Ebay items that don't ship - what's the scam?

[swechsler]

In the past couple of days I purchased a couple of non-audio items from eBay that in hindsight don't appear to be legit (brand-new seller, price too low, etc). Since I purchased with a credit card using PayPal, I'm not too worried about losing any money. But I'm wondering what these "sellers" accomplish with these phony sales. So far, neither one has accepted my payment. It seems like a lot of effort to go through for email harvesting.

 

[G7Trader]

They rob . Ebay paypal crdit card foot the bill

 

[blhagstrom]

eBay is blocking email so that probably isn’t the scam.

New sellers probably aren’t rigged to ship.
They didn’t think the whole thing through.

Most people can’t hack selling on eBay.

 

[swechsler]

If you receive a PayPal payment, don't you get the email of the payer? I've been a PayPal user for more years than I can count, on both the buyer and seller side, and ISTR always seeing the email address of the buyer when I receive payment.

 

[swechsler]

They rob . Ebay paypal crdit card foot the bill

I believe new users have certain restrictions on when they can receive payments into their bank accounts.

 

[G7Trader]

I use to sell watches on Amazon in the forums they were talking about this alot there is a massive influx of seller accounts operated from China selling the latest tech for dirt cheap eg, new Iphones for $200.

The seller accounts were hacked, massive sales then accounts disapear after a few weeks when Amazon caught up. Looks to have now made its way to Ebay.....

 

[G7Trader]

In the past couple of days I purchased a couple of non-audio items from eBay that in hindsight don't appear to be legit (brand-new seller, price too low, etc). Since I purchased with a credit card using PayPal, I'm not too worried about losing any money. But I'm wondering what these "sellers" accomplish with these phony sales. So far, neither one has accepted my payment. It seems like a lot of effort to go through for email harvesting.

Its not email harvesting.

 

[Lazarus Long]

The thing is, paypal makes the new sellers wait for 90 days plus 25 sales plus $250 in sales, before the funds start showing up automatically in their bank account. Until then, they have to wait up to 30 days to receive the funds from the sale. So, I'm not sure how a new seller is going to accept paypal and make this scam work.. I also don't know how you can NOT accept a payment? When someone purchases something from me on eBay, and makes payment, there is no choice for me to accept it or not. It just happens.

 

[swechsler]

With my wife's business (she occasionally sells on eBay but most of her business is word of mouth), we occasionally receive funds that need to be accepted, even though our account goes back to the early 2000s. I haven't figured out why some go right through and others don't.

 

[Lazarus Long]

With my wife's business (she occasionally sells on eBay but most of her business is word of mouth), we occasionally receive funds that need to be accepted, even though our account goes back to the early 2000s. I haven't figured out why some go right through and others don't.

That's strange. I've had almost 1000 sales transactions and have never had to accept funds.. ??

I also ONLY accept paypal. That might be the issue..

 

[swechsler]

That's strange. I've had almost 1000 sales transactions and have never had to accept funds.. ??

I also ONLY accept paypal. That might be the issue..

Maybe it's the amount of the transaction? Hers are generally in the high hundreds to a couple thousand.

 

[Lazarus Long]

Maybe it's the amount of the transaction? Hers are generally in the high hundreds to a couple thousand.

That could be. I was leaning towards credit card transactions, and amount could certainly have something to do with it..

Selling anything over 1K makes me nervous on eBay.. I suppose it really depends on the item as well. Some items are scam magnets, some are not.. Just curious, what types of things does your wife sell?

 

[swechsler]

She sells Disney vacations. She usually gets paid by check, but sometimes people prefer to use Paypal instead (or they're out of the country and it's easier), even though she gives a discount for checks, which is essentially the PayPal fees.

If it's the rare eBay transaction (we probably have one of these a few times a year) then of course we get paid by PayPal.