Craigslist

I've replied to an ad on Craigslist looking for eBay posters. Basically this person has a business but wants to get their foot in the door on eBay, and understandably it's difficult to do this with a feedback score of 0. However, I think from reading the emails that they might be trying to rip me off. Can anybody here have a look at them and shed some light?

Dear Sir,

We are a reputable company looking for eBay sellers to help sell our items online at a larger scale .
Our question is:
Do you have an ID on ebay ?
do you own a verified paypal account ?

if you meet these 2 requirements we will be able to collaborate
We will pay you when the auction ends. There are 2 possibilities:

1. If the item is sold:
YOU RECEIVE £100 + eBay POSTING FEES + 5% OF THE SELLING PRICE

2. If the item doesn't sell:
YOU RECEIVE £100 + eBay POSTING FEES (I'm sure that the item will sell )

Maybe you wonder, why not sell our products ourselves ? We wanted to start an eBay account but we read on ebay's community pages that sellers

with 0 feedback do not have the same unlimited reach as others feedback.

After I replied, they sent this, which was the one that made me suspicious

Hi,

Can i have your ebay user name so i can check your feedback score ?
You'll receive the payment from buyers into your paypal that is linked with your ebay and deduct your payment from there + 5% of the selling price + ebay fees. In this way is clear that you'll get your payment.
You'll earn 300 + per week with just one item...i think that this is fair enough.

Also i want to tell you from the beginning that i need serious peoples in my team so when you say something so be it.



Waiting for you
Kind Regards !

I have told him my eBay username, as he can't gain access to my account without knowing the password, but if he starts asking for passwords and account details I certainly won't be providing them. I'm also currently logged into eBay to make sure nothing untoward is happening.

Many thanks for your help

The english in his email is very suspect,

I would be very wary of this.

Welcome to Scamwarners paddlesnap.

To answer your query I pose the question as to what is attached to your Ebay account that you wouldn't want a stranger to have free access to ?

It sounds like a reasonable request, and it's a tempting offer, but it's a well known scam and you'll end up a big loser with a trashed Ebay score and lots of claims against you.

He can earn a score the usual way and, being an honest trader with a good product, it won't take long.

I would also add that his phrasing is suggestive of a West African origin.

Ebay isn't what's attracting him. It just gives him a method to distract you from what he's really after and a way to access your card.

Asking for the password is very cheeky and will result in a full takeover of your account. Otherwise he'll get you to sell stuff he never sends and get you to pay him and get all the claims. He can do all that tapping away on his iphone in a bar and you pay his bar bill.

While it could certainly be an attempt to access your account, even if they don't ask for your account info, it still reeks of scam. They don't need your account password to land you in a mess.

Consider the arrangement in which they don't ask for access to your account. Instead, you post the ad, and they "send" the product to the customer, which appears to be the case here.

This is the most likely scenario:
-You post several ads for this "company."
-Someone buys the items, based largely on your good feedback rating.
-You receive the money and forward the majority of the money to this "company" as instructed.
-The "company" either ships shoddy merchandise, cheap knockoffs, or no product at all. They send you a real or bogus shipping confirmation in order to get you to forward the money to them.
-Weeks later, the buyer files a dispute, and paypal takes the money back - from you. After all, you placed the ad, and you are ultimately responsible for the outcome.
-You try to get the money back from the "company" for the reversal, and they have conveniently disappeared, become unreachable, or simply refuse.
-You are now out ALL of the money you sent to the "company" and if you haven't been banned outright from selling on eBay due to the number of complaints, you will have a very difficult time finding any buyers because of your feedback rating.
-If enough of these occur, you could also be looking at a visit from the police, after you are reported for fraud.

I'm not saying that it is not possible that they are legitimate, but odds are very much against it. In reality, odds are that these are scammers who want to use you as the middle man to pull off their scams.

In the end, the risk is all yours. Frankly, it would be stupid to take that risk.

He hasn't asked for my password yet, although I suspect he might. He could potentially find out my real address from my eBay account, but for him to do that he'd need to have the password or buy something from me, and I don't normally sell. His claims of earning £300 per week are very suspect. I've emailed him asking him exactly what he's selling and where it's come from, and I haven't yet received a reply. It's also a bit unusual him emailing me out of office hours, as you'd think if he was running a company he'd only be able to reply to emails between 9 - 5 or whatever.

Nonetheless, I'll see what he has to say for himself. I understand there are many avenues where this could go wrong, and all of them will leave me liable for funds, and I'm in agreement that this is beginning to look very much like a scam.

Many thanks

The problem I have is that the underlying logic is faulty.

If he accepts that his customers won't trust him, why should you, and you're the one who'll be taking the risk ?

It could be much simpler in that he can't get a credit card or use Paypal, which is often the case with scammers operating out of Nigeria. If he doesn't know anyone personally with access to Ebay he's a funny kind of businessman.

OK, I see - I think I'll stop emailing then. He still hasn't replied, so whether he's bolted because I've asked him to confirm his details or not, I don't know. I've changed my eBay password just in case.

Many thanks for all your help.