Warning: Fraudulent Ebay Buyer

[Bob D]

Greetings all,

Here’s a warning about a fraudulent buyer.

I have a couple of vintage Rolex watches for sale on eBay. Someone “bought” one of my watches on 10/13 at the “Buy Now” price, which was $5,300. The buyer asked for the watch to be shipped to a “colleague” and provided me with a shipping address in Nigeria. I persisted in refusing to ship outside the U.S. and the “buyer” persisted in giving me reasons why she needed it shipped to Nigeria. In the middle of our communications I received an email from eBay advising me that the “buyer” was not the owner of the eBay account she was bidding under, and that they (eBay) were deleting my listing for security reasons until the issue was resolved. (I had checked the “buyer’s” account and the account showed 100% positive feedback).

I copied the eBay message to the “buyer” requesting an explanation. Shortly thereafter I received another eBay email advising me that due to a technical system error the previous info was not correct and that the “buyer” was in fact the owner of the eBay account.
I copied the “buyer” on this message as well and requested that we finalize the sale, and that I would be happy to ship the watch to any address she wished, if she sent me a bank wire transfer for the purchase price and following confirmation of receipt of funds into my bank account. I never heard from her again.

I had sent eBay a copy of the “technical system error” email that I received and today eBay advised me that the message did not come from eBay.

I have waited until now to advise fellow-collectors because I wanted to be sure that I was not impugning the reputation of an honest buyer without strong evidence. Now I have the evidence. Therefore beware of a buyer with an eBay ID of: Identity removed by R-L-X Moderator.

[Udo]

... for this very important message. What a luck that you were so persisting in this matter. What about EBAY fees that are due for you? Do you have to pay ´em?

[Bob D]

Ebay said they would credit my fees for the listing. I relisted the watch. Unfortunately in a situation such as mine, eBay does not have the ability to automatically relist an item.

[Idle Swede]

What's the big deal?

All you have to do is go to "my e-bay" to see if it's from them or not.