Suspicious Buyer with Zero Feedback and other red flags

[mr_spaiku]

I recently sold a fairly valuable set of silver coins through BIN, and the person who bought it from me has some suspicious red flags.

They have zero feedback, their ebay user name sounds like a bot name (a bunch of random letters and numbers), according to a quick google search, their email address once belonged to a woman in 2007, though now it belongs to a man.  The physical address i'm supposed to ship to is, according to a summary enforcement page I found, associated with someone who was recently convicted of a crime that resulted in them losing their professional license. 

The buyer hasn't paid yet, but I am not comfortable selling to them -- if I have to go through with this sale, I'm pretty confident that I will lose the coins as well as my shipping costs. My understanding from what i've read about paypal is that they always side with buyers -- that if this buyer claims he never "received" my coins, that I sent him a box of styrofoam or whatever, they'll side with him. Even if I get a signature, even if I make a video of myself packing the coins, bringing them to the post office, and receiving the receipt, Paypal will take the buyers side.

That's probably an exaggeration, but i've read enough horror stories that I'd like to be prepared in what seems inevitable.   While I know dealing with some amount of fraud is the price of doing business, and I factor that into my sales, I was wondering what recourse do I have in this situation?

I would like to cancel this sale without being penalized by eBay, if that's at all possible. Otherwise, I'm open to suggestions. How have you handled suspicious BIN buyers?

[rose-dee · Accepted solution]

Wow, this doesn't seem as if it could be mere coincidence -- see this string (make sure you read the post by 'pococomputing':

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Is-eBay-automagically-generating-eBay-ids-for-new-users/m...

Perhaps someone has found another way to break into eBay then disappear.  I think I would contact eBay immediately (get the phone #) about this transaction and give them the information you've posted here, as well as the information in the above thread.  If you get paid in the meantime, I'd postpone shipping until you talk to eBay.  This sounds just too fishy. 

[mr_spaiku]

Yep, thank you for the link -- that's exactly how their user name is setup too. myebayid-randomstring. I'll call ebay now, thanks for the link!

[rose-dee]

Please come back and let us know what they say -- if this is a new scam phenomenon, it would be good to let other sellers know.  Thanks!

[mr.elmwood]

Different point of view.

Is this the coins for $186 Cdn? That is NOT fairly valuable. Maybe to you, but, not, otherwise.

Email addresses can be recycled. Buying ID's mean nothing. You are doing more search, on this buyer, one time, than I have done in 14 (fourteen) YEARS.

Simmer down. Yeah, maybe, once upon a lifetime, maybe this time, it could be you, a scam.

In my world? I have never considered that as a factor. I list, I sell, I ship.

This is gonna sound real rude, not meant to be, but, business acumen, if you cannot "list,sell, ship", maybe eBay is not for you.

Ship insured with tracking and away goes yer profit.

The horror stories are .001% of sales The other 99.99 are trouble free. I know.

[rose-dee]

Mr. E. - Take a look at the last few posts in the link I mentioned above (post #2).  There is something very odd going on here, noticed and reported by 'ricarmic' for the first time today.  This doesn't look like an everyday issue.

[pjcdn2005]

I am almost positive those are ebay generated id's. I was going to start a new id for myself to test it out but I would have to set up a new email address first.

[mr.elmwood]

Yes, Rose, I understand all of that.

Business is business.

In my world it is a hard and fast line, either, We are in business, or not. Business entails inherent risks.

Most of my "risks" turn out to be imaginary.

[pjcdn2005]

How have you handled suspicious BIN buyers?

There is a recent post on these boards about a buyer saying that they received an empty box and paypal ruled in favour of the buyer but that is the first time I've ever heard of a result like that so I don't think that it is common. If I had an item that was on the expensive side and I was concerned about it, I would ship it with delivery confirmation. No signature is needed if the item and shipping is under $250 U.S.If the buyer paid with a credit card and the buyer files a cc chargeback for unauthorized transaction, paypal will still cover you as long as you have proof of shipment.
 Could other things go wrong...perhaps....but as a general rule, as long as you ship to the paypal address, paypal tells you it is ok to ship and you use delivery confirmation, you are going to be covered in most situations.

[pjcdn2005]

There is a recent post on these boards about a buyer saying that they received an empty box and paypal ruled in favour of the buyer but that is the first time I've ever heard of a result like that so I don't think that it is common. If I had an item that was on the expensive side and I was concerned about it, I would ship it with delivery confirmation. No signature is needed if the item and shipping is under $250 U.S.If the buyer paid with a credit card and the buyer files a cc chargeback for unauthorized transaction, paypal will still cover you as long as you have proof of shipment. An item not as described chargeback would be a different situation though.
 Could other things go wrong...perhaps....but as a general rule, as long as you ship to the paypal address, paypal tells you it is ok to ship and you use delivery confirmation, you are going to be covered in most situations.

[rose-dee]

'pj' - I just did set up a new eBay ID -- please see the other string on this subject.  None of the automatically-generated IDs bore any resemblance to what 'ricarmic' noted.  They were all somewhat logical, somewhat related, and much shorter. 

'Mr. E.' -  I understand about acceptance of risk, but I'm not thinking that this is just one naughty buyer.  If this is a site issue (i.e. security problem or hacker intrusion), we should be taking it seriously because it can affect many sellers, and the integrity of the site itself. 

[mr_spaiku]

Mr. Elmwood, did you read my post? I explicitly stated that I understood that fraud was an inherent part of business.

My background research took 30 seconds. 

I've been selling since 1995, and my personal history has taught me to be more cautious than you. You do your business your way, I'll do it my way. It's worked okay for me so far, even if i am new to eBay.

To the other forum posters, I spoke with eBay, they told me that i was justified in being concerned, and offered me a variety of courses I can take. I'm still weighing my options. 

[mr.elmwood]

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@mr_spaiku wrote:

Mr. Elmwood, did you read my post? I explicitly stated that I understood that fraud was an inherent part of business.

My background research took 30 seconds. 

I've been selling since 1995, and my personal history has taught me to be more cautious than you. You do your business your way, I'll do it my way. It's worked okay for me so far, even if i am new to eBay.

To the other forum posters, I spoke with eBay, they told me that i was justified in being concerned, and offered me a variety of courses I can take. I'm still weighing my options. 

---

1995? Good for you. I have been in retail since 1974.

Please, continue to educate me.

[rose-dee]

Oh, for heaven's sake, c'mon.  Whether 10 year, 20 years, 30 years or 40 years, what difference does it make really?  Could we go back a couple of posts and focus on the subject at hand, please? 

I am very interested to know what eBay told the OP about this and what options he was given.  Let's not get this thread shut down, OK? 

[mr_spaiku]

Ah yes, because your initial reply wasn't patronizing or insulting in the least, and when you tell people you've been selling on eBay for 14 years in a way that's meant to  belittle them, it's okay.

Glad we cleared that up.