ok guys, pending my little issue with ebay which wasn't really much of a scam, but more of stupidity on my part, i caught two scams that my buddies were in. just posting it to give you guys heads up as to what to look for. it happened when i went to go visit my buddy at work, both him and his co worker had pending claims on ebay:
1. my buddy had bought a phone on ebay, payed the kid, and emailed him. the guy said it would be shipped out soon, and that it should arrive in a week. a week passed, he asked again, wheres my phone? sorry i forgot to send it, should be there in a week, another week passed, wheres my phone? sorry i had a death in the family, should be there in a week. so i told him to notify paypal just in case, he said no. two days later, he tries to email him again, his ebay username has been cancelled. he then finally filed a paypal claim, it is still pending.
2. on the contrary, the coworker was selling a phone on ebay. i don't know if you are aware, but most phones come out a year earlier in the middle east. so he picked up a phone when he was there, and decided to sell it once he got sick of it. so this phone is rare and expensive so he listed it as 700 dollars which is normal price for that phone. someone bid on it from the UK and won the bid. now this is where it gets fishy, he sent him an email with a photoshopped paypal confirmation from a similar paypal email address saying the payment has been sent for far more then what the guy won the bid for. he then asked him to ship the phone to his spouse in nigeria and knew about how much shipping would cost, hence the higher amount. i told him to check his paypal and paypal showed no activity. so i then compared his email to a previous one i had and noted some differences in the email address and some slight errors he made in the photoshop. he filed a claim with ebay telling them that this seller is fraudulent.
many of you may notice that this is obviously fraud, but for some ebay noobs like my friends, they would have fell for it had i not been there. so a couple notes to take from this is that you only have 20 days to file a paypal claim. look throughly over your stuff and if you don't ahve your stuff within 2 weeks, hurry up and file the claim. nothing happens but it opens up a dispute and allows you to escalate the claim if nothing happens shortly after. also, when you get a email from paypal, check your account first for the cash. and also only ship to confirmed addresses.
be safe. keep your reciepts, and happy bidding.
