Sold my phone - Am I being scammed?

5tephen · 15 Jan 2006 at 16:49

I posted a thread a week ago because I was wary of selling my phone on ebay, but no-one replied. Hopefully I get a reply to this

I listed my XDA Exec yesterday afternoon, and have sold it just now. Check the item here .

I was surprised that it sold so quick, because after I listed mine I noticed that it wasn't the cheapest. But check out the winner's feedback here - he's got 7 positive - one is a cheapo book, 5 more are 'do not pay' items and 2 more have been withdrawn from ebay despite not being over 90 days old.

He's paid by Paypal - does that not mean that the money is on its way? I notice that it takes 3 -5 days for the money to transfer successfully, can I expect this to go through correctly? Note that I have 100+ feedback but have only ever sold one item, and it was apparently lost in the post and I had to refund the guy £60 :rolleyes:

Your suggestions would be appreciated. I've got the guy's phone number if I need clarification.
*EDIT - his phone number doesn't work. "Number error". Great...

Beans on toast Dave · 15 Jan 2006 at 16:53

i would wait untill you can withdraw the money in to your account, and send it insured and recorded delivery

melymel2789 · 15 Jan 2006 at 16:57

If you're worried then deffinately insured and recorded delivery and always put your adress on it incase it has too be returned. Also you could email him asking for his phone number if you're still worried.

~Divine~Wind~ · 15 Jan 2006 at 16:59

Make sure you send the item with the correct and most suitable form of insurance.

I would send that via RMSD and have it insured for 600.

In the event of loss that should covers all fee's involved, reposting and the handset only price.

Never send anything just plain post

5tephen · 15 Jan 2006 at 17:08

I am not going to post anything until I see the line on my online bank statement showing that 400-odd quid is mine. But yes I will definitely be going for as much insurance and recording that I can get

I am in the process of emailing him now, hopefully I get something useful out of it.
Anyone who has received payment via Paypal - how long does it normally take to transfer into your actual bank account?

gib786 · 15 Jan 2006 at 17:21

takes 4 days to transfer normally

5tephen · 15 Jan 2006 at 17:25

I am assuming that just because I have received money into my Paypal account that the money is not yet mine?
I'm wondering this because I have bought 130+ items on ebay, and most people post items a day after receiving my Paypal payment, which surely means that they haven't actually received my money yet?

Tunney · 15 Jan 2006 at 17:31

One worrying aspect of PayPal for sellers is that it's very easy for buyers to claim that you never sent them the goods and get PayPal to pull the money back out of your account.

I wouldn't send it before he's provided you with a proper (landline) phone number at the very least.

jhmaeng · 15 Jan 2006 at 20:42

Alternatively, if you feel he's dodgy then just risk a negative and don't sell it to him. The Exec is quite a lot of money and I personally wouldn't risk it with a buyer who I wasn't 100% sure about.

Also remember that even after you withdraw the money into your bank account from Paypal, if the payment turns out to be fraudulent or from a stolen account, Paypal will then try to pull the corresponding amount from your bank account through direct debit. If they can't pull any money through DD, they will likely forward the amount to a collection agency as far as I know.

5tephen · 15 Jan 2006 at 21:09

jhmaeng said:
Alternatively, if you feel he's dodgy then just risk a negative and don't sell it to him. The Exec is quite a lot of money and I personally wouldn't risk it with a buyer who I wasn't 100% sure about.

Also remember that even after you withdraw the money into your bank account from Paypal, if the payment turns out to be fraudulent or from a stolen account, Paypal will then try to pull the corresponding amount from your bank account through direct debit. If they can't pull any money through DD, they will likely forward the amount to a collection agency as far as I know.

It's looking more and more like a stolen account, I have just noticed. The postage name & address is totally different to the actual ebay registered address.
If I was to cancel my Paypal account immediately after the money made its way into my account, would this stop Paypal taking any debits back?
Otherwise, what would happen if a debt collection agency was to be called in? I could make the point that I am 1 x XDA Exec (=£400) worse off because of something that wasn't my fault. I shouldn't be forced to give back £400, because it belonged to me. (Wouldn't be afraid to go legal if it came to it mind you)

Gentwee · 15 Jan 2006 at 21:31

I'd walk away from it personally. It's way to easy for paypal to just take the money back, even if you've already put it into your bank account. As you've said the seller looks dodgy, ignoring the address differences the feedback should instantly sound alarm bells. 6 'fake' feedbacks in 3 days = walk away.

As for proof of postage? Well that's al you'll have, prof that you sent something. It'll be easy for him to say it was a cheap book you sent him. Whose side would paypal take here?

I'd just say that upon inspection it broke so you can't complete the sale and refund him any money he sends.

Raptor · 16 Jan 2006 at 07:33

Gentwee said:
I'd walk away from it personally. It's way to easy for paypal to just take the money back, even if you've already put it into your bank account. As you've said the seller looks dodgy, ignoring the address differences the feedback should instantly sound alarm bells. 6 'fake' feedbacks in 3 days = walk away.

As for proof of postage? Well that's al you'll have, prof that you sent something. It'll be easy for him to say it was a cheap book you sent him. Whose side would paypal take here?

I'd just say that upon inspection it broke so you can't complete the sale and refund him any money he sends.

Would have to agree, I have a couple of phones on there at the moment and have allready cancelled 5 bids on one of them. One of the bidders only became a member on the day of the bid, after I cancelled the bid, He is no longer a registered user....! He was a member for a couple of hours

I always state that new users and low feedbacks bids will be cancelled unless they contact me first by email with contact details. Scammed one too many times. I have also stated leaving Buy it now off the auction, it attracts all the scammers.

Stephen7372 · 16 Jan 2006 at 08:47

You could tell him you've sent it, wait a while and say that it must have been stolen in the post and offer a refund.

A2Z · 16 Jan 2006 at 09:32

STOP

DO NOT SEND THE PHONE

sorry but he is obviously a scammer, his feedback is all 1p stuff, and as you said his contact details are all dodgy.

first thing i would do is email him and get his right contact details, and have a talk with him, but i bet he wont reply...you should also report him for having invalid contact info

thing with paypal is even if its transferred into your bank account, if he has used dodgy money to pay you, they can still hold back the payment, which would mean your account will go into negative (im assuming you withdraw ALL the money) by £400 or whatever

if this did happen you could just keep the money and forget about the whole thing, and expect emails, and maybe a few letters from paypal in a few months time, threatening you with debt collectors coming round to get 'their' money back, but at the end of the day if you just ignore them, they wont actually do anything, so in theory you would have nothing to worry about...

but if you dont want that hassle, and would rather still use your paypal account to buy stuff, and not have to make a new one, put the money back into your paypal account and just refund with whatever money he paid with

jimmy · 16 Jan 2006 at 10:27

I'm a regular eBay seller. Don't even try to complete this auction. If I was you I would report this buyer to eBay for providing conflicting details and a false phone number. I would also phone PayPal and tell them whats happened they can tell you over the phone when it would be safe to post te item but in this case they will probably tell you to wait while this matter is sorted out by eBay. In future never list high value phones as buy it now scammers love this type of auction instead list it as a private auction where a buyer has to get clearance from you to make a bid on your auction. hope this helps you mate.

aztechnology · 16 Jan 2006 at 11:20

Personally that account looks dodgy to me. Send him a mail saying that you don't like the look of the acount details and that you will refund him the cash and that if he still want's to complete the sale he will have to meet in person with cold hard cash. If you do meet him take about a dozen mates.

5tephen · 16 Jan 2006 at 12:41

I have sent an email to the other address on the account, and requested a delivery and read receipt (not that that means a lot I guess). Just received note of successful delivery as I write this.
I have withdrawn money to my bank account, but I am considering just refunding the payment. I'll leave it 24 hours before I do anything, although I think I'll give Paypal a shout now.

Ukadder · 16 Jan 2006 at 13:06

Would probibly ask for a phone number myself and talk to the guy on the other end. I personally think that it's a dodgy account and wouldn't be sending anything.

5tephen · 16 Jan 2006 at 13:30

I've emailed him, I've also reported the account to eBay. Also relisted the item already.

I also talked to a girl at Paypal who seemed to prefer to say that everything was OK, the payment was successful and all would be ok whether the account was suspect or not. She was about to say "thanks for phoning Paypal" when I told her I wasn't done, and only then did she properly explain what would happen if the payment was fraudulent. Seems they don't mind these scams - nothing to lose on their part, shower of ****"$%^$^*** 's

darko · 16 Jan 2006 at 18:05

in situations like this i always email saying "oh as luck would have it im in your area in a couple of days. i can deliver it to save you postage costs" and see how they reply

Sold my phone - Am I being scammed?

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