Ebay Sellers - What Gives?

[Avenged7Fold]

5 days at the most and they don't get the item sent until its cleared, so no worrys for the seller

Cheque fraud is very common. Both fraudulent cheques and forgery of real cheques.

Counterfeit cheque fraud
Counterfeit cheques are manufactured or printed on non-bank paper to look exactly like genuine cheques.

You advertise an item for sale in a listings magazine or paper, on an online advertising board, or online auction site. The items are often high-value, such as cars.

Someone contacts you from abroad saying they want to buy the item and you both agree a price. The fraudulent buyer says they’ll send your payment and asks you to forward the item once you receive the money.

You then receive a cheque for more than the agreed amount. The fraudster gives you various reasons for the overpayment. For example: to cover shipping costs or to provide cash that the fraudster is unable to access for some reason.

The fraudster asks you to pay the cheque into your bank account and, when it clears, to withdraw the excess in cash and send it to them through a money transfer agent or to a specified shipping agent.

The cheque you receive is a fake. The banking system only picks this up after the money shows up as cleared in your account but you’ve already sent the money to the fraudster.

When the banking system identifies the cheque as a fake, your bank will debit money to the value of the cheque from your account, leaving you out of pocket.

Other cheque frauds:

Forged cheque fraud
A forged cheque is a genuine cheque that has been stolen from an innocent customer and used by a fraudster with a forged signature.

Fraudulently altered cheques
A fraudulently altered cheque is a genuine cheque that has been made out by the genuine customer, but a fraudster has altered the cheque in some way before it is paid in, eg by altering the beneficiary's name or the amount of the cheque.

Are you a victim of counterfeit cheque fraud?

You've advertised an item for sale and someone has contacted you saying they want to buy it. They send a cheque to your bank account for more than the agreed amount and ask you to withdraw the excess in cash and send it to them via money transfer.

Sounds silly but you will be surprised how common cheque fraud is. More common is forged signatures on real cheques, as it just takes a chequebook to be stolen.

 

[Curlyriff]

Yeah, people offering outside is likely to be a way to scam more..

Or it could be like someone I know, had a laptop up for £800, offered the exact same amount to end it and for them to pay in cash outside ebay...

The guy then rocks up with £700, tells him to like it or lump it.

See with that I would have just stated get lost, it was for £800. The buyer is the one that rocked up so I would have no issue with saying that.

 

[moogle]

If sold outside of eBay, cash on collection or Bank Transfer. Cheques? See your bank to find out how many days it takes before the money is finally safe in your account.

Easy!

 

[Psycho Sonny]

So I'm selling some items on ebay, it's my first time using it in this way and it's proving to be a learning experience.

I list a reasonable priced fashion item for auction, starting price is over £100 and payment is Paypal only. Immediately four people contact me, offering around this price if I end auction early or even 'do it offline' etc. I refuse politely and state we'll let the auction run the rest of the week.

It comes to the closing minutes of the auction, I have 13 watchers, but no bids. Auction closes with no bids and immediately the same people as before contact me asking if I'll accept offers. Why have these people not bid, especially when they could have won the bid for less than they have been offering?

Am I missing something here?

Ebay and Gumtree for the most part is full of morons. For every 1 decent buyer their are 9 bad ones.

I tend to do Gumtree. Stick it up for 50% more than I want as all you get is hagglers so I know I can safely accept 50% less than what i stuck it up for the morons are happy and so am I.

I also do cash on collection.

Ebay I would never sell anything worth more than £100 on there. It's worth the hassle any more or all the fees too. You end up paying about 20% total with ebay fees, paypal fees, final value fees and listing fees, postage and packaging. Insurance and time wasted, etc.

You do however get amazing results with ebay if you start the auction at £0.99 and then have a second account you can "shill bid" from. However the morons have caught onto this and now "snipe" on ebay to avoid this. Basically everyone wants something for nothing.

Sell on gumtree, forums, facebook, etsy, etc. Avoid Ebay. never post anything worth more than £100. Collection only. Be prepared to meet 1000 time wasters and at least 2 weeks before a genuine buyer comes along.

 

[neil_g]

you still get good protection for paypal if you sell outside of ebay

as long as you dont use the gift option. that will leave you up poop creek if the buyers account has been stolen/hacked.

use the invoice/request money option and use a fully tracked and insured postage method, upload the tracking details to the transaction.

 

[SC0TTRS]

Ebay is totally hit and miss, I would not sell anything on there as Sellers have few rights and the customer will always be right.

Indeed hit and miss, but Ebay does surprise you from time to time siding with with me (seller) with a transactions a few months back.

Kinda puts me off the old thing now mind with the hassle and haven't sold anything since...

 

[Akagi]

I quite often accept those sorts of offers if they involve them collecting and paying cash, they are quite often genuine. Anything else would be a bit suspect.

 

[Big Spender]

as long as you dont use the gift option. that will leave you up poop creek if the buyers account has been stolen/hacked.

use the invoice/request money option and use a fully tracked and insured postage method, upload the tracking details to the transaction.

why only quote the first sentence of my reply? the same line says they should pay as goods then goes on to explain your second paragraph

 

[neil_g]

why only quote the first sentence of my reply? the same line says they should pay as goods then goes on to explain your second paragraph

just for the avoidance of any doubt, no offence..

 

[mmj_uk]

If they just wanted you to make it a "Buy it now" then maybe they bought something else in the meantime and no longer wanted yours? did it finish at a bad time?

 

[spoffle]

If you did go down the "do it offline" route, then you lose out on eBay's protection, and PayPal's is far more limited if not in conjunction with ebay - so yes probably a scam.

PayPal offers the same protection as ebay now. As long as it's not a gift payment.

 

[naefeart]

FYI I resolved this in the end.

I relisted the items with a fixed price, accepting offers rather than an auction. Buyers seemed happier with the method and offered accordingly. Both items sold within hours of relisting for pretty much what I wanted.

I suppose some people can't be bothered to bid and just want to make offers. Well at least I've popped my ebay seller's cherry now. Thanks for the advice folks.

 

[SC0TTRS]

I relisted the items with a fixed price, accepting offers rather than an auction. Buyers seemed happier with the method and offered accordingly. Both items sold within hours of relisting for pretty much what I wanted.

I suppose some people can't be bothered to bid and just want to make offers. Well at least I've popped my ebay seller's cherry now. Thanks for the advice folks.

Good shout. Glad it didn't end in disaster.

Might chance selling again myself, been nearly 12months..

 

[linktoinsanity]

No.

Really? You always used to be able to accept other methods. I have not sold on Ebay recently though, has this changed?

 

[touch]

Really? You always used to be able to accept other methods. I have not sold on Ebay recently though, has this changed?

You can still accept other methods, you just cant refuse to accept paypal.

 

[King4aDay]

Sold about £1200 worth of bits and bobs on ebay last year (mainly electronics, kitchen ware, games, etc). Didn't have a single issue, including posting something to a zero feedback guy in Russia. I might just be lucky but I've never had an eBay issue that wasn't easily resolved.

 

[norm]

Sold about £1200 worth of bits and bobs on ebay last year (mainly electronics, kitchen ware, games, etc). Didn't have a single issue, including posting something to a zero feedback guy in Russia. I might just be lucky but I've never had an eBay issue that wasn't easily resolved.

How long ago? Buyers have 180 days to lodge a complaint.

 

[IronWarrior]

Don't know how it can be a scam if someone is offering to buy it outside of Ebay. They have no buyer protections if they do it cash in hand, if anything, you could scam them easy, they are the ones taking the risk.

 

[413x]

As a prolific seller and buyer

I will offer lower than buy it now price cash on collection. Usually goes down well
I will accept the same
Usually this involves splitting the ebay fee

Never ever ever would I accept anything other than cash outside eBay.
Not even a bank transfer. I once got paid by bank transfer from a stolen bank account and my account was investigated for being involved. It is one of the most stressful times in my life for finance. I almost missed all my direct debits
By locked down I mean no wage in, no payments or withdrawals out

 

[.Lethal]

If they are offering to pay more outside of ebay then it's a obvious scam.

Maybe this should be added to the OcUK FAQ section

ask for a payment by cheque or bank transfer if you sell privately

BT or cash on collection, a Cheque? Get out!