scammer alert maybe ????

[dobo5250]

i have hathed in the last two weeks four people order small items usually early morning then cancell them about hour later but then email me and ask me to ignore the cancelling of the order and send the item cause they need it desperiatly need it   these are usually 20 dollar items gfci plumbing items  common stuff are all where on sale and at really discounted prices with free shipping --- so i think most of these are scams --- do you think ??-- the free shipping might be attracting them trying to get a free item with out even putting money up front -- that is a new twist for me --- so i just inform them of the cancelled item and then ban them -- and then move on  lost sale yes maybe?? (but less headaches i have enough of them with ebay as it is ) --- all from bc area  west coast -- all different places  but same time of day they order and then cancell -- so now if a order comes in i wait if it's from the west coast a little longer to send it then i usally do which is four hour  turnaround to the mailoffice  --- just a warning to fellow sellers about this new twist -- at least for me

[reallynicestamps]

Certainly sounds off.

Emailing  (do you mean eBay Messages) is a doorway to the fake address scam.

[byto253]

100% scam.  Classic trying to move the transaction off of eBay and getting you to ship without protection.  

Sometimes that can be legit, I offer to relist it on eBay for them to buy right away.   Sometimes I offer it as an "exclusive" listing noting their name in the title.  

I would bet that if you offered to relist it for them to buy on eBay at the original price they would ghost you since they can't bring it outside of eBay. 

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

It is a scam.

It is very likely the same person with multiple accounts. They may have just used different postal codes when signing up. 

You did not lose out on a sale, because there was no sale. 

Block each account. Make a list of the account names. On either Twitter or Facebook, direct message AskeBay and report that list of accounts. Tell them that you they keep trying to take transactions off of eBay by cancelling and asking you to send the item anyways. That you suspect they are using multiple accounts to repeatedly target you. Ask if they can report them to the security team.

You cannot block an entire city or province from bidding on your items, but one option would be to make a custom shipping policy for your plumbing parts. In that shipping policy you can create what is called a "Rate Table". In clear english, this means that you can charge different shipping prices for each province. You could keep every province at free shipping, but make BC something like $35 (the cost of a large flat rate box). Yes, over the course of the year you might lose a small number of legitimate sales to BC, but with the volume you're selling at it wouldn't be a lot. Then in a few weeks, change it back and see if they have moved on. If someone does buy it who is legitimate, you can always refund them the difference between $35 and the actual price you paid to ship the item. 

Shipping Rate Tables: https://www.ebay.ca/sellercentre/shipping/shipping-rate-tables

[reallynicestamps]

Tell them that you they keep trying to take transactions off of eBay by....

This is what catches eBay's attention.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

If they block some of the accounts and wait for it to happen again before contacting eBay, that's another thing that might possibly catch their attention. Someone circumventing the blocked list. 

This doesn't sound like a sophisticated scammer. It sounds like someone who needs plumbing supplies and thinks someone will bite and send them to them for free. So I doubt they are doing anything to mask using multiple accounts. Multiple accounts in itself isn't against the TOS as far as I know, but it is if they are being used to circumvent a seller's blocked list.