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Is This A Scam?


Tomm

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Right, so I sold my xbox steering wheel on eBay. LINK MS don't make them any more so in theory it's worth £80 ish. But this guy has paid £148. He emails me asking for address and phone number so he can pick it up.

I send him my phone number and two minutes later I get a call. He says he wanted to pick it up locally - but I told him the wheel was in Sheffield not Lancaster (to be fair it wrongly says Lancaster in the ad) and he gets irritated. Fair enough, he lives near (ish) to Lancaster and he can't pick it up so easily. He then tells me that he's currently in Switzerland (doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry despite the story that he's 'roaming'), and I have to send this parcel to his mate in Blackburn and he will send it on to Switzerland with a load of his other stuff. He doesn't want me to send it to his confirmed Paypal address.

He's paypall'd me the full amount (£148) and it's shown up in my account when I log in as 'completed'. But I'm scared of Paypal charge-backs where they withdraw the money after I've sent the item.

Reading this back to myself, I'm 90% sure it's a scam. He makes it seem urgent, he paid over the odds, he wants me to send it to a non-verified address, and he told me he was making a 'leap of faith' in sending me the money. So I don't know what to do now. I could phone Paypal in the morning, that's one option.

What should I do? Refund the money and offer to the next highest bidder (possibly also part of the same scam in order to inflate the price). He wants me to send it first thing tomorrow.

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Did he pay for postage or opt for collection in the first place? By the sounds of it he went down the collection route?

If he'd paid the extra fiver specifically for postage I'd say post it to a confirmed address and make sure you have proof of posting/delivery etc, but with collection it's a bit harder.

I suppose if you ask him to pay for the postage or get it in writing (eBay contact etc) that he wants you to send it then go for it but only to a registered/confirmed address and of course again be sure to go recorded/signed for to cover your back.

That said, giving PayPal a call in the morning won't hurt either.

What's his feedback like?

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His feedback is legit but the way these things work is if someone hijacks an innocent person's ebay + paypal accounts, they can bid on whatever and pay using Paypal. Then, when the real owner of the account finds out his account has been hacked, they'll put a claim in with paypal who will do a charge-back, then get the money back from me. I.e. I'm out of pocket and I no longer have the steering wheel.

He also said for the inconvenience he wasn't going to pay the postage, he would tick the 'collect in person' box but still wanted me to send it. I suspect this means that if I do send it, Paypal will be like "WTF did you send it?" and they won't give a toss about proof of postage / delivery etc.

I think the best plan is to call Paypal in the morning as you say...

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Ask him to send an email to you from the address his paypal account is registered under asking to change the delivery to the address he specified. Send the wheel to that address using special delivery. Get proof of sending and proof of delivery. In my mind that should keep you covered in the event something goes wrong.

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If he didn't pay for postage you are not obliged in any way shape or form to post it, you are now storing his goods for him.

If you feel obliged to send it wait until the money is cleared into your bank account, he hasn't paid for postage so you're doing nothing wrong by making him wait.

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having had my paypal account hacked and address changed myself it certainly sounds like this guy is spending the money of someone who hasnt got a clue it's even going on. i would report it to ebay and paypal and wait for them to check whats happening

sounds like an obvious swiss bank account fraud scheme to me

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As people have said 'if he hasn't paid for postage, don't post it'. No point in trying to cover your ass over a problem you can easily avoid. Tell him you'll give him a tenner for his troubles and the extra few miles he has to drive to collect the item. Then wait and see what his next move is, no doubt you'll get an email from paypal soon saying a dispute has been raised. I'd just sit tight and wait for it to happen :)

Hope you get this sorted

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I've just spoken to paypal and they said as long as I send it recorded to a 'confirmed' address it will all be kosher. I am still skeptical.

This is right! As long as you send the item recorded delivery to the address provided in print postage label and provide a tracking number your covered. If you sent without recorded delivery you would not be covered even with proof of postage! And if he hasn't paid postage then do not post anything, and did you click the button that allows people to collect from you? If you didn't then you are within your rights to refuse collection.

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