Being spammed on eBay made my day
Wait, what? This is a good one, keep reading
First thing Monday morning, 7:00am. I woke up to find the iPad I listed a mere six hours earlier on popular market place site eBay, had been sold. Boom. Even better, on it’s relatively high ‘buy now’ price of £110. Great sale.
Bleary eyed, I poured my coffee and checked the outgoings. All seemed hunky dory. eBay had sent me a confirmation email of the payment and I could see a little pending icon under payments in the ‘My Payments’ section.
I’d also received an email from the buyer, how pleasant. ‘Flicker Jones’ had reached out to say how excited he was to receive his new iPad and EVEN better, he needed it urgently for his younger cousin’s birthday. Well, fantastic I thought. Not only am I monetising unused gadgets from the back of my dusty bookshelf but I’m also making dreams come true. Could Monday get any better?
Turns out it could.
Ping. Its 9:00am, morning commute over. Email from Paypal. ‘Flicker Jones has sent you $145’. Wow, quick. And strange, it’s £40 more than I originally listed and it’s in dollars but hey, I’m not complaining! I proceed to print out the address label but something catches my eye….
The address listed for ‘Flicker Jones’ had changed. How mysterious.
Kano, Nigeria, 911120.
Okay, right, yep. Nigeria, cool.
I’ve nothing against Nigeria, but I was just shocked to find that ‘Flicker’ forgot to mention this international delivery decision when purchasing my iPad. I’d clearly specified I only ship to the UK. Still, I thought, this could be heartfelt. I mean sure, who doesn’t have a cousin schooling in Nigeria who can’t purchase an iPad in, well… Nigeria?
It was at this point the cracks in ‘Flicker’s’ plan were beginning to show. The $145 dollars sent to me via Paypal hadn’t actually appeared in my Paypal activity. So, I reached out to ‘Flicker’.
“Flicker,
Strange situation here. The funds you sent over PayPal haven’t actually displayed on my Paypal account and eBay are telling me I’m still awaiting payment.
Can you check your records?”
His reply was as follows,
“Hi sir,
From PayPal confirmation department, we inform you again that the payment sent from Flicker Jones has not yet reflected in your PayPal account due to our terms and policy to confirm shipping from you before your account can be credited with the sum of £145.00 GBP. This condition is only in use for eBay purchase, If you receive this email on direct payment option please do contact our management.”
This might have given Flickers game away. The email came from his personal email address and after closer inspection on the original email from ‘Paypal’, I discovered that the copyright was out of date, several backlinks didn’t work and there was even the occasional typo but superficially, it was very, very convincing. My Granny would of certainly fell for it.
So, I decided to strike back. I’m a techie at heart and the thought of being undone by an eBay spammer really touched my ego. So, I kept ‘Flicker’ in the loop, telling him I would be sending the package shortly but secretly I was checking with eBay that the account was indeed fraudulent.
It was.
eBay said that if I managed to wait four hours, I could claim for an unpaid item case and if it was successful, I would be credited with the minimum bid on my listing (a cool £50).
Keeping Flicker entertained for four hours shouldn’t be difficult. We exchanged more emails, mainly him expressing the urgency for me to send the parcel now and not wait for any form of confirmation. Apparently this iPad was absolutely fundamental to the success of his cousins education. It must be sent immediately!
Four hours passed.
eBay deemed the item unpaid, Flicker was blocked and I was credited £50.00. Not a bad innings. The spammer had been spammed. I shared the good news with Flicker.
“Dear Flicker,
Well played sir, you nearly, nearly had me but not quite. Unfortunately for you, I’m tech savvy and spotted the cracks in your master plan. eBay have banned your account, Paypal are hot on your trail and I’ve still been paid!
Have a wonderful day and I do wish your cousin a happy birthday,
Yours,
Rob”
No response. You’ll be pleased to know my iPad has since found a happy home but unfortunately for Flicker, not in Nigeria.
Peace x
