Question
Auction ended on 10/4 with a zero feedback from Singapore registered on 9/29. I sent out my eBay invoice on the morning of 10/5.
The morning of 10/6, I got an email from eBay - it was not a spoof:
FIB NOTICE: Suspicious Bidder Alert - item #XXXXXXXXX, Bidder X
Dear blackcastlebooks (bjgrolle*comcast.net),
Please be aware that we have recently cancelled bids for the buyer noted above due to our inability to confirm his or her contact information and/or the failure to complete recent transactions. The buyer's privileges to trade on eBay have been temporarily suspended while we investigate this matter further.
Our records indicate that this buyer recently attempted to complete a transaction with you. Since the buyer is not currently registered on the eBay site, you may consider the transaction null and void if you have not already shipped the item.
If you have already shipped the item, we advise you to consider taking the following steps at this time:
1. Contact the company that was used to send payment to verify whether or not funds have cleared.
2. Contact law enforcement in the area where the buyer lives if you find that the funds are fraudulent. Be sure to be as specific as possible, including names, addresses, phone numbers or any other information that you may have about the buyer. If a detective is assigned to your case, please ask him or her to contact us so that we can assist in the investigation.
3. Contact the shipping carrier to determine whether or not it may be possible to stop shipment on the package.
4. Consider filing a complaint with the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC). The IFCC is partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center. The IFCC will review and evaluate complaints and refer information to the appropriate local, state, or federal agency. Every complaint that is referred by the IFCC is sent to one or more law enforcement or regulatory agencies that have jurisdiction over that matter. You can file a complaint with the IFCC at:
http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp
5. If your package was shipped via USPS, you may be able to file a mail fraud complaint at:
https://www.usps.com/postalinspector...dComplaint.htm
6. In the event that you are not able to receive funds for this sale, you can file for a credit of your Final Value Fees, provided it has not been 45 days or more since the auction ended. To request a Final Value Fee credit, please follow the steps below:
1. Click the "site map" link at the top of any eBay page.
2. On the "Site Map" page, click the link "Request final value fee credit" under the "Seller Accounts" heading in the middle column.
If you have any concerns or questions about this situation or any other eBay-related issues you can visit our help system by clicking on "Help" on the navigation bar at the top of any eBay web page.
Regards,
Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc
I have never received an email like this before. I checked the buyer's account and they were, indeed, suspended. I checked their buying activity, and nothing appeared suspicious to me.
But I figured that eBay must have had a reason, so...
I immediately filed for my FVF back and made a second chance offer to the 1st underbidder (there were 2), good for 3 days. This offer still has 2 days to run.
Several hours later - still yesterday - I received an email from the buyer from Singapore:
Hi, I got an unpaid strike for an auction ended 2 days ago...can you explain why?
I did and I even forwarded the email from eBay.
The buyer sent another email late last night that I read this morning:
I was only registered on eBay for less than a week! I cannot understand what fradulent activity as I am only bidding for a $15 book. eBay have not contacted me on why I am suspended, nor state the reason why they took the action so I can resolved them, and now they are sending e-mails to everyone stating that I am a fraud? If I were to cheat, I will buy items costing a lot more don't you think?
I am a book collector for 7 years and only recently trust online purchase system enough to biy from eBay...now this!
Do you still want to conclude this $15 transaction? Please advice and I will understand whichever action you take. Thanks
Regards,
Personally, there is nothing on my radar screen to tell me that this buyer is a fraud, but I did receive that email from eBay, which is a new thing for me.
My inclination would be to:
1. Tell this buyer that I made a second chance offer to the underbidder that still has 2 days to run. If it expires, then we can complete the transaction.
2. Don't tell him about the SCO, and just contact him if it expires, offering to complete the transaction.
BUT, since I do accept PayPal from International buyers, would I have to consider the email from eBay as a strong warning NOT to accept it from this buyer? IOW, since s/he's suspended and has been labelled a possible fraud by eBay, I'm not obligated to stick to my TOS and I should require payment via BidPay or US Cash sent at buyer's risk?
3. Ignore this person, and make a SCO to the 2nd underbidder if the 1st one expires. Or just relist if the 1st one expires.
What are your thoughts?
Answer
tell him to send us cash only or Bidpay, and sell to him,
he is probably trapped in one of ebays stupid....."let's screw with someones ebay accout today" misfits that work for ebay.....he has probably done nothng wrong, yet you panic over a 15 dollar book.
I would have written him first before re-acting. Especially in light of all the suspension threads on here.
Answer
If you do accept BidPay, make sure money order clears before shipping.
Personally, I think the guy is legit. I cannot imagine someone ripping you off for a $15 book.
Answer
I am not in a panic over a $15 book. I don't read the suspension threads here, so how would I know whether or not eBay is screwing up royally with people's accounts?
I got an official notice from eBay and I reacted based on that. I figured they had access to some information or perhaps a report had been filed by another seller...who knows what or why? I'm sure I'm not the only seller who would have reacted in the same way, especially not having had any experience with this sort of thing before.
But, at this point, I feel that I do need to wait until the SCO expires, or else I'll risk being in the same situation as hepburn did, with 2 payments and only 1 book to sell.
Thanks for the recommendations on not accepting PayPal, especially since you're so sure the buyer is legit.
BTW, I was ripped off once with a stolen CC through PayPal, for a whole $12.00. They took the money back out of my account and I'd already shipped, so I was out the money and the books. So as unlikely as it would seem, it does happen. Even though you'd think crooks would have better things to steal than books.
Answer
Brenda,
You're being reasonable and logical.
That's the problem.
Logic no longer applies here...You've entered the eBAY ZONE. (cue _Twilight Zone_ theme)
At this point I would give just as much credence and possibly more to any random person living in Singapore as I would to any official eBay pronouncement handed down from on-high. That's my prejudice, admittedly.
But I think the salient point of the pronouncement is that they couldn't verify the contact info for your Singaporean bidder. Heh. Imagine that. Can't determine whether or not a Singapore street address is valid. Heck, I couldn't either.
Here's my suggestion.
Back in the rosy golden old days before we all had to get so distrustful because eBay has failed to do a basic job of keeping its site safe for the last 8 years (oh ok I'll stop that now), mercantile activity still took place. Often a new buyer or supplier was verified by the use of references.
Your Singaporean says he has been a book collector for 7 years. Fine. Ask him who he's dealt with, then check with those individuals or companies.
FluFf
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Answer
How does he know you filed an NPB? If you are suspended do you still get an email when someone files? If not how could he know?
Personally, to heck with ebay if the SCO runs out and he still wants it-sell it in whatever way you are comfy with taking his money
Answer
Talk about logic, isn't it more logical for eBay to make sure they have verified the validity of the buyer before activating an account and letting the buyer bid away?
I must be naive or something, because I thought that's what they did. I wouldn't know, since I never registered with eBay as a buyer only. I registered as a seller from day one and put up my first auction that same day.
So I figured that when a buyer registers and they are able to bid, eBay has A-OK'd them, unless some new information comes to light.
Guess I must not know how it really works then.
Your Singaporean says he has been a book collector for 7 years. Fine. Ask him who he's dealt with, then check with those individuals or companies.
No offense, but I don't care to get involved in asking for references and running them down. For a $15 book? I won't know if I can sell to this buyer until my SCO to the 2nd buyer expires.
Can any of you honestly say that if you had received that email for the very first time ever, that you wouldn't have just filed for your FVF and moved on to the next prospect, as I did?
I did not mean to hurt this buyer, it was nothing personal, just a business decision. I am much more trusting than most sellers. I take PayPal from anyone, both confirmed, unconfirmed, International, ship to alternate work and gift addresses upon request. I've had many many newbies and zero feedback buyers, both domestic and International, and do not automatically look upon them with suspicion. I ship without holding personal checks, even after I had one bounce that was not made good, I haven't changed my policy on that. I take risks that most of you here don't take.
Because I believe that 99% of the customers are good and honest and it would cost me more in business if I treated them like the crooks that only 1% really are.
Yes, I admit I treated this buyer like a crook by filing for FVF and moving on to the next customer. Zero feedback, registered less than a week, official eBay notice, etc. etc.
This time, I decided not to take the risk, that's all.
Answer
How does he know you filed an NPB? If you are suspended do you still get an email when someone files? If not how could he know?
I imagine he must have gotten an email about it. If so, then it's not a matter of an invalid email address that got this person suspended.
Answer
So I figured that when a buyer registers and they are able to bid, eBay has A-OK'd them, unless some new information comes to light.
Wow. OMIGOSH. Sorry, Brenda, I'm not slackjawed so much at what you said as I am at the realization that most likely many people share the same belief you do.
Other than a few programmatical checks, there is NO VERIFICATION WHATSOEVER of a new eBay bidder account.
NONE. ZERO. ZIP.
The programmatical checks that I know of are:
1) A check to see if there is an existing eBay account that uses the same email address.
2) A check to see if the address is a post office box. (Note that while you cannot register initially using a P.O. Box, you can change it to that later.)
Some things eBay does not but could easily do:
1) Verify a domestic U.S. street address, exactly the same way so many of us sellers do it: using USPS's Address Standardization.
2) Verify that a phone number actually exists.
Unfortunately, eBay cannot (without requiring a credit card):
1) Verify that a certain person gets their mail at a certain address.
How do I know all this? Easy. I've set up dummy accounts in the past. There are probably millions of such accounts lying around unused.
This is how easy it is to create new eBay bidder accounts.
A cretin of the female persuasion in Long Beach, CA decided one Saturday evening she was going to get even with me for filing NPBs on her. I had auctions ending every 5 to 8 minutes. She created a completely phony eBay account, complete with email address for her RoadRunner account and went to town bidding. I caught her after 8 bids and blocked her. Cancelled as many bids as I could. Then she created another phony eBay account with a different address at RoadRunner. I caught that one a little faster. She kept this up until she had blown through six malicious phony accounts. She ruined less than 10 of my auctions, which was not bad considering I had 50 ending that night.
(In case you're wondering, this whole incident was reported to eBay, who could verify the IP address of each account, and they did NOTHING. She's still bidding under her original account today.)
But here's my point: It only takes a few minutes to set up a phony account for malicious use. You probably have 8 or more mailboxes available to you at your ISP. You create the nasty account first, go register at eBay, return to the nasty account to get the confirmation email and you're good to go.
NO EBAY VERIFICATION WHATSOEVER, other than "You've got an email address that works at this point in time! Welcome to eBay! Feel free to mess with as many people as you like!"
fLufF
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(I used a bad word. Shame on me. Bad Fluffy. Bad!)
Answer
Thank you for explaining the verification - or lack of it - to me.
Yes, I could have contacted the buyer and asked why eBay suspended them and called them a fraud, but what answer could I expect to get? Is a fraud going to admit they are a fraud? No. If it's a mistake on eBay's part, I would have gotten the exact answer I did get in the latest email: "I don't know. They won't tell me."
Anyway, I'll let you know how it all turns out.