eBay is a great thing... for Scam Artists

I need to do a little venting. I've been trying to sell a laptop on eBay now. It just got relisted for the second time tonight.

First things first. eBay is a wonderful thing. It drew thousands of people to the internet whom would otherwise never touch a computer. It has transformed modern-day economics the way the internet eventually would. Let's face it, without eBay, buying and selling things on the internet would be very difficult. eBay has made virtual storeplaces something that anyone can do, whereas without eBay, PayPal and their clones, even an above average computer user/business person would have many discouraging hurdles in the way.

My problem with eBay is that right now, there are hundreds and possibly thousands of scam artists on there. I never even realized it, until last week. In the item description of the laptop I'm selling, I very specifically state that there is NO international shipping. 50 states only. I included the 'Buy It Now' option in there so that maybe I could make some extra bucks off someone who wants the thing in a quick hurry - half the reason the option even exists! A couple days after I list the item, I get some emails from this goon. It says, "Hi, I'm blah blah. I live in the UK but I'm in France on business right now. I bought this laptop for my Grandson in Nigeria. Would you ship it to him?"

Being naive, I said sure. As soon as I receive payment. Shipping will be this much extra. The next day I got this email from PayPal saying that I received payment from this goon, and here's the mailing address. Looked fishy, so I logged into PayPal (something everyone should do to check, even if you sold a $5 pair of sunglasses to your best friend). Didn't say anything about that payment whatsoever.

Here's what they do: They send you an email from PayPal (not even from a real paypal address). It says , "Hi. This is paypal. We're holding funds for this goon. As soon as you send us (paypal) the tracking information for this item, you'll get the funds." As far as I know, paypal doesn't even DO that.

So, that's a roadblock to be selling this item. I really need the money from it, like, last month. I relisted the Item, and the same thing happened. AGAIN. This time, instead of a brand new eBay user, it was from someone who had a rating of 40 or so, and they had 100% feedback. Their profile said they were in the US. The feedback comments for the user went back to 2002. So what I basically think happened, is, some goon from wherever hijacked this person's eBay account. Is that terrible, or what? A person who worked real hard to keep a 100% feedback rating, and some foreign phisher hacker jerk decides to exploit it.

eBay sellers beware. Be sure to use the 'Block Users...' options to protect yourself. If you receive any emails from eBay or PayPal then make sure that you open your browser, type in ebay.com, and paypal.com, and check things for yourselves. Also, maybe not including a 'Buy It Now' option could help as well.

eBay, you need to do something about this.


So I relisted the item a 2nd time, and found that you can block buyers not from places you ship. Clicked that on! I also removed the Buy It Now option.

Trying to sell this item coast me $22 the first time and $22 the second time. I owe eBay money because they think I actually sold the item and received payment for it.