Happened to someone on another forum I participate in, I've never heard of a scam with such complexity before:
quote:
Right now. Last Monday, I purchased on eBay a $500 Target gift card from a pretty good seller with a (23) and no negatives and recent significant transactions for $450 and I used Paypal and my American Express.
Seller uses Paypal to ship so I get a shipping confirmation online and positive eBay feedback, sellers says you get the card soon, thanks for playing.
I leave town. I check my ebay email and the sellers says "my paypal account is having a problem and paypal has shut me down. I'm going to send you a refund and I need you to send another paypal payment to this other temporary email account I just set up. I don't expect you to send me a new payment until you get your refund, then I'll send the card. Here's my telephone number, call me."
So I check the tracking number and the item has been delivered. When I get home tomorrow, I will check inside that envelope and see if there is a Target gift card in there. We shall see. I did check my paypal account and I did receive a full refund of $450 already and it goes back to AMEX but it hasn't hit my AMEX account statement yet.
Here's how the scam works. I believe there is no card in that envelope. If there isn't, seller takes no risk in giving me my money back because seller hasn't shipped anything in the first place. If there is a card in the envelope, I will check the balance to see if it's $500 on it. The seller was hoping that I would see that I got a $500 refund, which I did, and turn around and send a fresh $500 to a thief's paypal account BEFORE I could check inside the envelope before it arrived. All about timing. If I sent money right now, that money would be lost because there's no ebay transaction to tie it to and it's probaby neither verified nor confirmed the paypal account. It would be a stupid move for me to sink $500 to some brand new paypal account and paypal is probably not going to cover stupidity. In the meantime, if I dispute the first original transaction, seller has a tracking number proving they shipped AND they can show where they gave me a refund if worse comes to worse, I have no dispute there.
Because I'm smart and I know eBay is a thief's haven, I know when I'm being scammed. I do not plan to pay anyone else period. Seller will have to go to paypal dispute to get me to pay at this point. Let's say there is a card in that envelope and it has $500 on it for real. Will I pay? No. Why not? Because the transaction was between myself and the first paypal/ebay account and I will only pay that seller. If the seller will send me his mailing address, I might send a money order but even then the seller could claim they send me a refund and demand to have the card back and I would be out of the money order. Only then will I pay when this goes into dispute that way everything is on the record.
Also I am afraid that this $500 card was purchased with a stolen credit card. In about 90 days, target would cancel the card because the original credit card owner files a dispute with their credit card saying their credit card was used improperly to buy a target gift card. Then I will lose the unused balance. So I can either use up the card right away or use the card to purchase another target gift card....but either way I think target can track it and cancel it or bill me.
What tipped me off? A thief will give their transaction creditibility by giving you praise. This particular seller immediately left positive feedback "great buyer, pays fast, great transaction, would do business again" ****. Next, seller said "when I get your second payment, I'll send the card." He's trying to make it seem like I need to act to complete this transaction but I know the card was already mailed. Seller send me email on the same day saying he already mailed it...and he did. How does the seller give me a refund if his paypal account is shut down? I got a refund thru paypal....I should send his "shutdown" account $1 to see if it works or not. Finally, I'm keen on these old paypal games. You have to play by the rules strictly else you'll get burned.
So what do I do now? Check to see if I have a Target card and what kind of money is on it. If there is $500 on it, I will need to follow up to see if the card has been purchased legitimately using a legitimate credit card. Then I will wait for the dispute, it this is a scam, there won't be a dispute and there won't be a card, net net, I'm even. I will not pay and at best, I get a $500 target gift card for free.
That's my story.
