posted on September 10, 2001 07:33:35 AM new
I received an email yesterday through ebay from the brother?? of one of my winning bidders. It read like this:
"Hi! My sister is "******" the winning bidder of this item. Unfortuneatly she's had some problems the last couple of days with her computer and asked me to contact you about the final bid amount and the address of where to send it to. So if you can send that to me I will pass it on to her. Thanks for your cooperation."
This auction had only 1 bidder but a lot of hits. It only went for the minimum bid. I'm just wondering if this could be another person that didn't get their bid in. BTW, the ISPs are different. The email sender is on AOL and the winning bidder is a completely different ISP. Should I do as they ask or just wait and see if the winner contacts me herself?
posted on September 10, 2001 07:38:35 AM new
How long has it been since the auction ended? I would make a huge attempt at contacting the bidder herself. Perhaps pull her info and give her a call, especially if this is a high dollar item. It certainly could be legit, but also could be some sort of scam.
I wouldn't answer this other email at all to begin with.
posted on September 10, 2001 08:08:15 AM new
I'd reply, but I would quote the meassage, and CC the email to both email addresses... That way, if it was a scam, the real buyer would get a copy, and no doubt let you know.
posted on September 10, 2001 10:51:12 AM new
My mother in law's email is frequently going down and she has asked us to followup on her auctions on her behalf. (And yes, she is finally getting more reliable email as we speak!) So it's not all that unusual.
I think Microbes has the best idea. Send it to both emails, then if something strange is going on, hopefully the other person will quickly alert you.
posted on September 10, 2001 11:04:22 AM new
I have had similar situations with a few of my auctions. I responded as if nothing is suspect however I made sure I CCd not BBC the real bidder and the other responder. In case it is a scam the responder will back off after noticing I emailed both.
I don't ship right away no matter what the responder says or does. Never had any problem but if they would get anxious about me shipping I would simply email and explain the situation. If they are in the up and up they would understand my position
posted on September 10, 2001 11:22:42 AM new
I've gotten email, not from other people per se, but other email addresses -- what I do is require them to respond to my email from that address.
If the sister really wants him doing this, she can give him her ebay password and let him send you a message from ebay okaying this assignment to the other email for handling.
