Am I about to somehow get scammed on eBay / Paypal by a wierd buyer?

[quarterback]

This is really strange.   I just put up a 7-day auction for a pda with accessories.  There are many similar PDAs for sale, some with much lower starting bids.  There are some extra accessories with mine, but I wouldn't say it looks that much different than others.  I put a high starting bid (over $100) and a BIN over $200 that I figured I wouldn't ever get.

Within 10 minutes of my auction going up, it gets purchased with the BIN and the money shows up in my PayPal account.

The first odd thing is that it got purchased so quickly, particularly with other very similar auctions.
The second odd thing is the email I get from the buyer.   It's ALL IN CAPS.   When I got the email, I almost threw it away, thinking it had nothing to do with my actual auction and figuring it was just some more ebay spam.  But it came in right next to the "your item has sold" emails, so I took a 2nd look.

The third odd thing (that goes in line with the ALL CAPS) is this:

ADDRESS IT TO (ATTN: NAME REMOVED) SO IT CAN BE DROPPED ON MY DESK INCLUDE
THE PAYPAL OR EBAY PRINT INSERT WHEN SENDING FOR ?I?LL BE TRAVELLING ABROAD
AND CUSTOMS SOMETIMES  NEEDS SOME KIND OF PROOF OF VALUE DUTY.

I'm not even sure what that means, but at this point I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to get scammed here.

I go to look at the winner's ebay profile and his feedback is "private".   Again that makes me slightly nervous. But he's been a member since 2005, has ALL positive feeback with 200 in the last year and with 31 in the last month.

The address to send it to is a "Confirmed" PayPal address.

So what does all this mean?   There are elements that look odd about this, but I can't exactly figure out how I'm going to get ripped off.  The only thing I can figure is if I send it to "ATTN: HIS NAME" then he will somehow claim it didn't get to him... or something... I don't know. Looking for advice.
Thanks

[quarterback]

Okay, here's some more info.

I googled up the "ATTN: name removed" name, and I find a person under that name listed on an .edu website in the same vicinity as the shipping address, so apparantly this person actually exists.

I also google-mapped the address and even though I can't tell what kind of building it is, it has a large parking lot and would be someplace where somebody would have a desk that the item could be dropped on.    (I was worried the whole idea that it would be put onto his desk was an attempt to set up a reason that the person could say "It never got here".  I was also worried that the address might be a residence, which would also make me nervous)

The PayPal reciept came with an organization's name and phone # on it, so I googled that as well.  It only had one hit, and that was on an eBay "about me" page.  The "about me" page is not for this particular buyer, but another buyer with "private" feedback and that buyer happens to be a African charity.   I will now reveal that the "name removed" has a definite african sound to it which, when coupled with the ALL CAPS, made the whole email look more like a Nigerian email scam than anything else.

[somunny]

If the address is confirmed and you send it with some form of tracking or delivery confirmation, you should be protected under Paypal's seller protection policy.  I'd insure it as well, if I were you.

[quarterback]

If the address is confirmed and you send it with some form of tracking or delivery confirmation, you should be protected under Paypal's seller protection policy.

That's what I figured, but combined with all the gut-reaction I had to seeing the ALL CAPS from africa email saying things like "THANKS FOR THE DEAL--NEEDED URGENTLY", the request to send it "ATTN TO" made me wonder if I was going to somehow screw myself out of that protection.    Again, that was the only loophole I could think of that might cause me to get scammed.


The only other information I've turned up is that a search shows that this ebay buyer has bought a couple other PDAs on ebay for less than mine, but with fewer extras, so my guess is that they're an organization who really is taking a bunch of PDAs etc over to Africa. 

Thanks for the reply, somunny.

[shmokes]

Damn . . . I have a couple PDAs I need to sell.  I should get on Ebay while this guy is still in the market!

[quarterback]

Damn . . . I have a couple PDAs I need to sell.  I should get on Ebay while this guy is still in the market!

It's possible I just put too low of a BIN price, but I swear there are other auctions with the same PDA and similar extras that are about $80 less than mine but haven't sold.   


This immediate-buying so soon after submitting the auction thing is still odd to me.  It's been a while since I've ebayed anything, so I guess there must be new watchlist options or something because, in the past my auctions wouldn't even show up in a search for the first half hour or so.  But a very similar thing  happened when I sold some old tracfones a couple weeks ago.  It took less than 30 minutes before somebody hit BIN and sent the money.

That was a wierd one too, that buyer has bought over a hundred tracfones in the last month and is gobbling them up like nobody's business....

[paigeoliver]

My standard ebay shipping address includes an ATTN: Paige Oliver.

Also, from my experience there is no legitimate internet business sourced in Africa. I have sold thousands of items online in the last decade to North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, but I have never had a legitimate buyer from Africa. For that matter I have never had a legitimate buyer with who typed in what I call "African English", which is a mix of British English and US English with a major skew as to which words are more common, usually coupled with grammar and sentence structure that is incorrect for english, although perfectly correct for many African languages.

Have you checked your paypal account to see if you actually got the money and the payment itself wasn't spoofed?

Your buyer does appear to be typing in African English.

[quarterback]

I have sold thousands of items online in the last decade to North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, but I have never had a legitimate buyer from Africa.

The buyer's confirmed PayPal address is here in the continental US.   And when I googled their name I was able to locate it on a university webpage at a school about 30 miles from the confirmed address, so at least it's an easily trackable shipment that should be there in a matter of days (as opposed to being sent to Africa)

For that matter I have never had a legitimate buyer with who typed in what I call "African English", which is a mix of British English and US English with a major skew as to which words are more common, usually coupled with grammar and sentence structure that is incorrect for english, although perfectly correct for many African languages.

Your buyer does appear to be typing in African English.

Exactly, and in ALL CAPS.  I swear, I really didn't think the email was real.

Have you checked your paypal account to see if you actually got the money and the payment itself wasn't spoofed?

Yup.  The money's there all right.  And the ALL CAPS email was even sent through eBay itself, so it shows up in my "In" box on ebay.com as opposed to have come from some other potentially spoofed source to LOOK like it was from eBay.

It's all just seems screwy.  But the money's there and it's a confirmed address....

[koolmoecraig]

If it smells like shut.....

[DaOld Man]

If the moneys there, why else would you not send the guy the item?
I hate to pay immediately (with paypal) for something I won , then have the guy wait several days before shipping it.
I would do like somunny suggested, send it with confirmation, and make sure paypal has indeed got the money from him.

[pointdablame]

It definitely smells fishy, but it's not in line with most Nigerian scams.

- You're shipping to a confirmed address in the US
- The money is there in Paypal and not some escrow service or crap like that
- The "ATTN:name" wouldn't really affect the delivery status.

I'm not sure what I'd do personally, but I think you could ship it.  Track it, and as long as you can prove it was shipped to the address, you SHOULD be ok.  If it didn't get to his desk but it got to his building, that's not your direct mistake.  I'm not a big fan of Paypal's "seller protection" but I do think you'd be covered.

It's certainly very odd though, and doesn't seem completely on the up and up.   

[quarterback]

If the moneys there, why else would you not send the guy the item?
I hate to pay immediately (with paypal) for something I won , then have the guy wait several days before shipping it.

FWIW, I am going to ship it today, which is the first working day since its been purchased.   I was just trying to figure out if there was any tangible reason that I should refund his money and relist the auction.

I'm heading to FedEx this afternoon.  I'll be sure and post an update later.

Thanks for all the thoughts.  Here goes nothing!
qb

[shardian]

I think I would contact paypal CS and see if there is some new type of scam going on.

[JackTucky]

Get the money out of paypal quick!

=J

[Jouster]

Dateline did a story on tracking stolen credit cards...scammers in Africa had victims in the US that would receive the goods, then use their own money to ship the stuff to Africa.  So you might be dealing with a stolen card. 

If your Google search produced a second email address for this buyer...you might want to see if you can double check it.  Of course, then again, if some one uses a stolen credit card to buy something from you, and you've checked everything that you've already checked...I can't imagine that anything could be done to you.

Some times good deals feel strange.

Jouster

[quarterback]

I think what's probably happening is that this organization is either fully legit and is distributing pdas to underpriveldged people in Africa.... or they're basically reselling pdas over there for a profit.

Hopefully I'm not selling my item to unscrupulous characters but they won the auction and paid up, so I'm  going to send them their goods.

Do you guys think I should wipe my address book and personal information and stuff from the PDA before I send it?












 

[Samstag]

Do you guys think I should wipe my address book and personal information and stuff from the PDA before I send it?












 

What?  How are they going to get in touch with you when they need to transfer large sums of money out of Nigeria after the king is wrongfully deposed?

[RayB]

Paranoia sucks, don't it?

The scams usually involve "oh I am moving, so can you send it to THIS address instead?"

I sold a game on Ebay within an hour of posting it, to a guy with zero feedback and the name "exconnery" (get it... EX CON ?)  Made me worried but the address checked out and all was fine. Just a stupid choice of name from a new Ebay user.

[sparcade]

If the moneys in paypal you should be ok. (I'd move the money out).

People are funny on Ebay.....  sometimes having a BIN is just to tempting to
pass up for people who keep getting outbid.  They'll pay extra for the BIN.

I also get skeptical when people have weird delivery requests,  but it
seems like you have the bases covered.

[bfauska]

Do you guys think I should wipe my address book and personal information and stuff from the PDA before I send it?

Yes. I'd do that even if it wasn't being sent to some weirdo. Of course if you meant it is a joke, then what I meant to say was...