No Notable Recent Feedback A Cause For Concerns Of A Hijacked eBay Account?

BigRick

Lotsa Gold Offered Right Now

BigRick

Sold lotsa gold a few days ago LINK

coinguy1

The type and price range of items that seller typically deals in would certainly cause me to stay away. While the seller might be perfectly legitimate, I don't see a good enough reason to take such a risk.

Russ

If it is a hijacked account, the hijacker was very careful to duplicate the seller's writing style and font selection from past legit auctions.

Russ, NCNE

BECOKA

Well, I have not used my e-bay account in over a year. If I get the urge to sell I now realize that I may get ignored because some folks will think my account is hijacked.

BigRick

So I thought I'd wait until near the end of the 10 days he allows to pay to see if he got any good feedback for the other sales & today I get this:

"1993 American EagleThursday, November 26, 2009 2:25 PMFrom: "xxxxx & xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx" <xxx@midmaine.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: xxxxxx_xxxxx@yahoo.com

Hello xxxxx,

I wanted to let you know that there is a problem with Paypal. All the Gold coins belong to my brother-in-law. He bought them over the last 15 years and now he wants to do some remodeling to his home. As I have been selling on ebay for the last 12 years he asked me to sell them for him. I thought "No problem" so I listed them and they sold as they normally would, including the one you won. I only sell on ebay from about November to about May. I am retired and the money I make on ebay is used for the extras that my wife and I might need over and above my pension. I do work as a carpenter from June till the season slows in the winter. My sales are around 4 to 5 thousand dollars for that 6 months of auctions. Paypal saw a spike in my sales and has saw fit to flag it as limited. That means the balance in the account will not be available to me and no payments will be accepted. I have been on the phone with them 4 times in the last 3 days with out getting a clear answer and they will not elaborate any further other than to say that Gold coins are High Risk Items for fraud. All the other Gold coins have been paid for and shipped. I provided PayPal with all the delivery conformation numbers but until there is delivery and chargeback potential is over they will not allow any transactions. If you would like to cancel you trans action I will understand and I will try to fight with ebay to get my auction fees back. If you would still like the coin you can send a personal check, money order or bank check for the cost of the coin. I apologize for this but it was not something I expected. especially having such a spotless record with both ebay and Paypal. Because of their policies I will even have to cancel every auction I currently have running on ebay.

Once again I apologize for this glitch,

Thank you for your understanding,

xxxxxx xxxxxxxx

p.s. If you would like to speak with me over the phone my number is 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx"

Pay or cancel? Easy decision since paying without PayPal would cause the loss of the $100 eBay coupon on this transaction but what if that weren't an issue?

sinin1

If I got that email, OI would tell them that you want to keep the deal but will only pay via PAYPAL


PAYPAL should release the hold on the account once items are delivered in next couple weeks


(and your oz gold will be worth $200 more at the rate it has been going up)

TrustNo1

fishy is when someone buys a possible Cheerios Sac for thousands and leaves feedback that says: packaged well, fast shipper

Buffalode

I had an account restricted just after I opened it. I was selling enough that it apparently raised a red flag with eBay being a new account, and I had to send in some purchase receipts and answer some additional questions to get it lifted. This only took 2 days or so. Since then, this account will often have no activity for months at a time, and then may have several thousand dollars in gold coins sold over a couple of weeks or so. The most PayPal has done has been to hold funds until feedback is left or delivery confirmation is available, which normally is about a week or so. The situation could be exactly what the seller says it is, but in a very similar set of circumstances that hasn't happened to my account other than when I had just opened it.

Edited to add that I am not trying to imply that the seller is being dishonest. I am just cautious when buying, especially when there is anything out of the ordinary in the situation.

yellowkid

I bought an antique piece from someone in the last few weeks, I got it for a grand below what I had put in to snipe. It went so cheap I started checking the buyer, sure enough, no activity in months. Then the seller had "problems" with his Paypal accoun ( siimilar to the above story) and wanted me to send him the money right to payPal. I decided to take a chance, the story was plausible and i stood to get a great piece for a song. Turns out everything was okay, he just hadn't used his account and I received the item, broken in shipping!!! I could have flipped. The seller says he is good for it and don't worry,he will pay me back, another ebay story.

notwilight

So that's what all the phishing e-mails I get saying my account has been "limited". It is amazing how paypal and ebay throw good sellers under the bus whenever they trip some friggn' computer flag set by some 22 yr old computer programmer geek and his 29 yr old MBA boss, neither or whom have ever sold anything on line.


"If it is a hijacked account, the hijacker was very careful to duplicate the seller's writing style and font selection from past legit auctions."

This made me laugh. Russ is always 2 steps ahead.

--Jerry