I’ve spent most of the last week trying to sell an old PS4 on Ebay. So far, I’ve had two people attempt to scam me. This is the story … if you go to sell something on Ebay and this sounds familiar, take heed.

The listing

Listing the item on Ebay was straight forward. Unremarkable really.

The first contact

Within 12 hours, a person by the name of Rhotar Umar, used the “buy it now” option. Only, somehow, he didn’t pay for it immediately. Instead, within a few more hours I had the following text conversation:

+18024230977: It is my pleasure to be the lucky buyer of your item on eBay,kindly send me your paypal email so i can proceed with the payment to my 9:42 AM
+18024230977: paypal email umar.rhotar@yandex.com Thanks. 9:42 AM
+18024230977: Hello 11:48 AM
+18024230977: Are you there? 12:04 PM
-Me: Yes, I'm here 12:20 PM
-Me: My paypal email is landers.robert@gmail.com 12:20 PM

Seems innocuous enough right? Then a few hours later:

+18024230977: Ok thanks 2:58 PM
+18024230977: I want it ship international 2:58 PM
+18024230977: I will be paying for the shipping 2:58 PM
+18024230977: Hello 3:20 PM
-Me: I'm not willing to ship internationally 3:47 PM
-Me: It said so right on the listing 3:47 PM
+18024230977: I will be paying $150 for the shipping as i want it ship via USPS Express International Parcel,3/5 days shipping delivery 3:48 PM
-Me: I'm not available to do that, no international shipping 3:49 PM
+18024230977: Ok thanks 3:51 PM

So, I cancelled the item and relisted.

The second contact

Within a few hours, the exact same thing happened… This conversation went as follows:

+17083363923: Hello I just bought your item on eBay kindly confirm me the correct spelling of your PayPal email in other to pay and ship the item today asap!!! Thanks 8:31 AM
-Me: My paypal email is landers.robert@gmail.com 8:45 AM
+17083363923: Okay just prepare for the shipment I will make the payment right now 8:49 AM
-Me: Have you made the payment? 10:05 AM
+17083363923: Not yet will let you knw once am through with the payment 12:15 PM
+17083363923: you ought to have gotten a confirmation mail from paypal by now regarding my payment 1:26 PM

So, I go check my PayPal account, and there isn’t any pending activity. In fact, no activity at all. So, I go check my email and find this in my Spam folder:

Ok … first off. That’s not what one of those looks like. Second, Nigeria? Why can’t these people read the damn listing. In fact, the address they entered in Ebay is completely different.

And this is the rest of the text conversation with them:

-Me: I will not ship international, as per the item listed on eBay. 1:30 PM
-Me: Thank you, but I will now cancel the sale and report you to eBay. 1:31 PM
+17083363923: Report me for what after PayPal has deducted my account 1:31 PM
-Me: Ask for a refund via PayPal, I will not dispute, though I see no pending payments on PayPal. 1:32 PM
-Me: I see that there's an email saying it came from PayPal, but the dkim signature does not match. 1:34 PM
+17083363923: Ok 1:36 PM

All I want …

These people … these damn people. All I want, is to sell my old PS4 so I can have a little cash to go towards a PSVR for my PS4 Pro… These people seem to just want to keep scamming and scamming. Well, bring it. The store is out of stock so I got time…