Help Scam

[Rubber Bullets]

So I put a few items up for sale on Gumtree and Freeads today. This evening I got a text that read:

Do you still have the In,strument ? Pls get back to me annbeatson****@gmail.com (sic)

Underneath the text it said Sender does not support replies.

My spidey senses tingled, especially as I'm not selling an instrument as such, but one of my ads is for a guitar multi effects pedal, so I replied:

Hi Ann, You texted me about the instrument. I've got a few items for sale, which one exactly were you interested in?

The reply I got reads:

Great! please consider it sold and take the ads down off gumtree,i am buying it for my cousin and i am ready to pay your full asking price, i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it and i will be glad if you can get back to me fast,sadly i won't be able to come for the inspection and pick up due to my disabilities,i loss my hearing and being on a wheelchair but I have a courier agent that will help me to pick it up at your preferred location.

Regarding the payment i can only pay via PayPal at the moment and I will be responsible for all the PayPal fee/charges on this transaction kindly get back to me with your PayPal email and the pick up location so that i can inform the courier agent about it now?
Awaiting your reply soon...

Clearly whoever replied hasn't read my e-mail and so I assume that this is a scam of some sort, but I can't work it out. Any ideas? I'd hate to think I'm depriving some poor wheelchair bound deaf girl of a present for her cousin

 

[ECA]

Yup, they pay with paypal then reverse the payment ( or attempt to ).

100% scam of some sort.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Thought as much, but I kinda thought that PayPal had some sort of protection against that sort of thing. Thanks, I'll ignore it.

 

[TdC]

if things look too good (or too bad) to be true, they generally are.

 

[old.user4556]

Complete scam, had the same with almost every piece of musical equipment I've sold. They're either blind or in a wheelchair.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

They're either blind or in a wheelchair.

Mine's both

 

[BloodOmen]

never ever ever ever use paypal on gumtree or ebay. paypal is 100% on the buyers side, so they just reverse it and you get charged like £10-20 per backcharge. Accept bank transfer, cash in hand or they can fuck off, that's what I do on Gumtree.

 

[Lakih]

I had the same thing happen to me when selling something in Sweden, the story then was that they were in the UK and would send a courier. Nearly identical text from what you got. This was almost five years ago.

 

[Job]

The wording is very Nigerian Prince and I would have deleted it in an instant.

 

[old.user4556]

never ever ever ever use paypal on gumtree or ebay. paypal is 100% on the buyers side

I've sold stuff using PayPal on eBay, have I been doing it wrong?!

 

[Raven]

Rarely use Ebay for either but never had any problem with paypal. Had a dispute resolved in my favour once (the goods never arrived)

 

[Edmond]

I sell quite a bit on eBay and use PayPal. I have had someone buying from a hacked account before and paypal initially froze the payment, but i got the money after a couple of weeks

 

[BloodOmen]

I've sold stuff using PayPal on eBay, have I been doing it wrong?!

Nah, you're not doing it wrong I just don't use eBay anymore though after I learned how PayPal treats sellers compared to buyers.

 

[Access Denied]

Always use a tracked delivery system if selling on eBay and using PayPal. And specify that the person delivering only delivers it to the addressee. That way they can't claim it didn't arrive.

Even digital goods aren't exempt from PayPal being dicks. My mate used to own and run a game called Evening Horrors. Players could buy points and someone bought the points, then claimed he didn't get them. Despite a digital paper chain and server logs showing that the points were delivered, PayPal refunded the buyer.

 

[BloodOmen]

I just use Gumtree and basically say pick up only and cash in hand, had no hastle since funnily enough. I sold a PSP on eBay awhile back (was one of the older models with custom firmware on etc that ran PS1 games) and I had a right fuck on, stuck it on recorded delivery but the buyer had paypal retract the payments and it took me 7 weeks to get the money off the cunt after having proved it was sent and signed for.

Never used eBay since and don't intend to as a seller, as a buyer sure, not a seller however.

 

[old.user4556]

Always use a tracked delivery system if selling on eBay and using PayPal. And specify that the person delivering only delivers it to the addressee. That way they can't claim it didn't arrive.

Even digital goods aren't exempt from PayPal being dicks. My mate used to own and run a game called Evening Horrors. Players could buy points and someone bought the points, then claimed he didn't get them. Despite a digital paper chain and server logs showing that the points were delivered, PayPal refunded the buyer.

I had quite a fight (I made a thread about it) on my hands even when using Royal Mail Special Delivery - the tracking clearly stated it didn't go past the distribution centre but they insisted it was delivered. The buyer ignored all my emails (after I refunded him) and Royal Mail hid behind this as me being unable to prove they didn't receive it even though their own tracking was conclusive. I got the money eventually.

 

[Tom]

I've never had an issue with Ebay and Paypal has been quite useful. I bought a set of bearings for my MTB direct from Commencal (who make the bikes). Paid by Paypal and Commencal delivered to an address the other side of town. I asked Commencal where my bearings were, they started to insist I complete a long chain of paperwork and contact their courier to do it. I said fuck all that, complained to Paypal, and within a week or so I was fully refunded.