An eBay scam to be aware of

A little Googling reveals that this is nothing new, but it was new to me, and I'm a fairly long-time eBayer, so I figured I'd share. Thankfully, I didn't fall for the trick (I'm a 4a, not a 4b), but caveat venditor.

1) You sell an item on eBay; the listing is closed.

2) Presumably the buyer pays and you prepare your item for shipment.

3) You get a message through eBay's messaging system from "the buyer" asking you to ship to a different address: "I'm going to be out of town visiting my cousin in Yonkers, etc, etc."

4a) You recognize that the person who contacted you is not actually your buyer, but a totally different person---probably an account that was just created and has zero feedback. The message might have some typos and be vague in its description--like something that someone sends to hundreds of sellers a day and can't bother to customize for each individual target. It might also strike you as fishy that in providing the address they want you to send to, they don't actually type it into the message but send it as a photo. You report them to eBay and delete the message. (The real buyer never even has to know any of this happened.)

-or-

4b) You fall for the trick and send the item to the scammer's address and manage not to trigger any of the good but fallible fail-safes at eBay and/or PayPal intended to prevent such mistakes. The scammer keeps your item (probably resells it somewhere), the buyer (honestly and fairly) demands his/her money back, having never received the item. You are completely screwed.

One wishes eBay had a way to prevent such things. Below is the message I received (and reported).

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New message from: reful_82 (0)
Hello! Thanks for deal. I hope, the item is in a good condition. Sorry for bothering, but there is one problem about shipping address.I’m leaving town for a few weeks. I’ll be on a new address. I don't want to cancel the order and can you forward an item to my new address?
Best regards !!
[photo of address deleted]

I get these messages on almost every item I sell. Each scammer gets a brief "F*ck off" message from me and I proceed to ship it to the actually buyer.

I will say, I sold a $2,000 item and right after the payment was received the actual buyer (a long standing member with no recent reviews) messaged me saying "My home address is in New York" (this was the address I see on my end) "but because of covid I am stuck in New Hampshire for a couple weeks. Can you send it to this address instead?"

Despite the message coming from the actual buyer, I would still never ship to an alternate address. You never know if the account was hacked or it's someone using a stolen CC and making fraud purchases or anything else fraudulent. I responded to the seller explaining that eBay strongly advises only shipping to the verified address and that I would no longer be protected by breaking this "rule" and that out of safety for all involved, will only ship to the address associated with the account. They responded with respect for my decision and arranged for a family member to be at the address for delivery.

Many times I have tried to have businesses ship to my work address. I could do so only if I "registered" said address with my CC company. I did so, but I greatly appreciate their not sending to alternate addresses without authorization.

A few days back my son told me he sold a phone to someone in Russia. Of course it never arrived and his account was deducted. I told him don't sell outside CONUS inOin future. Once he said he shipped to Russia, I knew he was scammed. He is young.