# What do you make of this eBay message? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 25, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427 "2010-06-25T00:29:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/1 "2010-06-25T00:29:02Z")
I’m selling two items on eBay. Here’s a message I received on one of them. I’m not even sure how to respond > [@](#): > > I con pay by pey-pal, but needing to reneve my acount (can duit just tumorow, becouse now is night in Europe). I NEDING POSIBILITY TO BID, BECOUSE YOU HAVE PAY\_PAL REQUIREMENT "This seller has set buyer requirements for this item and only sells to buyers who meet those requirements. > > You are unable to bid on or buy this item because: > You either don’t have a PayPal account or your PayPal account is not linked to your eBay account. We encourage you to register with PayPal - it is the fast, easy and safe way to pay. " > > ED > > P.S. I will com bed before end of biding. Here’s some info on the potential buyer > [@](#): > > Buyer: > > edvinas7 (0) > 0.0% Positive Feedback > Member since Sep-06-04 in United States > Location: MI, United States Somehow I’m thinking that if this person wins the auction I won’t get paid, or they’ll try to scam me. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/2 "2010-06-25T00:32:46Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > I’m selling two items on eBay. Here’s a message I received on one of them. I’m not even sure how to respond > > Here’s some info on the potential buyer > > Somehow I’m thinking that if this person wins the auction I won’t get paid, or they’ll try to scam me. Wow. Unless I was very concerned about not getting bids, I would tell this guy he was out of luck, if I responded at all. If nobody bids on your item, he can bid when you relist, if he’s legit & gets his Paypal account linked by then. I’d give good odds you never hear from him again, though. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/3 "2010-06-25T00:39:42Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > Wow. Unless I was very concerned about not getting bids, I would tell this guy he was out of luck, if I responded at all. If nobody bids on your item, he can bid when you relist, if he’s legit & gets his Paypal account linked by then. I’d give good odds you never hear from him again, though. Other people are bidding, and he’s not the highest bidder. I decided not to respond because I didn’t see a question in there. I hope he doesn’t win. A few years ago I got someone who won an item from me and then tried to scam me with the whole, “I’ll pay $100 over and you send me the item.” It was kind of annoying because I had to re-list the item in the hopes that a legitimate buyer would win. But the poor spelling, poor grammar, how strange the message is, and the fact that this person has no history all seems to scream “SCAM!” ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/4 "2010-06-25T02:58:09Z")
Oh, I vote “SCAM”. I bet everyone does. 😃 Why is this person at all bothered “becouse now is night in Europe” if he/she is in MI, United States? ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/5 "2010-06-25T03:00:01Z")
Oh hey, good catch. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/6 "2010-06-25T15:05:30Z")
I think you can remove his bid and block him. It’s been a really long time since I sold anything on eBay though so that might have changed. I wouldn’t even respond to the message. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/7 "2010-06-25T16:00:00Z")
> [@Celyn](#): > > Oh, I vote “SCAM”. I bet everyone does. 😃 Why is this person at all bothered “becouse now is night in Europe” if he/she is in MI, United States? I’m going to start using this here at work. “I can’t get that report to you right now; it’s the middle of the night in Europe!” ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/8 "2010-06-25T16:43:25Z")
Nah, I think the (suspected) scammer’s way of phrasing it had more poetry. Sorry. 🙂 It was a strange thing to say anyway - if the person was truly in Britain, or Germany, or in Hungary or whatever, wouldn’t it be more natural to use the actual country name? You have a great user name for this thread! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/9 "2010-06-25T17:12:21Z")
IF you’re really concerned, you can set the bidding preferences to exclude people with 0 feedback. Yeah, I’d just let this go. If he bids, he bids. If not, he doesn’t. And if he wins…put a tracker on that sucker when you mail it. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/10 "2010-06-25T18:34:43Z")
The auctions are over and thankfully other people won them. I wonder what the whole point of that E-mail was anyway. And I love the “midnight in Europe” part. Who knew that European countries don’t have different time zones? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/11 "2010-06-25T18:43:45Z")
My bet is that even IF he got a Paypal account, you’d find the payment yanked in under 24 hours after he files some false “complaint” with them, anyhow. Paypal sucks for sellers. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/12 "2010-06-26T02:14:04Z")
Paypal sucks period, and that is why I do nothing on ebay anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/13 "2010-06-26T03:31:17Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > Paypal sucks period, and that is why I do nothing on ebay anymore. PayPal is ONE OF THE REASONS why I don’t do much on eBay any more. Another reason is that I hate, hate, hate capitalizing words that aren’t at the start of a word. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/14 "2010-06-26T18:11:07Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > PayPal is ONE OF THE REASONS why I don’t do much on eBay any more. Another reason is that I hate, hate, hate capitalizing words that aren’t at the start of a word. I hate capitalizing words that aren’t at the start of a word, too! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/15 "2010-06-26T19:22:20Z")
> [@](#): > > I con pay by pey-pal I say that this likely Freudian typo tells you all you need to know. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/16 "2010-06-27T12:16:12Z")
ESL speakers don’t make that type of mistakes, but people who are faking it tend to. I’m surprised he didn’t spell “I” as “Eye.” Fakers tend to change everything to (interestingly, the correct) phonetics, but keep correct punctuation and prepositions. Real non-native speakers will make mistakes on punctuation and prepositions, and misspellings will seldom have the correct phonetics (e.g. Pay Pal might become Paye Pale.) One of the real dead giveaways of a faker is correct use of articles (a, an, the.) Fakers seldom remember to fake the “small” words. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/17 "2010-06-27T13:15:47Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I say that this likely Freudian typo tells you all you need to know. That or he was in the middle of a stroke when he posted. Or zombies were eating his brains…or even the timezones of Europe. …but wouldn’t that make them…Time-Zombies??? _cue Tardis music_ ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/18 "2010-06-27T16:47:50Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > … Or zombies were eating his brains…or even the timezones of Europe… I like it. I have trouble sleeping and waking at the “correct” times, so now I know it is because zombies are eating my time zones. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/19 "2010-06-27T17:08:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I con pay by pey-pal I’m seconding Freudian slip. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427/20 "2010-06-27T19:38:34Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > That or he was in the middle of a stroke when he posted. Or zombies were eating his brains…or even the timezones of Europe. > > …but wouldn’t that make them…Time-Zombies??? _cue Tardis music_ > [@Celyn](#): > > I like it. I have trouble sleeping and waking at the “correct” times, so now I know it is because zombies are eating my time zones. 😃 Interesting idea. Write Steven Moffat, he might be able to do something with it. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-make-of-this-ebay-message/544427.md?page=2)