Help me avoid a possible eBay scam
 

I am sceptical and would like your advice before I go any further.

I recently bid on and won an auction for a 996 steering wheel on eBay.

I won the auction because I was the only person who bid on the wheel. $200 was the opening bid and I won it for $200.

I followed the payment screens on eBay and it automatically takes you to the paypal site where you pay the seller.
The sellers listed email address was a yahoo addy. I sent the $228 for the wheel via paypal and for several days heard no reply.

The paypal money transfer went well, but when I'd check the status it kept saying it hadn't "processed".
I wrote to the seller and asked what was going on.
The reply was the seller had not received money via paypal and resent his address.

Here's the thing. The email address the seller sent me is different than the address listed for the seller on ebay and paypal.
He is saying the user name is correct, just not the email address for the paypal transfer.

I wrote back saying I was confused and asked for clarification.
Essentially, I got a "I've never had another email address", answer.

I am weary to say the least.

Please, I don't want people to automatically think this is a scam, and I don't want everyone to blindly tell me to run away.

I am interested in your thoughts as to why this could be happening.
My fear is that someone has somehow used a legitimate eBay account under false pretenses.
Is it possible this is the case and the person is trying to get me to send paypal payment to a different account (one of which they have control?)

Please let me know, I'm not sure what to do.

Here is a record of all email between the seller and I:
To read it, you have to start at the bottom...

hi
i never had any old account, but my email is nader101XXXXXXX.net and user name is bigmny . i dont know whats going on with ebay.
thanks

Leland Pate <lelandeod@yahoo.com> wrote:
Well, I think I've found the problem.
The seller ID on Ebay is listed as "bigmny".
Is this you?
When I went to pay "bigmny" through paypal it listed
the email address as: bidderdeal@yahoo.com
I just went to paypal and canceled the payment. It was
listed as "unclaimed" so at least the unintended
receiver didn't cash my transfer.
Was this an old paypal address for you?
I'm a little confused here.
I can resend the payment to the address you just gave
me.
Any ideas what happened here?

Leland
--- Nader A wrote:

> hi
> please make sure the money went to correct email
> (nader101@sXXXXXl.net) not any others.
> thank you
>
> Leland Pate wrote:
> Hi there, Just wanted to let you know I've sent
> $228.50 to your paypal account for payment of the
> 996
> steering wheel.
> I have not yet heard back from you and thought I
> should email you in case you haven't checked your
> PayPal account lately.
> On my PayPal account it is listed as "uncleared". I
> confess I'm not sure what this means. Perhaps you
> could explain. On eBay, the transaction is listed as
> "pending".
> I guess I'm just trying to determine whether not you
> were successfully paid via PayPal.
>
> Please let me know.
>
> Leland
> --- Nader A wrote:
>
> > hi
> > yes every thing is correct ,dont forget to send me
> > your return address.
> > thank you
> >
> > Leland Pate wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I just received an automated email saying I've won
> > the
> > auction for the 996 steering wheel on eBay.
> >
> > I always like to double check with the seller
> before
> > I
> > actually send off the money order.
> >
> > Once I hear from you I'll have it in the mail.
> >
> > I'm going to send $228.50 paid to the order of and
> > mailed to:
> >
> > XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

> > If this is correct, please let me know and I'll
> send
> > payment.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Leland Pate

I guess that means you're not out of pocket, Lee.

As long as you're using your credit card, I would have thought you'd have some recourse through your bank if it all goes south.

It appears the money I sent to the original paypal account went unclaimed (for at least two or three days).
I just hit the "Cancel" button and it appears to be ok. I'm just waiting for it to be returned to my bank account.

But, now I have the seller (who has never said his name, which I find disturbing) telling me to send the money to another email/paypal account, claiming he has no knowledge of why ebay has a different email/paypal account associated to his profile.

I smell something and it ain't flowers.
The more I think about it the less I like it.

If the guy was able to use the ebay account to post the ad then he could have changed the payment email address to the correct one.

What he really needs to do is go into his paypal account and add the other email address to his paypal account. I don't think the seller is necessarily scamming you. I think he's just being dense.

I'm sure people have figured out how to invade the site and divert payment. How the hell did the guy mass email all of us here at Pelican about the cannonball? LIke I'm gonna send this clown 30K!!!!

Anyway, Lee, you did right. Start over, but notify eBay first. They should be able to trace it. With the millions of transactions happening daily, they have to be pointed to the infraction.

Perhaps then, they can block that IP. So, that's one coffehouse computer out of action out of millions.

Wouldn't that make it even easier for a scammer (assuming for a moment this is some sort of scam)? Sending a check?

That brings up another good point... the seller has a name on the email as Nader, but when they told me to write a check, it was to be payable to Cynthia St. Clair. Jeez, it's just too wierd.
I'm sure there are reasonable explainations, but I think it's about time the seller start GIVING me explainations instead of vauge two sentence replies.

Leland:

Sounds strange. I have bought a lot of stuff on ebay, and used PayPal for inbound and outbound payments. There are many people that use different login names on ebay from the email address that is their PayPal account. I am assuming that you have a PayPal account, rather than just using PayPal to pay someone for a purchase.

Ebay owns PayPal, so if you click on the "pay now" button at the Ebay auction, it should take you to the right place to send the money. I have had PayPal transactions that haven't "cleared" but none that have not been "claimed."

You see, on PayPal, people generally link their PayPal account to a bank account. But even if they don't, their PayPal account will hold the money for them. I wonder if, for some reason, you have linked to an improper email address that PayPal couldn't deliver to. You can call the PayPal "contact us" and ask them about it. They have pretty good support.

Good Luck. At least, you're not out any money yet. What I would do is go to the auction that you won, email the seller from that link, and get an address to send a check (or money order) to. That might resolve your issue if the PayPal thing isn't working.

larry

This can be solved by using the User's contact info. Ebay will provide the buyer/seller of any completed auction the name, geographical and telephone number of the account holder as registered.

This is automated. Request it and contact the seller by phone. Any seller experienced with eBay will understand your concern and will appreciate the fact that you took the time to verify and clarify.

Jim

Better yet, send him a USPS Money Order. That way, if it's a scam and he cashes it, it's a federal mail fraud offence. Most scammers will run from an offer of a Postal M.O. I've had it happen twice.

What about an Escrow service?

have him fix his email and make sure he has a shield by hi name, also call paypal, and also write ebay an E-mail, Kevin

Leland:

This won't resolve what really is going on, but my advice is to cut this thing loose. If nothing else, the guy is an a-hole. I certainly would show more concern and would try to be accomodating. You have the $ back and all you have to loose is one positive feedback.

I doubt that Ebay or PayPal will be of much help clearing this up, but of course I'd try. Not to save the transaction, but to know WTF happened.

Hope this helps,

George

the different names may have nothing to do with a scam, my email is biosurfer1 and ebay name is bk... if you really want the steering wheel, it might be worth a shot, just send the payment through paypal, witha credit card. then you have three places of recourse if something goes wrong, all three will have fraud protection...i would make sure the new address is verified through paypal, they protect you no matter what, but the protection is more if they are verified.

Have you checked the seller's previous feedback?

Actually, this usually turns out to be a scheme against PayPal....

The vast majority of Ebay buyers feel a seller's PayPal affiliation further legitimizes the seller's reputation, therefore the seller becomes a PayPal subscriber. The seller will then 'sabotage' his Paypal account or include language in his payment instructions which will elicit a discussion with the buyer. The transaction appears as 'canceled' with PayPal and the seller tries to elicit a secondary form of payment from the buyer, thereby evading the PayPal fees......

The only PayPal fees are if you are a seller and have set up your account so that you can accept credit cards. PayPal doesn't require this. I have bought and sold with PayPal, and there are no costs to the transaction, as long as there are no credit cards involved.

larry

Well i am not saying RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN but if it's giving you so much headache why not just forget about it and look for another one :) Btw yes i have heard people stealing someones ebay account so in this case it might just be true,hope it helps

As somone else said: if you funded the transfer through a credit card, tell the issuing bank that you wish to dispute the charge. They will immediately charge it back to Paypal, which will then try to recover the money form the appropriate seller account. I have done this twice and it works pefectly, though Paypal gets annoyed with you becasue they want you to use their own dispute settlement procedure, which is biased against the buyer and very long. If you funded the transfer through a bank account, you have to use the Paypal dispute procedure. Thats why I only use a credit car for Paypal transactions.

Larry, that's not true for me. Every time I receive money, they take their cut, no matter what the reason, unless it's a reversal.

EDIT: Maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying.