Help! I am being attacked by ebay scammers!!!

Last Saturday (17th) i posted a listing for my old mobile phone for a BIN price of 85, to my surprise when i checked that evening some one bought already it ! It wasnt even that good value for money (i had best offers as well)...but when i looked at who bought it, it was apparent....the buyer was a scammer.

As some of you might have already guessed shortlly i recieved an email asking to ship my phone for his friends son who is studying in Africa blah blah blah..... And guess what the buyer is not even registered on ebay now! So fair enough bad luck... i will get my money back from ebay. But this was not the case to be...apparently i have to wait 7 days for the buyer to 'respond' before i can file an unpaid claim! Am i the only one who can see the irony in it?!

So, i thought i will deal with the above later as i needed to sell my phone ASAP, so i relisted it (paid another £3). And guess what? The same bloody thing happened again with emails askin me to send it to africa again blah blah blah...!!! Needless to say it was the most frustrating thing i have came across on ebay. Now i have to wait another 7 days to get its refund as well.

I have contacted ebay to demand full fees for the item as this is not on, ebay should be able to deal with scammers before people like me become victims.

Btw does any1 else have any tips for listing items to prevent them being attacked by scammers.

Thanks

You can restrict people to buy who are from the UK only (or any other country that you live in).. and force them to use a PayPal account.

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Originally Posted by XA04

You can restrict people to buy who are from the UK only (or any other country that you live in)

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Yeah but surely the scammers can still buy from UK and then ask for it to be delivered to Africa?

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Originally Posted by htid

Yeah but surely the scammers can still buy from UK and then ask for it to be delivered to Africa?

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Thats exactly what they do. both the scammers had UK addresses on their ebay accounts.

i know this is a little bit of effort, but how about sending them something completely useless like a booger, toe nail, some hair. Would be quite funny :) I think it would be anyway :)

dead animals

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Originally Posted by XA04

You can restrict people to buy who are from the UK only (or any other country that you live in).. and force them to use a PayPal account.

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And this method is indeed the best way of selling on ebay - force the buyer to pay right now - no cheques or bank transfers or any rubbish.

Butuz

Don't sell mobile phones on eBay. Thats about the best advice you can get at the moment. Phones are prime target for this kind of scam - I used to buy/sell phones on eBay for a bit of extra profit but gave up after this happened to me several times. All were hijacked UK/EU accounts and I always put UK and Paypal only, makes no difference...

Wish it wasn't so but eBay really need to stamp out this kind of thing

I don't think you need to wait 7 days for the dude to claim if he is no longer registered on eBay, I seem to remember that from when the same thing happened to me...

put in big red letters at the bottom that you will not send it outside of the uk like this

i will not send this outside of the uk so stop bloody asking

And you look like an unprofessional idiot. Word it more carefully and not so aggressively and I may agree with you :)

Unfortunately there is little you can do apart from making it obvious you know about the scam. Phones, laptops and general consumer electronics will always be a target for scammers.

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Originally Posted by adamzetec

And you look like an unprofessional idiot. Word it more carefully and not so aggressively and I may agree with you :)

Unfortunately there is little you can do apart from making it obvious you know about the scam. Phones, laptops and general consumer electronics will always be a target for scammers.

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it doesnt look unprofessional, and anyway its ebay who care how it looks, feedback says it all.
i put in every auction, i will not send to nigeria so dont bother asking, if your feedback is less than 5 your bid will be ignored.

and tbh the best thing you can do is not use buy it now for a phone, it costs you more money and is more liable to scam..

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Originally Posted by greektony

i know this is a little bit of effort, but how about sending them something completely useless like a booger, toe nail, some hair. Would be quite funny :) I think it would be anyway :)

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P-p-p-Powerbook?

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Originally Posted by arbitor

it doesnt look unprofessional, and anyway its ebay who care how it looks, feedback says it all.

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Erm no it is very unprofessional, and not good marketing :) Its buyers that you want to try and attract, so you need to portray the right image..even though feedback does make a difference I wouldn't buy from someone with a rubbish listing as I just wouldn't trust them..

lol check my feedback for phone scammers

at the end of the day it may not look great but if its regarding those idiots that want you to send it to kenya or whatever i can accept it, because its bloody annoying, why should these muppets ruin your auction

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Originally Posted by arbitor

it doesnt look unprofessional, and anyway its ebay who care how it looks, feedback says it all.
i put in every auction, i will not send to nigeria so dont bother asking, if your feedback is less than 5 your bid will be ignored.

and tbh the best thing you can do is not use buy it now for a phone, it costs you more money and is more liable to scam..

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Of course it matters. I get top whack for everything on eBay because of my impecable 100% feedback and also my descriptions. I describe every thought and cover absolutely everything imaginable. People associate you with being thorough and this instills trust.

The guy I bought an engine from on eBay was a ****** tho and as such I've got an engine that he knew didnt work before he listed it so feedback doesnt always mean anything...

The only workaround that i think protects you from fraudsters is using 'Pay immediately using PayPal' option when listing item with BIN. This means fraudsters cant hold up ur auction and ask to ship to Africa or something.....

BTW every time i try to file the unpaid claim against the fraudster who is no longer registered i get the message saying i have to wait 7 days. But in the help pages ebay says you can file a claim immediately? I filing using the 'Action' drop down menu in the 'Items I have sold' bit, followed by buyer not paid and then buyer no longer resgistered.

Am i doing anything wrong?