Seller is asking me for my email to pay outside of eBay. Seller says they will send me an invoice.

[andrewpucci24]

I just won an auction and the seller has asked me to send them my personal email address so that they can send me a paypal invoice. I am concerned about being scammed as this smells fishy. I have always purchased through eBay without any problems. Can I trust this seller?

[kroutpick]

The best and safer way is through Paypal

Never process outside of eBay/Paypal

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

If you feel that this looks like a scam, you can report this seller

[nubian_treasures]

You're wise to be suspicious. There is no good reason for the seller to want your personal email address to send an invoice when all the need to do is click on the Send Invoice link from his auction.

You do not actually need an invoice to pay for the item. Just click on the Pay Now link from My Ebay or from the listing. The seller must send the item or you can file an item not received dispute. I would suggest filing around day 29 or 30 if is a domestic transaction.

if the seller refuses to conduct a legitimate transaction and wants to cancel, do not agree to the cancellation. That way he will not get his final value fee credit.

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

Since you already have feedback, I would guess you have already successfully used Paypal

Sellers occasionally run into situations where they cannot send the buyer a specialized invoice.

For example, the buyer may have made multiple purchases on more than one site* or the seller is using the Global Shipping Program.

In these cases the seller may legitimately want to sent a "Ask for Payment" invoice directly through Paypal, combining the purchases and discounting the shipping cost. (Or avoiding the GSP entirely.)

That being said, the email address that is already on your PP account would be the only one the seller needs and he already has access to that.

He should, of course, be referring to the eBay transaction numbers on the new invoice.

If any of these suggestions are the situation, write back to the seller telling him just to send you the new PP invoice.

Be cautious.

*It's not unusual for Canadian sellers to list on both eBaydotCOM and eBaydotCA, for example. But if a buyer makes purchases from both sites, the invoices cannot be combined automatically.