I'm writing this guide in the hopes that it will educate other Ebayers like myself about how NO ONE is ever truly safe against a scammer!  This is a true story and it happened to me right here on Ebay a few months ago.  I was suspicious of this potential "buyer" and ignored his emails, etc but for one reason or another, I found myself coming back to it.  This was in the VERY beginning of my selling "career" on Ebay so I think I was just too eager to make a sale where I could actually walk away with a profit.  I foolisly didn't go with my initial gut reaction when I should have...

I had posted two seperate wholesale lots of Disney dvds.  They were duplicate lots, containing a total of 30 Disney movies.  One was your standard bidding war while the other I had listed as "Buy It Now", hoping that maybe someone out there would actually buy it.  Both lots had only been listed for about three days or so and were due to run for a total of ten days.  I received an email telling me that my lot with the "Buy It Now" option had sold!  I was excited and moreso shocked because the final price with shipping came out to about $600!

I sent the order/payment details to this person and didn't receive a payment right away but I didn't worry just yet.  After all, it had only been about 6 hours since they bought the lot.  But, the next day I went into "My Ebay" and found that the buyer's Ebay ID now said "no longer a registered user".  I didn't understand what was going on.  It was later on that afternoon that I began receiving emails from the "buyer" that said "Your full Name and Address are needed ASAP".  I regonized the name based on the information that was provided to Ebay.  Their Ebay ID matched up to their email address.  I disregarded his emails for about a week straight but he was VERY aggressive and wouldn't give up!

I finally answered him asking him what was going on.  He claimed that someone had tried to get into his Ebay account and that somehow this forced him to withdraw his registration.  I explained to him that I would not complete this transaction if he didn't get his issues with his Ebay account fixed.  He then told me that he wasn't going to deal with Ebay any longer and that he still wanted the movies.

I was hesitant to make this sale but he insisted on it and was anxious for us to complete the transaction.  I foolishly gave him my address and he said a check would be sent to me through Fed - Ex for the movies.  Well, about a MONTH went by and NOTHING!  I emailed him I think two or three times and never got a reply.  I was getting angry but moreso at myself for even putting up with any of this! 

One day out of the blue he finally decides to email me back and says that his wife has been in the hospital.  He told me she had cancer and that he had to be by her side since she had given him four children.  Me, being a compassionate person (most of the time that is, lol!) told him how I hoped she got better, etc.  He was very thankful for this and said once he was finished helping his wife that the check would go out from his "client".  He told me that he worked for a company that dealt in trading goods.

Another red flag is that he wanted the money sent Western Union which I DON'T ever use!  I think it's unsafe and I just don't feel comfortable using it.  He told me he was in Benin for the summer for work, even though his mailing address on Ebay said that he lived in North Carolina.  He also explained that the check would be for more than $600 because the remainder of the money was his for all of his "hard work".  I wasn't sure how much the check would be for, I didn't think it would be for more than $1,000...

Then finally the check arrived one day and the amount was $4,000!  I had completely forgotten what he had said about deducting only what was mine so I was stupidly excited at the number.  He had told me that since there was a delay in me getting my money that I could keep an additional $75 which I was pleased to hear.  I kept telling him that I didn't want to Western Union him the money but he kept saying how he wouldn't be back in North Carolina until the fall and that he couldn't wait that long for the money.  So, I decided I'd send him the money Western Union and get this over with!  By now the entire situation had been dragging on for about two months!

I was also told by him that I wouldn't have to ship the movies myself.  All I would need to do is set up a day and time for his "shipping company" to pick them up.  I was happy about that because that would have just drawn this whole thing out even longer!  SO, I one night called Western Union to send him the money and they told me that my bank card was being declined which I didn't understand since my checking had shown that the check had cleared.

I called my bank the next day and asked why there was a freeze on my card.  They explained to me that there had been a computer error and everyone that had a debit card suddenly couldn't access their money.  They told me that they had thought everyone's accounts were fixed but mine still wasn't.  The kind lady at my bank put me on hold and told me the error had been fixed. 

It was the very next day that I got a notice from my bank saying that the check in the amount of $4,000 had BOUNCED!  I wasn't surprised and I was extremely upset with myself for being so FOOLISH and STUPID to trust a perfect stranger.  The ONLY thing that saved me was that computer error at my bank!  If it hadn't been for that, I would have been in the whole for around $4,000! 

I emailed the little scammer and told him that I had finally woken up and realized that he was a FRAUD!  I told him to NEVER email me again and I had some other not so kind words for him!  It made me feel a little better to vent and just blow off some steam about the HUGE bullet I had just dodged.  I've never been so happy in my life for my bank to make a mistake!  I think God was on my side for that little crisis of sorts as well! 

A Few Tips When Selling -

I personally recommend that if you're a US resident that you only sell to the United States and Canada.  You just never know about these other countries and what their true intentions are.  Granted, this criminal was claiming to live in NC but I still say, DON'T sell outside the US and Canada.

Don't sell to someone who has zero feedback unless they contact you about be new to Ebay.  I won't sell to someone who has no score.  I feel that I learned a very difficult lesson about that and won't ever put myself out there again to sell to someone who's new to Ebay.

Check a person's feedback!  Is it solid?  Do a lot of sellers have the same complaint about this buyer?  I wouldn't recommend selling to anyone that has an overall feedback score of lower than 98%.

Make personal contact with your buyer and see if they respond.  I'm a firm believer that communication and customer service should be your number one priority whether you're the buyer or seller!  You should be there to answer questions or concerns someone may have.  If you deal with someone who never answers your emails, it's not necessarily a warning sign of someone who's out to cheat you but I feel that you should continue to communicate until the transaction is completed, feedback has been left and the items have shipped out!

I hope this helps someone out there!  Proceed with caution on Ebay and any other auction site.  I love Ebay and think it's a very wonderful place where nine times out of ten you don't have any problems but there's always going to be that one person who will leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth.