Is This Buyer on eBay a Potential Scammer?

Lfrugal-fries on 12/08/2019 - 12:25
Last edited 13/08/2019 - 07:01

New user here so hope I posted in the right place. I'll try to keep the story short. Over the weekend I made some sales on eBay. When packing the items, I realised that two of them I sold (both about $25 each) were to be posted to the exact same address, name and all, but they were 2 different eBay accounts. They also paid with 2 different PayPal accounts with the same username as those eBay accounts. On top of this, they were both newly created eBay accounts on the day and they had strange usernames. As if they'd just randomly mashed the keyboard to form their username. Think something like "bn_pb0_d5sp8dgkh" (I just made that up as an example).

What should I do in this situation? I messaged the buyer asking for clarification if they were legitimate as I found all of the above strange, but have so far received no response. My talk with eBay wasn't very helpful either. They just gave me a link to how to cancel a transaction and told me the buyer can still give me negative feedback after I cancel it… I'm still a relatively new seller (under 100 ratings), so I don't really want to be given two negative feedback.

If I decide to post the items, I'm not sure if I'm completely safe from a potential scam even if I ship them with tracking. What if they claim the item was not as described or just ask PayPal for a charge back, etc? I'm not too knowledgeable in these areas so I'm not sure how I should proceed from here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE
Thanks everyone for all the advice. Really appreciate it. I was convinced it was a scam because it just seemed so strange. But after foxmulder's comment about randomly generated names for an ebay guest, I realised PayPal was just giving me their username off eBay and it wasn't two different PayPals.

The buyer has contacted me and confirmed they did buy as an eBay guest twice! They bought one item and then another after, therefore generating two different names. The reason they didn't reply to my message earlier is because they were sick in bed and hadn't been checking their email. So all a big misunderstanding!

Poll Options expired

  • 3
    Just post the item with tracking
  • 24
    Cancel the transaction
  • 1
    Something else
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closed Comments

  • cruiserbruiser on 12/08/2019 - 12:33
    +2

    Potentially

  • Skramit on 12/08/2019 - 12:33
    -1

    Yes!

    ABORT MISSION CAPTAIN.

  • Diji1 on 12/08/2019 - 12:34

    It's almost certainly a scam. Not even a very sophisticated one given the automatically generated names which could have looked perfectly legitimate with 10 minutes programming but I digress …

    I'd cancel it, feedback isn't that harmful and I'm pretty sure scam feedback gets removed in any case. The scammer probably won't leave any as it's just more work for accounts that are going to get banned fast.

  • scrimshaw on 12/08/2019 - 12:41
    +2

    Remember to also report the buyer if you are thinking of cancelling the transaction
    https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/…

    Document and report everything, including conversation and their paypal email address / shipping address.

    The best case scenario is that you don't get any bad feedback after cancelling the transaction.

    the worse case scenario is that you might get a negative review, but I'm fairly certain the feedback can be revised later on, not to give you any false hope but just letting you know that there is still a system in place that allows sellers to potentially have their feedback reviewed by the ebay moderation team.

  • [Deactivated] on 12/08/2019 - 12:55

    What is the general type of item?

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 12/08/2019 - 13:08
    +3

    Gut says to cancel both transactions.

    Curiosity says to mark both transactions as "sent" without providing tracking info and see what happens.

  • Ughhh on 12/08/2019 - 13:19

    Yeh cancel and block buyers with zero feedback in setting.

  • HighAndDry on 12/08/2019 - 13:26
    +1

    Use "problem with address" when cancelling. Might help with feedback issues.

  • foxmulder on 12/08/2019 - 13:53
    +5

    What may happen is the same buyer is guest on eBay where the username is randomly generated by the system.

    What is the main concern is there may be duplicate order issue, you may just delay shipping, ask buyer to make sure it's not duplicate.

    If no response, in case of non free shipping, you have nothing to loose if buyer change mind.

    • ESEMCE on 12/08/2019 - 14:36

      Great solution.
      Act as a concerned seller, no response = scam.

    • frugal-fries on 12/08/2019 - 15:03

      Thanks for the insight! I had no idea eBay did that! I think you may be right about the user being a guest. I thought about it, looked at my PayPal and realised it doesn't actually tell me their PayPal username (my bad). It's just referring to their eBay username… Btw, the person bought two different items, but they bought them within like a minute of each other.

    • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 12/08/2019 - 15:07

      I think foxmulder is on the money. A quick google indicates they probably paid using the Paypal guest feature via ebay.

      There's several ebay codes going at the moment. They may be using one that their primary account has run out of.

    • qwerty on 12/08/2019 - 15:09

      Yeah 100% its someone checking out as a guest

  • Ocker on 12/08/2019 - 15:43

    Send goods with full tracking and you will qualify for PayPal seller protection in case the buyer claims non-receipt.
    That aside there are still several areas where you strike problems if it is a scammer. e.g. Buyer files an INAD (Item Not As Described) claim saying the box he received was full of paper. eBay will him the buyer a refund every time.

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