Scam question

[mattaustin615]

Hi, a person with 0 feedback and their account was created the day of the purchase has activated a buy it now option on a laptop I am selling and according to Ebay they have paid and the address is a genuine house according to Google maps. My question is, would people cancel the order and if so would i be open to negative feedback? 

Thanks for any replies and advice.

Matt.

[four_mid_able]

"according to Ebay" what does that actually mean ?.

I can buy anything i want ,open a not as described claim and send you back a box of wood.I can also request a chargeback which basically means a full refund for me and a 15 quid odd charge for you...

Basic guide is " don't list anything you cannot afford to lose".

What was your question again ?.Have you read up on Ebays MBG ?.

[mattaustin615]

My question is, would that cause other people to cancel the order and issue a refund? 0 feedback and same day account creation? By According to EBay I just meant they have accepted payment.

[dch2112011]

Just a thought

Everybody on ebay including everyone who posts on this forum at some time or other started with a zero rating and a new ebay account.

Were they all scamming when making their first purchase ?  Of course not ! 

It could be that your buyer simply searched google for the item and clicked on your ebay advert - looked at your listing and wanted to buy and opened an account to do so.

Or of course it could be an attempt to commit fraud.

This is a risk you take when buying or selling online - if you have doubt cancel - if you believe they are genuine let the sale complete - either way it is down to your choice.

[m25jet]

There is one other way to look at this situation, which is a far more positive way to view the matter.

As has already been pointed out, we all started with zero feedback when we first opened our eBay accounts.  This buyer has recently opened an eBay account.  He/she could have chosen to purchase a laptop from any of your rivals who also sell laptops, but for whatever reason has chosen you as his/her first choice seller after considering all of the various options available.

As we all know, first impressions last so make sure that your first impression with this buyer is a good one.  If you regularly sell the kind of products that this buyer is interested in then if you really go the extra mile and make an excellent first impression then you could potentially end up with a repeat customer, in which case both you and the buyer stand to benefit.

In the event that the buyer turns out to be dodgy and tries to abuse the eBay Money Back Guarantee to screw you over for a freebie report the buyer to eBay and add his/her User ID to your Blocked Bidders List.  However, it is too early at this stage to say that the buyer is a scammer, so give the buyer a chance and treat the sale in the same way as you would if you were selling the item to somebody who had been registered on eBay for years and had a high feedback score.

[*knight-rider*]

Looking at your listing, you have collection in person, so to make sure you have no issues, take payment as cash on collection, or they can do a bank transfer in front of you.

[mattaustin615 · Accepted solution]

It's on my dads account. Thanks for all the replies.

[4_bathrooms]

Have you recorded the laptop's unique identifiers?

You can obtain the unique BIOS serial number by typing "wmic bios get serialnumber" in a command prompt. You can obtain the unique MAC addresses by typing "ipconfig -all" in a command prompt - the "Physical Address" fields are the unique MAC addresses (they will look like 0A-2B-3C-4A-5B-6C); there will be one for the LAN adapter and one for the WiFi adapter. Finally, the manufacturer might have their own unique serial number printed or silk-screened on the bottom of the case.

When the buyer collects you need to ask them for the 6 digit code that eBay sent to their messages. If both of you are using the app you can scan the QR code instead but I would advise sticking with the 6-digit code if possible (I never scan QR codes provided by strangers). Alternatively, eBay state they will accept a copy of the order confirmation signed by the buyer as proof of collection but I suspect the 6-digit code/QR code carries more weight.   

[mattaustin615]

Hi thanks for the response. The laptop that I sold on my account sold fine and was collected and demonstrated and everyone was happy. This laptop was being sold by my dad on his account but to give more background to the story, yesterday I posted on my phone so it was difficult to articulate.

So what happened, we set off an auction to last one week and it was initially fine with normal bidding, and then there were several bids from people with zero feedback, and one of these bids raised the price to about £450. Then on about the third day some bids were retracted, I don't know by who, whether Ebay or one of the bidders and the current high bidder was reduced to about £100 which was weird and then another account with zero feedback raised the bid again. So we were thinking at this point someone was trying to inflate the price to waste time and then reduce it when the auction was nearly up so we discussed what to do and decided to cancel the auction and just put the laptop up for sale at £550. 

At this point our radar was lit up for dodgy ways to scam and then at this point the laptop was bought with zero communication by an account that was created the day we listed the laptop for sale the second time, so at this point we thought we were being tracked by somebody.

We messaged Ebay and they weren't helpful, but searching this forum was an eye opener because we were unaware of how a seller might become victim to different types of scams.

As an asside, the account address that they wanted the laptop to be sent to is in a really rough area of Chester, my sister went to Uni there and said so, although that might be prejudice.

Thanks.

[m25jet]

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@mattaustin615 wrote:

We messaged Ebay and they weren't helpful, but searching this forum was an eye opener because we were unaware of how a seller might become victim to different types of scams.

As an asside, the account address that they wanted the laptop to be sent to is in a really rough area of Chester, my sister went to Uni there and said so, although that might be prejudice.

Thanks.

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If you haven't yet posted the laptop then I would advise you to post it via Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed By 1:00pm.  Not only does this guarantee that the buyer will receive the laptop by 1:00pm the day after you post it out, but it also offers end-to-end tracking with a signature on delivery, which will enable you to prove that the laptop was successfully delivered to the recipient's address in the event that the buyer starts making any false Item Not Received allegations.  By sending the item in this way you would be able to blow any false non-receipt allegations right out of the water and eBay would decide the case in your favour.

[mattaustin615]

Thanks, my Dad has pulled the trigger on cancelling the transaction and he won't let me sell it collect in person only because he doesn't want to divulge our address in case there is somebody tracking us. 

We did stipulate that it would be posted using tracking but the bidding history was weird with multiple new accounts being used. I can't for the life of me work out how that could be a benefit to an individual controlling them. Of course it could be paranoia but my dad has over a thousand feedback and hasn't seen anything like this.

Sorry to waste peoples time and thanks for the help.

[4_bathrooms]

As above, as you will be sending something worth over £450 you will need to use a service that requires a signature on delivery to be protected in an eBay Money Back Guarantee case or payment dispute filed for the item not being received. You will also need to check the compensation offered if the laptop is lost or damaged in transit (Special Delivery offers up to £750).

I'd still advise recording any unique identifiers that you can. If the buyer returned a different item in a Money Back Guarantee case these would be helpful if you needed to file a report with Action Fraud.

[mattaustin615]

I certainly will follow your advice in future. I guess because we don't have the volume of history selling as you guys we're pretty naive.

[4_bathrooms]

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@mattaustin615 wrote:

I can't for the life of me work out how that could be a benefit to an individual controlling them.

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It raises the highest bid above what most genuine buyers would be willing to bid. When the auction is nearly over the "fake" bids are retracted and the person who was controlling the bidding bags the item for a bargain.

Generally, the best thing to do with auctions is to set the start price at the minimum amount you would be willing to accept for the item; it stops most such behaviour. Unlike setting a reserve price (which is pointless) specifying a start price does not attract any extra fees.

[mattaustin615]

That's what we wondered, but then it must be paranoia linking the two situations to think it was the same person who was prepared to pay the full £550 when we listed it as a buy it now even though it was another brand new zero feedback account.