eBay...am I getting scammed?

[sherry7]

I'd like to know what you all think about this. I have an electronics item listed on eBay. I expect it to sell for $150-$170. When I listed the auction, I clicked the various options to NOT ship outside of the USA. In addition, I listed this exclusion in the auction description as well. Supposedly, people with a non-USA address shouldn't even be permitted to bid on it.

Yesterday, I clicked on the profiles of the people bidding and noticed that 2 of them are from foreign countries. The one person is from Denmark, and has a good feedback rating as a buyer. However, the other person is from the Russian Federation, and only has a feedback rating of 1.

So, I emailed both people and said:

Hello,
I noticed that you bid on my auction for the xxxxxxxxxxxx. As stated in the description, I do NOT ship outside of the United States. Your profile says that you live in the Russian Federation (Denmark for the other person). Any additional bids will be canceled.
Sorry,
my user name

The person from Denmark emailed me back and said: Yoo "my user name". I for sure have noticed that you do not ship international and am aware of this.
Thing is that I do have confirmed shipping adress in L. A. US. Thank you : benny : )

The person from Russia (with the 1 feedback rating) emailed me back and said: Good morning! I live in Russia, but wanted to make a delivery to my address in the U.S. city of Torrance. Nevertheless, thanks for the reply!

This was yesterday morning. I didn't email either of them back since I got busy with holiday preparations. Since then, the person from Russia has bid yet again on my auction.

I think the person from Denmark is probably okay, simple because of his high feedback rating. However, I have a feeling that the person from Russia is trying to scam me. I checked what he had bought recently, and he bought another electronic item almost exactly like the one he is bidding on from me. (Which you definitely would not want 2 of.)

What can I do in this situation? I know that you should only send an item to a person with a confirmed PayPal address, but would it be possible for a person from a foreign country to get a confirmed address in the USA? Thanks for any suggestions...I really don't want to get scammed out of my item.

 

[VAfamily1998]

Hmmmm interesting that they both have Los Angeles addresses to ship to, if he means Torrance as in Torrance, CA.

I wonder if maybe there a company that offers that as a service--you can have your ebay item shipped to them and they will ship it to you in a foreign country. I know a few years ago I heard about companies that would do that for military folks living overseas, since a lot of online shops wouldn't ship to FPO/APO addresses...so I'm sure it's possible that there is some company that can do it for other foreign shoppers...

As for the fact that this Russian bidder will have 2 of the same item if he wins your auction---maybe he is buying it as a gift for someone? Maybe he will be selling it over there in Russia, if it is something that is hard to get? Maybe the first one broke, got lost, etc. so he needs another?

 

[Tink-aholic]

Why does it matter if they live overseas, if you ship it to CA? I guess I'm not seeing the "scam"? Don't you wait until you have the funds before you ship?

 

[luvmy3]

If you ship to a confirmed US address after recieving full payment how can you be scammed?

 

[Dominus]

I sold an item to a guy in Chile and his confirmed address was in CA. Funny huh. But it worked out fine.

 

[SandrA9810]

Isn't there a way to cancel the winning bid and ask the second person if they would like the winning bid??

Say Russia wins and doesn't pay up. So you contact Denmark and they pay up with the confirmed US address. You can't really prevent some one from winning an auction. But there are actions to take if they do win and don't pay up.

 

[hoosiergirl7]

I would be cautions but wouldn't rule it out. You'd be surprised at how much more expensive many electronic items are over seas compared with here. Many people are willing to pay US funds and get the adapters necessary to use them where they live. I have a great example of this for you. My cousin worked in a summer camp this summer where several of the counselors came from a European country. They used their paychecks for working to buy Apple laptops, iPods, etc for themselves and so they could take them home and sell them. They are more than 50% less expensive here than where they live. Crazy huh?

Definitely only take money from confirmed PayPal users through the PayPal site. I started doing that about 6-7 years ago because if things didn't work out with something I bought, I could get my money back. I also want to make sure anything I sell is protected by PayPal as well and avoid getting scammed with a fake check or money order.

Good luck and hope you get what you want for the item!

 

[lynette j in la]

and have it shipped to us in La. When they visit, they take it back with them on the plane. You don't ship outside of the US...But I don't see why you don't let them bid to have shipped in the US? Just as any other auction, just make sure the funds are good( no overseas /fake mail order)
I laughed when you said the Danish Guy was Benny...My DH is Benny in La. Not L.A. LOL

 

[sherry7]

Hmmmm interesting that they both have Los Angeles addresses to ship to, if he means Torrance as in Torrance, CA.

I wonder if maybe there a company that offers that as a service--you can have your ebay item shipped to them and they will ship it to you in a foreign country. I know a few years ago I heard about companies that would do that for military folks living overseas, since a lot of online shops wouldn't ship to FPO/APO addresses...so I'm sure it's possible that there is some company that can do it for other foreign shoppers...

As for the fact that this Russian bidder will have 2 of the same item if he wins your auction---maybe he is buying it as a gift for someone? Maybe he will be selling it over there in Russia, if it is something that is hard to get? Maybe the first one broke, got lost, etc. so he needs another?

Thanks for the replies everyone.

What the above poster said (about there maybe being a company that offers eBay overseas shipping as a service), makes a lot of sense. I guess as long as the winning bidder has a eBay/PayPal USA confirmed address, it will be okay. However, if the address is not confirmed, I'm not risking it with such an expensive item.

Still, I'm crossing my fingers that the Russian guy doesn't win the auction. Selling an expensive item to a foreign buyer with such a low feedback rating makes me rather nervous. Plus, his first eBay purchase was just 2 days ago. I'm just not getting a good feeling from this guy.

 

[dhardawa]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

What the above poster said (about there maybe being a company that offers eBay overseas shipping as a service), makes a lot of sense. I guess as long as the winning bidder has a eBay/PayPal USA confirmed address, it will be okay. However, if the address is not confirmed, I'm not risking it with such an expensive item.

Still, I'm crossing my fingers that the Russian guy doesn't win the auction. Selling an expensive item to a foreign buyer with such a low feedback rating makes me rather nervous. Plus, his first eBay purchase was just 2 days ago. I'm just not getting a good feeling from this guy.

If you aren't getting a good vibe and have asked him not to bid and he still is, you cancel his bid and block him as a bidder so he can't bid anymore. I honestly don't know what I'd do in this situation. There are so many scammers out there. He might be fine, but then again, he might not be.

 

[sherry7]

If you aren't getting a good vibe and have asked him not to bid and he still is, you cancel his bid and block him as a bidder so he can't bid anymore. I honestly don't know what I'd do in this situation. There are so many scammers out there. He might be fine, but then again, he might not be.

Thanks for that advice. There are still 2 days left on the auction, so if he continues bidding I may do that. The item is starting to get bid up pretty high (yay!), so hopefully he'll just stop bidding and save me the grief.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but the combination of Russia, feedback rating of 1, and first purchase made only 2 days ago is making me pretty skeptical of his good intentions.

 

[hambirg]

I would be leery of selling a high priced electronic item to anybody with only 1 feedback, regardless of where they live. I thought there was a way to exclude buyers with less than a certain number of feedbacks, but it's been along time since I've sold.

I would probably feel ok with the buyer in Denmark. My ex-in laws are from Germany and they buy things and have them shipped to us, so they can take them home when the visit. They also buy things for the kids and have them shipped directly to us. If he has a lot of positive feedback and you get a good vibe from him, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[bumbershoot]

There are definitely companies that send packages on. I would make SURE that you get that shipment with a trackable method, and require a signature, and I'd probably want the names of the employees who might be signing for it. And make SURE they know that once it gets to that business/person, you are not responsible for a bit more.

When I worked at amazon '99-'02, we would get sneaky people who would say that "Guido" had signed for it, but they aren't "Guido", you'd better send me another...we'd look up the address and it would be Guido's Freight Forwarding company "we ship overseas for you!". Sorry customer, you sent it to a place where Guido is going to sign for things...either you are being sneaky or Guido has stolen your package. But we got it to the address.

I've noticed that ebay has gotten more *buyer* friendly. For example, I recently bought some personalized disney-themed fabric autograph bags and books. There was a floopy thing with the address, where I clicked to buy, THEN changed the address (had forgotten it wasn't updated). MY order confirmation showed the right address. I got no other confirmation before that. But it turns out that they send the seller an email based on that first buy click, THEN send more. The seller went with that address (stupid of ebay to send an email to them when they know perfectly well that they make address changes possible after that moment!). The package was sent to the wrong address.

It ended happily, as it wasn't delivered, and was returned to the seller, so she could ship it back to me with the right address (she also sent the original envelope, as it looked like a freight train had run over it).

But in the meantime, ebay and paypal played dumb, said that the seller had just made up an address (where I used to live?), had sent it to the wrong address (where I had had things sent before from other sellers through ebay?), that sent it to the old address she already had (despite my NEVER having purchased from her before?), and so on and so forth. REFUSED to hear reason that THEY send an email and THEN allow address changes. They simply told me to go through the procedure to get a full refund from the seller, because she'd sent it to the "wrong" address (the one THEY gave her). Very buyer friendly.

So if the OP sends it to this address in CA, and then the OP says they never got it...it's going to be a pain. Worse, those forwarders usually use a slower type of shipping, and it might be too long for the buyer to make a legitimate claim with paypal, if they wait for it to actually get there. So they might jump the gun, starting a dispute, when the item is actually still en route or in customs.

 

[nunzia]

I've had this happen and as long as they have a confirmed PayPal account and you ship to that address, it's fine. I'm always leery about low feedback folk, but I think Ebay has just recently opened to parts of the world, so they need a chance to build their online reputation like anyone else. I also make it clear that I ship ONLY to the PayPal adress listed so they need to make sure that is correct.
My worst recent problem came with someone with over 1,000 feedback, who, during the auction, asked if she could pay with check...I replied she couldn't, since Ebay no longer allows it and she got miffed saying EVERYONE else does..uh huh..I was still nice and just said I wouldn't take that as payment. So..she keeps bidding and wins and then says she'll send a cashiers check. I have clearly stated in all my auctions that I only take PayPal..so why the drama? Then she gets nasty that I won't accept that, and refuses to let me close the auction. I don't get it..If you don't use PayPal then don't bid on an auction that only accets that form of payment ( I used to take any kind of payment and was miffed when Ebay changed it, but it really is better now IMO)

 

[sweetpeakaris]

Lots of birders are out of the US and have confirmed US shipping addresses. I really like birders out of the US because they tend to bid higher. As long as they have confirmed shipping addresses, you have nothing to worry about.

 

[seashoreCM]

Send the item insured in addition to the signature verification and other things PayPal suggests or requires.

 

[torinsmom]

As long as they have a Paypal account and a US shipping address, I would do it. When I sell on ebay, I include insurance with shipping, in case anything happens. Delivery confirmation is a good idea as well. The Russian bidder may have just started buying, and everyone who bids on ebay has had a feedback of 1 at sometime.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I agree that if someone from Denmark has a confirmed US PayPal address, no problem to ship there. I would not however, ship to someone from Russia with a 1 feedback for any reason. Just too much fraud from that part of the world. As a seller you have the right to decide not to sell to certain individuals. Block the Russian bidder.

 

[pickles]

if it worries you then dont do it. Block the russian bidder. they can earn their feedback on someone elses stuff
I bought a car on ebay from a new seller. they had listed many cars from a lot they took over. While I wasnt totally scammed I did get the car, it wasnt exactly as described, in fact beyond junker is how it should have been described!

trust your instincts

 

[muckymucks]

Simply don't ship your item until you've received payment. If it's through PayPal make sure to deposit the money to your checking account first. Wait a few days if you're feeling unsure. You might even want to contact your bank to see if anything looks fishy beforehand.