Possible eBay Scam?

General
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An interesting eBay interaction just occurred and it seems really fishy…I was wondering what everyone’s take on this possible scam is?

I had a card up for 650$ or Best Offer, and I received two offers at the same exact time from two separate eBay accounts “kickz-consultant” for 450$ and “kicks-416” for 500$ and I declined both offers. The two accounts both sent higher offers at the same exact time again, with “kicks-416” offering a bit higher still. “kickz-consultant” then messaged me asking my lowest price. I did not respond and then changed my listing to 650$, no offers and it sold immediately to “kicks-416” and they paid right away. Assuming this was the same person, I responded to “kickz-consultant” saying I will ship out tomorrow and they responded by saying they weren’t the one who purchased the item…

What’s going on here?

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What does the review count look like on both accounts? Possible one is a ghost account and he was looking to sway your price point with similar close offers.

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kicks-416 (the purchaser) had around 170 feedback, kickz-consultant had around 17. They were both selling similar items, collector sneakers, the new Xbox and PS5 using stock images. All seemed a bit strange to me.

4

Well yeah that is very bizarre. I just wanted to express the best of luck with the transaction. Here’s to a smooth and safe exchange man. That would make me nervous.

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Yeah I wouldn’t doubt that’s what he was trying to do. An when he saw you weren’t having it, he just bought it outright. Of course he also wouldn’t admit to both accounts being his, cause he’s probably done other shady stuff with that account, like possible bid rising.

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Best of luck, hope all goes well. Keep us posted just in case, so we can black list him and warn the others.

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@artemis, @brendantheclayboy,

Thanks for the best wishes. I don’t think I going to proceed with the sale with such a shady buyer. It’s not worth the risk to me.

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@pokemonmart’s ebay offer box right now:

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9

Seems okay to me. If they were going to scam you, why wouldn’t they just hit the bin right away instead of maneuvering for a lower price?

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If they both have items listed, you should be able to see where the seller is located. Are they from the same location? If not, it might just be a weird coincidence.

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I agree, while the accounts maybe shady due to similar names, similar listings with stock photos and not to mention low review count. The purchase itself seems genuine, especially sense he paid instantly. I believe it was a sway tactic to try and get the price in his favor.

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A lot of eBay fraud, PayPal fraud, Wire Transfer fraud and Identify Theft fraud (false apps for credit) going around lately beyond the usual churn and chargeback rates. Whatever you do make sure you you both accept and verify payment is received + goods are shipped EXACTLY to the tee of what extends you merchant protection from the above. I won’t get into it as to not give ideas to anyone reading these threads for nefarious reasons, but just keep your eyes out and be diligent right now, more than you’re used to.

Big difference between being out a few hundred vs. a few thousand or dozens of thousand which are the items that are being bought up currently for ridiculous prices.

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The buyers address was in New York, but on their account page it said Canada. The other account said Boston, but their profile picture says “Boston and Istanbul.”

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Yah I am definitely worried about some type of fraud here

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Honestly, I am guilty of doing exactly what this guy has done before, but I never intended to scam someone.

I have two eBay accounts and sometimes I will send an offer for 100$, and then I think about it think about it and decide 100$ is a lowball offer, and offer 120 on my other account because that seems more fair

There is no way to raise or increase your offer on eBay while it is pending, and sellers usually will just ignore lowball offers instead of countering

It’s possible this guy is like me, just fickle.

I hope I’m not breaking any eBay rules when I do this,

It’s possible there is an innocent explanation

16

You can just retract the $100 offer and resubmit a $120 offer. No need to go on an alt account lol

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I can definitely see this being the reason, but if he just admitted it was him on the other account I would have not held it against him. This is a “high value” item for me so I might be being too paranoid.

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I’ve definitely done this to sway the seller when I think their asking price is bonkers. I’ll submit my real offer on my main account and lowball on another to try to drive home the point their asking prices are unreasonable. Has worked many times over the years.

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*edit* I thought this was the other thread where the guy is having issues and doubts with a 20k+ sale, but still relevant hère for future reference. In your case it’s more a question of shilling and market manipulation because a guy named “kickz416” or wtv and comes from that industry is a flipper and just looking to further his agenda when reselling the item for more. Without a platform like StockX or the big Price guide blogs of sneakers, it’s very hard for these new entrants to gauge the market properly so they’re using all kinds of new tactics*

Yeah, so there you go… just be careful and do what you know to be respecting eBay’s rule entirely… Canada, and especially a particular city and province is definitely the capital of identity theft and credit card fraud in the Western world, hands down. Before this was ever a “thing” in the USA since the late 90s and all the 00s this was daily occurrences in our news lol…

Like I said, make sure you do everything in a way that protects you from eBay and PayPal, and check everything. What I’m finding disturbing the most is a lot of sellers with no sale activity prior to the last few months, where each listing is for something TCG-related and was sold quickly as well as super cheap, and all of a sudden, these accounts are listing extremely high value items… (this is part of the market manipulation and shill bidding organized ring Im trying to piece together)

  • on the buying end, it’s a similar situation, where the accounts seemed to be “dormant” for a long time BUT have had feedback from 12-24 months prior related to TCG, but all of a sudden are buying very high value items (when someone buys phished accounts online, sellers usually provide a category the accounts are used to be transacting in to earn a premium on the stolen accounts by targeting a niche), but things don’t add up. If you reach out to sellers of those previous sales, they will tell you they shipped the items to the UK for instance (original shipping destinations), but now all of a sudden, that buyer account has a Canadian or American shipping address either on the PayPal attached or the eBay account / both. Something very very fishy is brewing… but again eBay ends up biting these chargebacks since they aren’t socially-engineered frauds that would fall on the seller (like the classic ship to my cousin’s house at X address that is different than my PP address, etc. where the seller’s gullibility is to blame and for which you broke the TOC and won’t get refunded).

I anticipate eBay to report and publish VERY disturbing churn and chargeback / Loss Prevention numbers for the last 2 quarters of the year… and consequently, they might finally wake the f$ck up and start listening to both buyer and seller feedback to make the platform a much more secure place.

Good luck and be vigilant and whatever you do do not accept a wire transfer, just for the moral reason that you are likely aiding and potentially financially ruining some unsuspecting person who has fallen victim to some con. I would also recommend, if you don’t already, have an IG / website that shares a similar name to your store handle name moving forward if you’re looking to start dumping some serious $ worth of product from your collection. Let people reach out to you there unbeknownst to eBay and this will allow you to filter better and catch red flags and signs of scammers more easily. It’s not even to engage with all the other Poke IGers and their stores (while that really wouldn’t be a bad thing) but just a place for you to dump some pictures and videos of the higher-end listings you have up for sale, kind of like a look book. And it’s easier to tell by an individual who has a long standing aged IG account that promotes or posts Poke stuff, shares a lot of common followers and following with you, and ultimately you can ask some of your peers if they have transacted / vouch for said individual, etc. And can take the transaction to a local pick up or PayPal GS.

As much as the greed monster has taken over everyone, now is definitely the time for whoever is part of the community to work together and help each other from making any devastating financial decisions.

My apologies for the long post, but I just find it very disturbing that the amount of scam posts and is this a scam posts and even on the eBay seller subreddits the daily “new scams” to look out for threads are multiplying quickly.

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