Hi all,

I recently decided to sell an item on EBay which it did but unfortunately the person buying it didn't have the money and said he didn't mean to bid so I looked around to see if someone who had already bid on a similar item wanted it so I offered it out in a few emails to people.

I had a reply from someone saying that they were interested and that they would pay their last bid (£236) on the other item listing they were bidding on (the one they lost out on).

So he said to me send him an invoice via paypal and then he would pay me, so I invoiced him then I received this email the next day:

www.eliteonline.co.uk/scam.jpg

After reading it carefully I logged into my paypal account to see if had been logged in there too (to ensure the email was genuine even though it did look the real thing).

This is where I started getting suspicious as no transaction details were showing as an amount was being held. So I then telephoned paypal who confirmed it was a scam to get the goods without paying for them.

So be careful people all is not what it seems on the internet!

Thanks Guy I buy and sell lots of stuff on ebay and never had a problem but I will be alot more careful now

I couldn't believe he had the cheek to ask me why I had cancelled the invoice to him so I told him and lo and behold he didn't reply to that email, his user details have been passed to the fraud dept of ebay and paypal.

As far as I am aware what you did is is against the rules of Ebay - why didnt you just relist your item?
Those who dont play by the rules of Ebay can and do get burnt - and you have no comeback on Ebay if you do. Play by the rules and you have the back up of the Ebay and Paypal systems which will get you your money back.

It wasn't a case of playing by the rules, I used paypal for a legitimate transaction (I am allowed to create an invoice to whoever I like, otherwise you wouldn't be able to do it) The fact was that they were scammers, ebay and paypal were informed and I'm sure if they didn't agree with what I had done then they would have told me off at the point I rang them to inform them of the fraudulent activities this member was carrying out.

As a result he has been kicked off Ebay.

Btw these people were bidding on items on Ebay too so they could have easily scammed those innocent people too.

I can sell items to anyone I like without listing an item on ebay and still get payment through paypal which I was doing. Gaming clans collect paypal payments for their servers but it doesn't mean they have to have the item listed on ebay.

I could advertise a car in free ads and ask them to pay me by paypal if I so wanted, at the end of the day paypal(ebay owned) get their cut from me using either of their systems.

Tell me about ebay and what scams go on! I've had my account hijacked twice, last time only on Friday, didn't even give out my account info.

I hate ebay sometimes it sucks.

I have had countless emails pretending to be from ebay wanting my account info. I sent them to ebay and they confirmed this. This is very worrying as I use paypal all the time. I dont think what you did is against the rules as you are allowed to send out what they call second chance offers for example if someone wins the item but then doesnt pay you can do exactly what you did and offer it to the next highest bidder. We all just have to be so carefull with our details these days as there are some very nasty people out there. thankyou for briging this to our attention.

I made a stupid mistake last week and did a buy now purchase for an I pod, what a bargain thought I as I paid with paypal only to check again and see that I had in fact brought instructions on how to buy an I pod cheaply, bloody hell the person was good, he hid that bit of info right in the middle of the bumph on it, the add itself clearly stated you were puchasing an I pod, anyhow emailed the guy ( he took the money straight out of paypal) no reply so reported it straightaway to pay pal. lo and behold i got a refund and a stinking email from him saying I had blackend his name.. boohoo

Wow the things thieves won't do!

SOme ebay sellers can be very devious. LAst year i was looking through creative products on Ebay and there was a seller selling mini solar oils creams etc but using the big pictures of large sizes to sell them.
One pinkee size bottle had gone up to £25 i was appalled so i emailed a couple of the bidders and told them to read the listing more carefully as what they were bidding on was a small size. The print on the listing regarding the sizing etc was so small it was untrue.
I recieved emails back to thank me for letting them know all were ever so grateful. Can you imagine their disappointment if they had bought a pinkee size bottle for over £25.......i'd be gutted!

I am aware of what you are saying and have used paypal for non Ebay transactions myself, both buying and selling.

Yes loualarta, you are correct you can send a Second Chance Offer to one of your bidders if you have more than one item to sell or your original bidder pulls out. My point is Techygeek didnt use the Ebay Second Chance System to offer the item to his unsuccessful bidders when the winner pulled out. He used the Ebay system - unethically in my personal opinion, to procure details of bidders on similar items and offer to sell them his item off Ebay - i.e. breaking the rules of Ebay and avoiding paying both Ebay Listing and Selling Fee's. If the correct procudure had been followed his Listing and Selling fee's from the original uncomplete transaction would have been refunded and the item relisted on Ebay for no additional cost.

TG ~ I am perplexed that as you dodged the Ebay system that you would then contact Ebay to complain the sale didnt work out? Yes I do agree this person has scammed you and you have comeback against Paypal, no arguement there and I pleased you got your refund and the person has been banned from Ebay.
BUT IMHO Ebay gets a rough deal and has a bad reputation because people think they can work the system, get burnt then blame Ebay. Yes there are scammers on Ebay and but follow the rules - keep your eyes and ears peeled and double check everything before bidding or using Buy It Now. There will always be the unlucky people, including myself, who do all this and still get scammed but stick to the rules and you will have comeback against Ebay ~ get a refund, be able to leave negative feedback to warn others and if it is justified the person will be banned from Ebay.

I really don't know why you are making such a big deal about how I went about my business unless you work for Ebay or have shares in Ebay, but you really must read things more carefully I didn't get a refund because I wasn't buying I was SELLING, paypal would have made money out of me anyway even if I didn't relist this item so I don't know why you are getting all worked up about it, plus I didn't complain to EBay at all I told them I believed I had been sent a scammers email, I have the technical know how to work out an email scam when I see one and even though this did look the real thing by the way of a paypal email. I merely informed them that this was a scammer not that I wasn't happy with ebay or paypal as it isn't their fault.

The main point of this thread was to show how convincing scammers emails look to make people more weary and not to jump in feet first.

After all I could have sold anything anywhere and accepted a paypal payment for it as it isn't against paypal rules which is the only method I used to exchange funds (or try to). Granted I placed the item originally on ebay (which they had their enlistment fee already). Plus had I not reported this to EBay who knows he could have fooled one of YOU lot. So which would you prefer I did told you all about it or let you find out the hard way?

I am not making a big deal and have no shares in Ebay ~ my point is you used the Ebay system unethically in my opinion, to procure details of bidders on similar items and offer to sell them your item off Ebay - i.e. breaking the rules of Ebay and avoiding paying both Ebay Listing and Selling Fee's. You have titled this thread Ebay Scam Warning and then go on to detail how you have dodged the Ebay system

As I said above I think Ebay gets a rough deal but it is IMHO a very good site if used correctly, and Ebay virgins shouldnt be put off giving it a go.

The Technical know how is no great mystery ~
Just forward any Emails from Ebay/ Paypal to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com for verification, this also means the source of the fraudulent EMail can be investigated. I personally dont take Emails from either as gospel and alway log on to my account to verify any transaction myself.

But you are missing the point of this thread, I am making people aware of a particular type of scam not that fact that I shouldn't do this or that on EBay which you have pointed out to people numerous times so obviously it does get to you (not EBay as they have not said anything to me). I am not talking about the ethics of things or whether your moral values are better than mine (which I am sure you think they are). The fact is Ebay is flawed in a multitude of ways that is why it is in the news so often and yes you do have to be careful but for examples sake had I relisted the said item I could have still been approached by this individual and I could have shipped the item out to him before he had paid me thinking paypal were holding the money as stated by the email.

All you seem to do so far on this thread is go on about how I broke ebay rules, how many people play by every rule? Just get off your moral high horse and chill. I am sure ebay missed my £1.50 listing fee or whatever it was but had the transaction gone through Paypal would have still got money out of me to transfer money into my bank account now wouldn't they??

Like I said all I wanted to do was show people how convincing some people can be. And you turn it into the do's and don't of EBay crusade.

People on here need to calm down....

Like I said I could have let people find out the hard way rather than take stick for something and nothing.

Personaly i hate EBAY................i really really dont like it at all.........

I have heard from alot of my freinds that have been selling stuff only to find out the buyer has no intention of actually paying for the item.......on the other hand i have seen people buying things are listed incorrectly like for example and ex display PSP (or sumfin similar) only to find out it was an ex display box with nothing in it

What happened to going to shops to buy things?

Amanda

ps i think the scam emails can be very convincing esp if like me you are not very computer literate LOL