Nigerian sale...

[theKNI]

I've just sold an item via buy now, to a lady near Bristol, however the shipping address is in Nigeria and I am pretty sure I didn't offer shipping to that country anyway.

So basically it's got all the hallmarks of a scam.

They have somehow paid via paypal with a view to the money being held by paypal until I send a tracking number as proof of shipment.
I am now seeing, probably half an hour after the item sold that the person who bought it has been banned from eBid. They had zero feedback and signed up precisely 30 minutes before my item was sold.

Am I no longer obliged to send out this item?

The thing is, the name of the person and the address do not match up and they have emailed me twice in 2 minutes after the sale with an email that makes very little sense and states that the person is going on holiday tomorrow etc and could I please send it to their cousins address etc and basically it all feels like a scam.

I feel that since the user has been banned, their activity has been noticed by eBid and that means they are a scammer. Which ultimately means I would suffer no problems if I just did nothing. Apart from final value fees.

I am pretty much just wondering what to do with regards to the auction itself. It was a gallery auction, having dropped from a Featured Auction. I'm guessing eBid will treat it as a sale unless I cancel it in the AAL? Or will they still try to charge Final Value Fees unless I ask them not to?

[graphskill]

Sounds tricky

I would ask the admin folk, see what they suggest

However, as a point of principle, PayPal do warn you never to post to a different address unless you can verify it. I am sure their seller protection will be void if you send it to another address

[theKNI]

Yeah I'm going to wait a bit tonight to see people's thoughts, then contact support if nothing definitive comes out here.

The email from paypal suggests the person's address is verified. But like I say, the buyer is in the UK whilst the receipient is in Nigeria so the buyer name and the name on the shipping address are different. I realise a username for a buyer can be almost whatever they want and doesn't have to be their name but bear with me...

It gets even more confusing because the username is a person's name. (I.e. Something similar to JoeBloggs010) It is a British sounding name.
The name on the shipping address is most definitely an African name.
But then the emails they sent directly to me are signed with a 3rd different name which sounds like Spanish or something. So there are so many names involved I'm 99% certain it's a scam.

The user has been banned therefore I am unsure about sending an expensive item to Nigeria when I had selected "Not willing to ship abroad".

The main problem is that they have seemingly paid me but I haven't received the money since PayPal are holding onto it until I confirm shipment at which point they will release the money. They also deliberately paid me an extra £40 because they knew it would cost that to get it to Nigeria.
I don't see how that is possible since I had said I would not ship it anywhere outside the UK.

[Maelbrigda]

i would contact support

[theKNI]

An interesting development is that I am continuing my research into this and there appears to be no matching transaction ID in my PayPal account.
That suggests the entire email about payment I received is utter rubbish and just made to look like it came from PayPal.

*Edit*

I have just got home where I can view all the details together and correctly... there is no payment received in the AAL therefore it was one almighty scam.

Now that I'm viewing it all on a PC and not my phone I can see that in the tiny grey smallprint on this email that "PayPal's" email address to contact them at is an AOL account. Yeah ok......

So now I contact support and ask to keep my FVF right?

[pique]

So now I contact support and ask to keep my FVF right?[/QUOTE]

Yes, give support a shout and they'll cancel the FVF - never a problem.

[kreativebargains]

The Paypal email will be a fake. Politely inform them that you have no confirmation of payment in Paypal and that you do not post to Nigeria due to the high number of fraudulant transactions in that country and you are therefore cancelling the sale. If you then cancel in a day or so you will be able to get the FVF back. I would relist the item straight away as you will not get paid by this buyer.

[theKNI]

Just out of interest what difference would it make if I marked them as a NPB rather than cancelling the sale? Would that make it any easier in terms of FVF because technically that is what they've done. Bought and not paid.

I am still going to contact support of course just to be certain.

[sidthelamp]

Just out of interest what difference would it make if I marked them as a NPB rather than cancelling the sale? Would that make it any easier in terms of FVF because technically that is what they've done. Bought and not paid.

I am still going to contact support of course just to be certain.

id also give PP the details including the IP Header it is a scam and there doing it using PP as a front or at least in name

[theKNI]

id also give PP the details including the IP Header it is a scam and there doing it using PP as a front or at least in name

Agreed. I am going to contact PayPal's fraud team.

I've just scrolled through all the jargon in the emails I received. Turns out that of the two emails I got, both were basically "replied" to auction win confirmation emails but somehow one of them is not even an item I have ever possessed, nevermind sold. So it looks like they cocked up on their copy and pasting to make it look official type stuff.