Ebay scam?
Author
Discussion

bobtail4x4

Original Poster:

4,411 posts

139 months

Thursday 21st March 2019
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A different kind I think,
I sold a set of tyres, guy won the auction £160 came collected and paid cash,

a day or so later, messages me to say he is happy with tyres, but has asked ebay to return them, "so I dont have to pay ebay fee"

with that he pays £160 into my paypal, so I now have £160 cash and £160 paypal (actually about £154 after fees)
thats it, no further contact,
Im £154 up, the guy lives only about 20 miles away, and hasnt been in touch,
ebay have closed the case and taken their £16 cut of the auction,

very confused here,

bobtail4x4

Original Poster:

4,411 posts

139 months

Thursday 21st March 2019
quotequote all
no one able to explain this?

tim0409

5,954 posts

189 months

Thursday 21st March 2019
quotequote all
bobtail4x4 said:
no one able to explain this?
It doesn't really make sense; why would the buyer care if you had to pay eBay fees on the sale, far less make an additional payment? You have the cash so you are fine; I suspect he will now make a claim for the return of the Paypal payment, although I would love to read what he says to PayPal when he makes the claim!

The normal scam with Paypal when collecting goods in person is the buyer subsequently files a claim that he never received the goods, but that obviously doesn't apply here as he paid cash.

roadsmash

2,667 posts

100 months

Thursday 21st March 2019
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Mad I know, but could he have forgotten that he paid you cash?

Evolved

4,079 posts

217 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
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Was the cash Monopoly money?

bobtail4x4

Original Poster:

4,411 posts

139 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
Evolved said:
Was the cash Monopoly money?
dont know, i have spent it.

its wierd.

TheLuke

2,218 posts

171 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
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Did you accidentally give him twice the amount of tyres.

silobass

1,219 posts

132 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
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He might have been selling something too that was similar/similar amounts so got confused between the two auctions?

If not, that's my kind of scam!

Shuvi McTupya

24,460 posts

277 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
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Wouldn't it be brilliant if this was his first attempt at an ebay scam and he hadn't quite grasped how it all worked smile

Narcisus

9,079 posts

310 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
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Just refund the Paypal payment adding a not saying buyer has already paid cash on collection.

Ledaig

1,806 posts

292 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
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The only thing I can make of it is he's trying to do you a favour in a odd way.

He's picked and paid for the tyres - great everyone happy.

Then in an ambitious effort to save you fees, has paid £160 a second time by Paypal, he has then (or will) open a dispute to return them, at which point you agree the return and he gets refunded the £160.

End result, you get £160 cash and attract no fees due to the cancelled sale.



Edited by Ledaig on Friday 22 March 10:48

Evolved

4,079 posts

217 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
Shuvi McTupya said:
Wouldn't it be brilliant if this was his first attempt at an ebay scam and he hadn't quite grasped how it all worked smile
biggrin brilliant. Send me his username. I have some tyres too.

jontykint

1,016 posts

159 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
Yes sounds like he’s trying to do you a favour.
Before he bought them through eBay could you have just cancelled the listing?
You would incur no fees that way.
Does that work?

Grumpy old git

368 posts

217 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
Narcisus said:
Just refund the Paypal payment adding a not saying buyer has already paid cash on collection.
and then Paypal will deduct the money again in a week or two when they realise cleared funds were not used for the initial payment and the scam becomes apparent. Personally I'd call PayPal and do what they say.

Narcisus

9,079 posts

310 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
Grumpy old git said:
and then Paypal will deduct the money again in a week or two when they realise cleared funds were not used for the initial payment and the scam becomes apparent. Personally I'd call PayPal and do what they say.
No they wont. He paid with cash first.

roadsmash

2,667 posts

100 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
Ledaig said:
The only thing I can make of it is he's trying to do you a favour in a odd way.

He's picked and paid for the tyres - great everyone happy.

Then in an ambitious effort to save you fees, has paid £160 a second time by Paypal, he has then (or will) open a dispute to return them, at which point you agree the return and he gets refunded the £160.

End result, you get £160 cash and attract no fees due to the cancelled sale.



Edited by Ledaig on Friday 22 March 10:48
This makes the most sense. Bit odd tho!

bobtail4x4

Original Poster:

4,411 posts

139 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
now you see why Im confused,

will message him

anonymous-user

84 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
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Dear OP.
Long reply - sorry
Short version - be careful with this.

Both you and him need to be careful about cancelling transactions on e bay
They are very clued up these days and have a clause that they will take their fee in some cases even when an item is cancelled
If you are lucky nothing will be done. Next step up from that is that the you get a message saying transactions outside of e bay are not fair and if you do it again you will get some action against you.

Just before Xmas I had someone come and buy something direct as he needed it there and then. He then sent me a message similar to yours about cancelling it so I would save the £8 fees. I just replied its done now thanks all the best for Xmas. I meant the sales been done I'm happy etc.
A few days later I had an international call I didn't recognise so didn't answer it. Around 30 minutes later I got a message from e bay that I had breached policies and my listing ability was restricted for a few days. I rang them and as the agent spoke to me it dawned on me what they had done and why. I explained that I had not asked the guy to do this and my reply back meant it the way I meant it.
The agent was very good and realised and immediately reinstated things even apologising.
The issue is that their system checks and looks for some stuff in messages and it then triggers action in this case on both the recipient and sender of the message.
Had I taken the original call and explained this to them then the action they took wouldn't have been taken

The other posters replies about the scam being pay on paypal, collect in person then claim no delivery is unfortunately true as well.

anonymous-user

84 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
email monitor messages for fee dodging, refund paypal.

roadsmash

2,667 posts

100 months

Friday 22nd March 2019
quotequote all
techiedave said:
Dear OP.
Long reply - sorry
Short version - be careful with this.

Both you and him need to be careful about cancelling transactions on e bay
They are very clued up these days and have a clause that they will take their fee in some cases even when an item is cancelled
If you are lucky nothing will be done. Next step up from that is that the you get a message saying transactions outside of e bay are not fair and if you do it again you will get some action against you.

Just before Xmas I had someone come and buy something direct as he needed it there and then. He then sent me a message similar to yours about cancelling it so I would save the £8 fees. I just replied its done now thanks all the best for Xmas. I meant the sales been done I'm happy etc.
A few days later I had an international call I didn't recognise so didn't answer it. Around 30 minutes later I got a message from e bay that I had breached policies and my listing ability was restricted for a few days. I rang them and as the agent spoke to me it dawned on me what they had done and why. I explained that I had not asked the guy to do this and my reply back meant it the way I meant it.
The agent was very good and realised and immediately reinstated things even apologising.
The issue is that their system checks and looks for some stuff in messages and it then triggers action in this case on both the recipient and sender of the message.
Had I taken the original call and explained this to them then the action they took wouldn't have been taken

The other posters replies about the scam being pay on paypal, collect in person then claim no delivery is unfortunately true as well.
I think I understand this but what’s in it for the scammer? As far as I work out, nothing.

The buyer paid cash first and foremost so I just don’t understand how this scam would cause any issue for the seller (other than perhaps a stroppy call from eBay)?

Buyers don’t pay fees (for small purchases) only sellers do so what is in it for the buyer? Is it simply just to ruin the seller’s day for sts and giggles?

Edited by roadsmash on Friday 22 March 22:49