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This is a posting ID I use for helping on the Community boards.
HOW TO DEAL WITH SCAM BUYERS
This advice relates to a particular scam carried out by some people living in Nigeria but elements of it may be useful when dealing with other scam buyers.
HOW THE SCAM WORKS
The scammer lives in Nigeria but because they've registered (or hi-jacked an account) in another country they ask for the item to be sent to a relative or friend in Nigeria (really themselves). They target new sellers of relatively expensive items, especially mobile phones and other electronic goods.
They persuade the seller to send the goods on receipt of a fake payment confirmation email, usually from Paypal. The seller sends the item to Nigeria but the promised payment never materialises.
As soon as your buyer requests shipping to Nigeria you will know they are scammers. If you want to check out a bidder/buyer before then check the rest of their purchases using Advanced Search (top of any page) > Items by Bidder (include completed items).
If they have bought a large number of similar expensive items over one or two days then the odds are they're scammers.
HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM
1. The idea is to get the scammer suspended first to make it quicker for you to do the Unpaid Item process in order to get your final value fee back. So first contact eBay to report them. You can ring, email or use live chat. Here are the contact links:
http://ocs.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS&ref=1&topicrelid=5007580130&sid=5243536259&convId=0&ContactCsResultsPage=true
Also report their fake contact details - they will be - using the report link on here:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/identity-false.html
2. After that they should be suspended within a couple of days. Do not bother to reply to their emails. Keep an eye on their ID and when it says "No longer registered with eBay" beside it you will be able to do the Unpaid Item process immediately to get your final value fees back, here's that link:
http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CreateDispute
Or eBay may have done that for you. Check in your My eBay > Account tab.
3.Once you have your final value fee refund you can relist and if it sells the second time your relisting fee will be refunded too. If you relist before completing the Unpaid Item process you will not be eligible for a relisting fee refund. If for some reason the scammer is not suspended quickly you will have to wait four days to start the Unpaid Item process in the usual way.
TO PREVENT IT HAPPENING AGAIN
1.Ideally use Immediate (Paypal) Payment on your listing, then the listing cannot end without payment being made. To do that during the listing process select to sell Fixed Price Only and you'll see the link to use Immediate Payment just below the Paypal logo.
Be sure to comply with Paypal's seller protection policy. Info here:
https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/safetyadvice/SellerProtectionOnEbay.htm
2. Other options that help if the scammer has registered a new ID (rather than used a hi-jacked account) are to block bidders from Nigeria on here:
http://cgi5.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ExcludeShippingList
and block zero or low feedback bidders with no credit card on file, buyers in countries where you don't ship and those without Paypal accounts, all on here:
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences
After making your selection tick "Apply above settings to active and future listings" at the bottom.
3. If you are not using Immediate Payment list as auction then at least you might have the chance to cancel unwanted bids.
If in doubt about a buyer please ask for advice on one of the Community boards.
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