Fraud pending?

[winterfrost1]

I recently listed a book for sale on eBay.  It is ~50 years old and somewhat damaged, but it's also unusual and appears to be a 1st edition, so I thought it might be worth something.

Within a day of posting, I received an offer to buy significantly *above* my opening bid price (warning flag #1)... but I thought the buyer might know there's more value there than I thought, so they just wanted to seal the deal before others bid it up.

I noticed the buyer had 0 feedback and had only registered a day or two before I listed (warning flag #2)... but many sellers say "we all had 0 feedback once..." and it doesn't sound like 0 feedback buyers have a significantly higher risk of fraud.  So I accepted the offer last night.

In the wee hours this morning I received 10 messages within 1 minute asking to send the total amount due.   The buyer's note on every one was identical, asking me to text them at a cell number provided, and mentioned buying the item as a gift for someone else.  10 messages that quickly seemed awfully bot-like (warning flag #3)... but maybe there was an email glitch or something.

However asking to contact by cell phone was definitely phishy (warning flag #4), and even more suspicious when the cell phone area code was in a different US state than the buyer's shipping address (warning flag #5) ... and their address is a PO Box (warning flag #6).

5 minutes later I received another 10 messages within a minute.  This time the buyer gave a highly improbable name (warning flag #7), mentioned they hoped the item was in good shape--it is in "acceptable" shape and is clearly described that way in the ad (warning flag #8)--and that they wanted to get it quickly.  Again, they asked me to contact them via the same cell number because they were not always available "due to my post at work."  No mention of it being a gift this time, and the fact that they introduced themselves 5 minutes after messaging me made it feel even bot-ier (warning flag #9).

The language in the messages is "off."  My cybersecurity background tells me that this is a scam with 100% certainty.  I understand my obligation as a seller is to provide the invoice and wait for payment confirmation, so I have done so.  I included in my invoice notes that that the item is in "acceptable" not "good" condition as described in the ad, and that I do not accept returns (though from what I read here that may not matter).

I will eat a shipping label if this turns out to be leigitimate!

Is there anything else I should do at this point?  It is so very obviously a scam, but the worst thing that has happened so far is my item has lost a few days of listing time.

[pjcdn2005]

No need to eat a label!

As soon as the buyer asked you to text them, it was definitely a scam.  They don't need any of that information from you, they just need to pay through the ebay purchase. Good instincts!

There really isn't much that you can do at this point but I would probably cancel the transaction using problem with address.  Since an offer was accepted you may be able to report the buyer but chances are it is a throwaway ID anyway.  Since you receive payments through ebay's managed payment system, you won't have been charged for any fees for the transaction.

Instead of using the cancellation option you could also wait the 5 days and then cancel for non payment but I would probably want to get it out of the way and cancel now.

[femmefan1946]

asking me to text them at a cell number

That's where I stopped reading.

Stop communicating.

The buyer has an invoice.

If he pays it, you ship.

If he doesn't, you can open an Unpaid Item Dispute at the bottom of this page .

That gives the deadbeat 96 hours to pay up or the transaction ends, you get your FVF back, he gets a Strike against his buying account.

[femmefan1946]

I just read pjcdn's post, and she's right.

Go for the Problem with Address cancellation.

And remember to add the ID to your Block Bidder List.

[winterfrost1]

Thanks for your responses!  Not surprisingly they just requested the invoice again--and it's back to the gift story.

I will cancel the transaction and block the buyer, I just wanted to be sure I wasn't going to get a black mark for doing so, so I'm trying to give them an acceptable time to pay.

[reallynicestamps]

Problem with Address is pretty flexible and does not give you a Defect.