Hey,
I would just like to caution everyone here who uses eBay to sell their various goods. An auction involving an older cellphone of mine just ended, and it turns out the auction winner was a scammer.
I was altered to this fact the following ways:
1) He contacted me after the auction ended and asked what was the condition of the item (Yup, the one he just bought) when it was clearly listed in the item description I provided.
2) He used broken English in his emails. I realize not everyone speaks English fluently, and that's fine, but it was suspicious none the less.
3) He told me that my notification of payment from Paypal was probably in my spam box, "it goes there sometimes", was his explanation.
4) His address was from Nigeria. Now I'm sure many trustworthy people live in Nigeria, but this raised my suspicions none the less. I've heard of a lot of internet fraud horror stories from people shipping their items there.
5) He wanted me to ship the item immediately in the morning using a carrier I had not listed. I listed in the auction I would ship via UPS Ground, he wanted me to ship USPS International Express.
6) I checked my spam box and Gmail actually listed the email as fraudulent. "This message may not have come from whom it claims to be." Thank you Gmail for confirming my suspicions.
7) My Paypal payment notifications were in my spam box. Enough said.
8) The Paypal notification had improper grammer and was arranged like none other I had ever received.
9) Another thing I just realized, he asked me for my paypal address, which is easily accessible from within eBay when you go to pay for an item, and it was to probably put in the email listed below. The nerve! I didn't catch that until right now, way after the situation.
I contacted eBay about this issue, and I'm pretty unpleased with how they handled the situation.
I had to contact them first in order for them to send me an email saying the buyer's account had been hacked, and I shouldn't ship the item.
They also would not divulge any information on how this buyer would be taken care of. Then, when the person I spoke with asked me if she could trasnfer me to some other department, I asked her how this guy would be handled. She then proceeded to ask me for his User ID. It begs the question, would anything have been done if I hadn't asked how this guy would be handled?
If I weren't as vigilant as I am, I would have just been scammed out of almost $200, and that's very unnerving.
I fear there is not enough being done on eBay's side to prevent this type of thing from happening and people aren't being educated enough about fraud either.
Also, his 100% positive feedback ratings were suspicious in nature.
/rant
I hope gives people a warning, please keep an eye out when using eBay!
I'll post the PayPal email for people to see, you should be able to recognize it as fake.
~Mike
Dear Michael (last name, edited out),
This is to inform you that we receive your payment from Richard Bufkin and your payment has been deducted from his/her account ready to be credited to your PayPal account (email address for my paypal address was here, edited) as soon as we receive the shipment tracking number from you today..
We have received the money which is pending in our database and we want you to provide us with the following information as requested by PayPal for verification to protect their customers from fraudulent business transactions.Please note that this payment will not appear in the pending tab in your account until you send the shipment reference number or receipt scan copy to us.
Kindly make the shipment progress within 24 hours in order to credit the money into your account for the transaction as we can not accommodate any form of misappropriations and we have a reputation to protect and do all that is possible to
increase our business relationship with the international PayPal,
Worldwide.
This is due to new policies at PayPal to protect both the buyer and the seller in the face of the growing number of fraudulent activities perpetrated via the internet. Your payment is intact. You are encouraged to complete this transaction.
Here at PayPal you can be assured that your security and safety is our topmost concern..
As soon as you notify us about the package shipping status, we shall deposit the said amount into your account immediately.
The address you are requested to ship the item to has been confirmed by us.
Thank you for using PayPal online services,
The image
PayPal Team
Originally Posted by Movieman
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1240mhz@2.02v 
Since you have his address; and I assume you have an appropriate sized box; and I further assume you take a CR@P evey now and again.
Do they "sniff the package" hehe
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