how as it was a card I use as back-up that I hadn't used in over a year and it had not left my possession!) and used to set up a Paypal account.

I discovered this by accident when I had to call Paypal for something else and they remarked about my 'other' account.

So Paypal is not bulletproof - or even slug of a broken air rifle proof.

Rannoch

pslewis

Well, its a very good scam if it is one ..... that looks very genuine, you are told you have the funds.

I would take the money and empty your account - not your problem, it all seems above board - let PayPal whistle for the money .... their systems should be stronger!

Take the money and enjoy xmas

CrisPDuk

Paypal doesn't work like that though Pete, firstly they won't acually release the funds to your account until you provide them with proof of shipping, and secondly, they'll quite happily yank said funds after you've shipped at a moments notice:md: Leaving you with no recourse or appeal. I never use my paypal a/c when I'm selling, it's just not worth the risk

This is a great idea, one I'm now going to use myself (providing Floyd hasn't copyighted it) on a scumbag who scammed me for about £12 last year Not realising ebay had sent me his address on his invoice

CRAIGFIN

I haven't received any funds whatsoever. The email above is a fake PayPal email, I checked my PayPal account and have received nothing, nor did I expect to at £340. The phone was listed at £15!!

So there is nothing to clear out of my account unfortunately.

powerman1

cant do that...you have sold your item and been paid for it.its up to paypal to find the fraudster not the seller. Paypal should have already done their checks when the paypal account is set up not when it is being used..their fault

CRAIGFIN

I also got this from ebay...

CrisPDuk

As I said in the other thread about Ebay & Paypal, this is the reason they are registered in Switzerland. They avoid being subject to EU law and regulation.

Swiss banking laws are heavily biased in the banks favour It is practically impossible for a consumer wronged by a Swiss incorporated bank to claim recompense As far as Paypal are concerned the onus is on them to merely not lose money through fraud, if that means recovering that money from the defrauded ebayer so be it!

106rallye

you still have to pay your listing fee as well even though they credit you with a final value fee. I am in the middle of an argument with ebay regarding this and so far its been 2 months! There customer services is beyond a joke - in the same email chain I have had the same templated response twice completely missing the point of my question. They compare their service to a classified newspaper where they still feel that you should pay the listing fee even if the bid is won by a scammer. Therefore they make a profit out of people attempting to obtain goods by deception. They finally agreed over a month ago to credit my account with a £2.39 listing fee which because they haven't yet my account has been blocked.

No wonder last year they made profits of nearly £300 million. If anyone knows a platinum seller and can get me ebays customer service department phone number I would be very greatful as feel the need to speak (shout ) to someone in person!

I have never wanted to see a company fail before but at the moment I could not think of anything better than ebay getting a shock of some description! Though I have heard that they have migrated to IIS so it shouldn't be too long

Andy