eBay Scam Buyers

[Snaggletooth]

I'm posting as a customer here, looking for some advice. I do a little bit of selling on eBay but not massive amounts, this is the first time this sort of thing has come up. I started an auction on Friday, starting price is 30 £ and there were no bids at the time I got this second message from an eBay user this morning:

Oh thanks for your reply, I'll paying £195.00 for the Item and the Postage fee to South Africa via (Royal Mail Express).

Here is my PayPal email (****************) you can send me your email or send me PayPal money request

or if you want bank transfer send me your bank details for the payment.


Best Regards.

The buyer first registered their account 6 weeks ago and there is no buying or selling activity on it. My listing states that I do not sell overseas and there is a very prominent pay by Paypal button.

First question: is there any way that this isn't a scam? It looks and feels like one, but I can't quite figure it out right now. Unless it's a simple case of getting me to send the item having told me that a none existent payment is on the way.

Second question: how do you report a suspected scam buyer to eBay? I have blocked this particular buyer and increased the security settings on my account, but I would like to make a more specific report of suspected fraud to eBay and can't find the appropriate reporting page.

[Postie45]

almost certainly a scam, is he trying to buy the item outside of ebay ? thats probably the easiest route to flag it and you can add some extra information about how it looks like a scam as well.
You can report it from this page


http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/r ... -sale.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Snaggletooth]

Thanks for your reply, I didn't know what the offence was in eBay's jargon.

The problem I get when I follow your link and go on to report it is that I can only get so far without putting an item number into the system. I can't find the number. The sale isn't completed yet.

[Postie45]

you have an item number as soon as you put something up for sale on ebay, check your listing confirmation email

[Snaggletooth]

There are several problems with this process. The first is that you can't actually use the reporting form until the sale has completed, which was 5 days later in this case. The second is that, once the item does appear in that window, it had the username of the legitimate buyer displayed, not the fraudster, and I didn't go any further because I was afraid I might accidentally report my customer as a scam artist.

This afternoon I bit the bullet and called eBay, which will come off my phone bill, but at least the report is made now. The call centre operator was very good and confirmed that this was "90% a scam" but personally I thought that eBay could make this a lot easier.