Got scammed for a laptop, just a PSA

[cuddlebuggy]

Oh boy did I get taken! My husband had me sell some old computer stuff we don't use anymore including a 2011 Mac Book Pro. When it sold I got a message saying that he bought it for his niece and would I mind sending it to her. Being a nice person I said I could do that and shipped out the next day. A week or so later I find a claim for an item not received. He says that it was shipped to California and he's in North Carolina. I reply that I sent it to his niece like he requested and I have the message through eBay asking me to. He said he has no niece. Yikes!
Then I check the message again and it's from a completely different user!
I refunded the buyer and contacted eBay about the scam. They suspended the account at least but I'm still out $600!
So I'll always double check names in the future and stick to ponies, at least with pony people if I ever made a mistake I could at least pay shipping and get it sent back!

[True]

OUCH! Sorry to hear about that! :c

[Thunderwing]

If I understand this correctly, Person A bid on and won the auction and paid for it. And then you got a message from Person B asking to ship to a different address?  That's pretty sneaky, and clever on behalf of the scammer. How similar were the two usernames?

Good reason to only ever ship to the confirm address shown in paypal (and cross reference with the address on the ebay info page!)

[cuddlebuggy]

Yes Thunderwing, that's what happened. It was fairly clever and the eBay rep was very surprised by it so it's probably not common.
The names weren't similar at all but the scammer had 100% feedback so I didn't think too much about it, especially as they used the eBay message system.

[jrr74]

That is terrible.  Is there anyway you can get the police involved or is eBay going to follow up?  I don't sell on eBay (or anywhere at the moment) but thank you for the words of wisdom that came at a high price.

[bluerose9978]

Always, always ship to the address provided by PayPal. The seller can change the address when they pay so that it can go to another address but it's up to them to do that. To keep your seller protection, it's important to follow PayPal's rules and eBay's policies.

So sorry this happened to you, though! Six hundred dollars is a lot to be out!

[flying_narwhal]

Always, always ship to the address provided by PayPal. The seller can change the address when they pay so that it can go to another address but it's up to them to do that. To keep your seller protection, it's important to follow PayPal's rules and eBay's policies.

So sorry this happened to you, though! Six hundred dollars is a lot to be out!

^This!!! I never send to any other address other than the one provided at checkout, it is one of the only protections you have as a seller on ebay.

I am so sorry this happened to you cuddlebuggy!  How frustrating. I've never even heard of this kind of scam before, where someone on a different username altogether requests the address change.

[tikibirds]

I though only buyers of your items could send you ebay messages.
Is it possible Buyer A and Person B are the same person or two people who know each other?

[bluerose9978]

I though only buyers of your items could send you ebay messages.
Is it possible Buyer A and Person B are the same person or two people who know each other?

The OP contacted the buyer so apparently it wasn't the buyer who had sent the message. It sounds like a scam that this person had done before if they did it this easily. It would be nice that if someone wins an auction that eBay wouldn't allow anyone else to contact a buyer via the listing. But I think they allow it so other buyers can inquire whether the seller has anymore of an item in stock or similar items, etc.

[Dragonflitter]

So sorry this happened. -hugs-

[DazzleKitty]

The person who did this should be banned from eBay entirely! OMG how awful. I am so sorry.

[tulagirl]

This is just plain awful.

[Taffeta]

Isn't $600 enough to file a criminal case for fraud?

[Ringlets]

*hugs* that's really awful!!   

Always, always ship to the address provided by PayPal. The seller can change the address when they pay so that it can go to another address but it's up to them to do that. To keep your seller protection, it's important to follow PayPal's rules and eBay's policies.

So sorry this happened to you, though! Six hundred dollars is a lot to be out!

This ^^ .
 Scammers will try so many different tricks these days     I'm so sorry about what happened to you. Is ebay actually going to do something about the scammer because they need to!! that's a heck of a lot of money to lose and ok, you made a mistake by sending to a different address to the one listed,  but it sounds like this is not a one off scam by this person. They've prolly used it successfully in the past. 

[dragonfly]

Yikes, that's awful! I'm sorry that happened to you.