I think I'm done with eBay. That was my second purchaser that turned out to be a thief. Honestly, this punk had me fooled or I just wanted to believe that good had won out over evil, but it turns out to be the other way around. Mr Francis Aaron of the United Kingdom actually resided in New England, South Africa and was a damned good scammer. Here is how he played it. He was very polite and took the time to learn our language and most importantly, our spelling. He thanked me repeatedly and gave me his private email address at Yahoo to keep him apprised of anything I needed. The very following morning, I received a notice from Paypal that $270 was deposited to my account and it was time to ship my phone. He supplied an item number and a transaction number and to most people they would have been satisfied. As a precaution however, I checked on the balance of my Paypal account and it was still at zero. A friend told me to wait patiently, that sometimes it takes a few hours for the electronic payment to arrive. I waited a full day and this morning when I checked, it was still at zero. Last night I emailed Frances Aaron and told him his payment has still not been credited to my account and he was going to investigate and get back to me. As of today, I'd still heard nothing. I studied the website and after a great deal of time, I finally found a way to contact eBay and investigate myself. Doing that had a time limit of my call, I had to supply them with a security number that they texted to me and then when I was about ready to give up, a human came on the line and said hello! Glory be!!! I explained my situation to the best of my ability and tried to keep it simple. The lady checked and replied that the amount had NOT been paid, but it had been marked paid by the customer. It is a scam that they try, in order to convince new sellers that the payment is in transit. It said right on my paid invoice from Paypal that payment will not appear until proof of shipping is supplied by seller. WHAT? Evidently the buyer/scammer had a counterfeit invoice, that they send out to convince the seller to ship. I think that when he used the same story as the last guy, that the phone is for his son and not to insure it and do NOT mention the value of it in any writing on the shipping end, that alerted me. That and the South African address! Here is a copy of the email that I sent to my buddy and scammer, hoping that he will change his ways, if not for me and himself, for his poor mother!
Hello Frances or whatever your real name is:
I just finished a conversation with eBay and they informed me that you are a liar and a thief. You NEVER paid for the item in question, you only marked it paid in an attempt to have me ship it to your bogus son in South Africa. Does your mother know what kind of person you've turned out to be? I'll bet she's both ashamed and embarrassed to have you as a son or daughter. Just so you know, the RED Flag went up the moment you wrote South Africa (the home of the dishonest parasites) You know, you sound intelligent in your email, as brief as it was, why not try honest employment, your mother would love it?
Another Smart American
Oddly enough, as I was finishing up this posting, I receive a text message. I was done with eBay and it's dishonest users and had already posted my Blackberry on Craig's List. I just got a text and I ran to the phone and sure enough it was a buyer for my cell phone. He/she asked me if it was in the perfect condition that I mentioned in my ad and I replied, "absolutely"! A few minutes passed and the buyer asked if I could ship it to South Africa if they sent me an extra $100 through Paypal? They couldn't hear me but I just laughed and replied in text, a resounding NO!
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