posted on June 10, 2007 09:47:57 AM new
Although I have been selling for years on eBay, I have not personally run into this situation before. I hope someone can give me some advice about what to do.
I usually sell low-cost items and do not worry too much about fraud. But I listed a brand new laptop that my son received as an award at school. It does not meet his needs, so we decided to try to sell it. I have received several inquiries from people asking about sending it to Indonesia and I blocked those people without even responding. Now someone has used BIN to purchase it. They just joined eBay today and have a Florida address. I sent them an invoice and have now received an email from them which pretty much tells me that this is a fraudulent purchase:
"I just won your auction on eBay.
Is the item condition of the item as described as am buying it for a friend.I currently dont have a paypal a/c so i will be paying you through a westernunion money order as its the fastest payment method by which i can pay you and have the payment delivered to you at your address or i can transfer the fund to your Bank account directly if you would prefer it as another method of payment all i need is your full information including ur mail address and account number ,This are the only method i can use to protect my self from spam.You can cash the WesternUnion M.O at any Bank or western union office near you or you can request for the cash equivalent from the Western Union agent.As for shipping dont worry about that as i will be paying DHL through my company's DHL account to come pickup the item and ship it to me after i have paid you Please mail me your full name and address so i can proceed with the payment today. Westernunion will notify you via email immediately i make the payment .Please get back to me as soon as possible.I promise you a positive feedback when i get the item."
The question is, what to do about it? Western Union is not a form of payment that I accept and I am not interested in having DHL come and pick up the item. Because I am sure that this is fraud, I would like to invalidate the sale. Can I do it? If so how?
posted on June 10, 2007 10:59:26 AM new
Thank you, Fluffy, for answering so quickly.
I have sent her a polite email reiterating my payment terms and shipping methods. We'll see if there is any response.
Next time I will have to try the Immediate Payment option. That's not something that I normally use, but then again, this is not something that I normally sell, either. I see that immediate payment does have its place in a situation like this.
posted on June 10, 2007 07:55:43 PM new
I also notified eBay about this buyer this afternoon. I just checked and she is now NARU, so I have received my FVF and can relist. Hopefully I can steer clear of the scammers next time!
posted on June 12, 2007 08:49:46 AM new
All money orders are suspect. The fastest way to pay would be for them to WIRE the money by Western Union. You can get cash in hand in a few hours and it can not be rescinded. If someone were to wire me money by Western Union, I would mail by their preferred and pre-paid shipping method.
