Weird Ebay issue- is this a scam or just a crazy person?

[Fritzo]

I recently sold a phone on eBay. A buyer that just joined on Feb 10th bought the phone on Feb 10th, and I was paid immediately (the money is now sitting in my account).

Here's the weird part: the buyer put in a bunch of gobbledygook in for a shipping address, so I can't print a shipping label. I contacted the buyer, and the buyer seems to have cancelled their email account as soon as they bought the phone.

I currently have no way of shipping the phone, I can't contact the buyer, and I have no way of issuing a refund. Anyone see this before? Wondering if it's some kind of scam where the buyer will email me outside of eBay making demands?

 

[sdifox]

Talk to ebay

 

[Fritzo]

Called them- they were puzzled too. The user got their account cancelled for abuse, but they're not sure how they paid me. Scam gone wrong?

 

[sdifox]

Called them- they were puzzled too. The user got their account cancelled for abuse, but they're not sure how they paid me. Scam gone wrong?

Lol you busted a scammer without even lifting a finger. Good job.

 

[zinfamous]

so you're the guy that hides all of the Nigerian Prince's fortune for safe keeping!

 

[Iron Woode]

Just how exactly was this scam going to work? It must be a reverse scam: instead of scamming a seller, the buyer scams himself.

 

[ElFenix]

reminds me of the sketch from kids in the hall (?) where they do the drive thru drive off but pay first

 

[Fritzo]

Just how exactly was this scam going to work? It must be a reverse scam: instead of scamming a seller, the buyer scams himself.

Maybe if I refunded him that would provide bank info to request more money? Maybe he was going to claim he never got shipment and get a refund after he received the item? I dunno how scammers work, this was just odd.

I'm now sitting on $125 AND the phone I was going to sell LOL.

 

[Red Squirrel]

They still have 45 days to get the money back, so they probably will just do a charge back unless they lost their Paypal account too.

I've had weird scams too. Someone (legit) donated money through a website I run. Then later I got a scam email that was made to appear like it came from Paypal and it was customer service asking me to do a refund. I don't know how they know that this person donated but all the info was in the email. The email itself was a scam though and not from Paypal's servers. I forwarded it to Paypal and they said it was a scam. I don't understand how that scam would have even worked as the person who donated is the one that would have gotten the money. There was no links in the email, it told me to login to Paypal and do it from there.

 

[VashHT]

I'd bet they stole a CC or something. I sold an old iphone on ebay and the guy gave me a weird address, it showed up as a loading dock on google maps. Even UPS said it didn't really look like a real address, but they buyer confirmed it so I shipped it. After they got the phone, they started a fraud thing through Paypal, but since I had confirmed the address and it showed as delivered they ruled in my favor without any problems. A couple months later I got another thing from Paypal for someone trying to cancel the charge because it was made with a stolen card or something. Since I had nothing to do with I was covered, but it was pretty annoying.

 

[randay]

how can you have no way of issuing a refund?

 

[DigDog]

dont issue the refund.

wait.


my guess is that the phone would have been sent out to a nearby address with fast shipping time, and as soon as it's arrive it would "not have arrived", the buyer would have forced a refund through eBay, and you would have been out of a phone and of the charges.
it's totally possible that the guy whose account got billed at the guy who clicked BUY are not the same person.

 

[snoopy7548]

I've had this happen to me before, a bunch of times. I'm an expert at eBay. OP, if you send me the phone and the money, I'll handle it. Trust me, I'm an eBay expert and this can be complicated. This has happened and I've dealt with it with success every time.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I've had this happen to me before, a bunch of times. I'm an expert at eBay. OP, if you send me the phone and the money, I'll handle it. Trust me, I'm an eBay expert and this can be complicated. This has happened and I've dealt with it with success every time.

You are an idiot, my friend. You should at least charge him a nominal fee for cleaning up his mess for him.

 

[Fritzo]

how can you have no way of issuing a refund?

The account doesn't exist anymore...they cancelled it. I could do a reverse charge through Paypal...but eh.

 

[Ichinisan]

Almost certainly testing a stolen credit card number.