I’m selling a laptop on eBay - it’s not a particularly brilliant one - it’s probably a decade old, but it’s in good condition and I have refurbished it and installed a new OS, so it’s a nice little machine.
Twice in the last two days I’ve had someone contact me, offering to buy it outright (I hadn’t originally added a Buy It Now price) - they were both listed as living near me, but both had low, but not unusual feedback. They both made offers I would have been prepared to accept, asking if they could collect the item.
In both cases, I responded in the positive, but telling them I’d have to have cleared funds before they could take it away - so cash on collection, or PayPal. Neither of them responded.
I know there are scams a bit like this where the buyer asks for it to be sent to an address other than the one on the PP account - and this is for various fraudulent reasons, but I’ve not heard much in the way of people doing fraudulent personal collection of items like mine - that really aren’t all that valuable.
So is it a known scam, or do you think they just changed their minds? (maybe they had made concurrent offers on other things and went for those instead)
The “buy it outright” scam usually goes like this: You delist the item (so all eBay related “protection” goes away). They send you a cashiers check for more than the agreed upon price where you are supposed to send the item and the difference. You do so. It turns out the check was phony. You are out the item and the difference you sent them. You have no recourse.
This is extremely common for items like laptops. The scripts are automated so the fact that your laptop is worth little doesn’t matter. They don’t care about the laptop at all.
Most of the “locations” for these scammers used to be overseas. People got wise. Now they generate a lot of accounts in various US “locations”. (Locations are easy to change.) Do the usual fake buildup of eBay ratings.
I ignore any and all such offers. I also block anyone who makes such an offer from bidding on my item. (I don’t want to deal with such people no matter what.)
It also happens with the Buy-It-Now option. I recently listed a laptop, it was purchased via the Buy-It-Now option and the buyer sent me a fake e-mail that looked like a payment confirmation from PayPal. Of course a quick check on PayPal showed no such payment. The Nigerian shipping address was a pretty obvious clue too.
When I don’t enable the Buy-It-Now option, I occasionally get offers to buy it outright. I always respond with a firm “NO”. It’s either a scam, or because the buyer thinks the item’s closing price will be higher than what he’s offering.
I got an email like that when I tried to sell a mobile on EBay, someone wanting me to sell it to them at a “final offer” price. When I directed him to my BIN price, they kept pestering me to sell it at this “final offer” price, so I declined and reported him to EBay.
Ah, yes, I’ve heard of this one, I just didn’t expect it to happen in connection with a fairly cheap item - as you go on to explain, I suppose it doesn’t really matter what the item is, but I was under the impression that it was usually higher value items because it’s easier to plausibly explain away the supposed surplus amount against a large sum.
Ooh. I just checked the feedback of my two supposedly interested parties again and there’s definitely something weird going on - it’s not the usual ‘magic 10’ fake feedback, or fluffed feedback from eBooks or nonsensical items, but they have each bought the same named items from all the same sellers. Highly sus.
Do not accept Paypal for hand delivered items. There is a scam where someone Paypals you the money, takes delivery, then contacts Paypal and states that they never received the item. Paypal asks you for proof of shipment, which you cannot give, and takes the money back.
Obviously I prefer cash, because of the PayPal fees, but it’s hard to insist on it without appearing to infringe eBay rules.
More digging into the histories of my two interested parties - they both left exactly the same feedback for the seller they both bought from. Pretty sure they’re all the same person - I’m wondering if it’s worth reporting to eBay though - it’s all a bit circumstantial.
The response to my “help me sell my car” thread a few months (god, make that over a year) ago was that, yes, cash-only is a common condition for such transactions. IDK if it would be any different for cars sold via eBay Motors, but the guy who bought my car did so w/ over $3k in cash in hand.
When I sold my car in May I stipulated cash only and had more than one person make an offer, eventually selling it to a guy who handed over a fistful of cash. I used a counterfeit detector marker thingy (I don’t know what they are called, but the ink changes color on a counterfeit bill) to determine that the cash was real and signed over the car. I can’t think of anyone who would take something other than cash unless they were selling the car to someone they knew.
First off, yes, do report your suspicians and what you’ve found to eBay. I expect their accounts will soon be canceled.
My take on what they had planned? They were going to pay you with a money order or cashiers check that would have turned out to be counterfeit. You wouldn’t have been out any money, but your laptop would have been long gone.
From someone I don’t know? Yes. Either they have the money - which they would need to have to use a check/cashier’s check/money order - or they are planning to present a worthless document. It’s just as easy to go to the bank and get cash as it is to get a cashier’s check.