possible ebay scam?

[Big G]

Started talking to a guy selling some RC gear who was in spain selling on ebay.

The item got relisted because he forgot to put a reserve on and sat there for a few days with no bids. so I messaged him about a possible buy it now (like you do) and got some better pics showing the condition and how long he'd had the item, etc,etc. the usually stuff.

The guy wanted £55 for the item which he said the reserve was and wanted to keep the transaction through ebay which was fair enough. he told he's get a quote to the UK which turned out to be £10 rather than £5. Since it was from spain I didn't think this was much of a problem. he said bid £60 which would include the £5 listed P&P and make the whole deal £65 which I agreed with. After I bid it jumped to £50 which was actually the reserve so I told him I would send him the extra £10 straight after the sale to make it up and he gave me a paypal address to pay.

The strange part being the paypal address given by ebay to pay differs from the one he gave me to send the £10 to. This morning I get a message saying he got the £10, but no sign of the £55. Paypal are showing this

28 Oct 2009 Gift For R F Completed Details -£10.00 GBP
28 Oct 2009 Payment To different [email protected] Unclaimed Details Cancel -£55.00 GBP
(name and email changed. dunno if I should publish those)

Worst case I loose £10 since ebay will cover me on the other £55. The unclaimed bit is a bit strange. Obviously I won't send the £55 if he asks me to send it to the other address as this won't be protected.

What do you think?

[MatJohnson]

He's typed the email in wrong on the paypal. I got one like this the other day, since it was only £4 it was fine. But, he's basically asking you to send to another address so it is not protected by paypal. Your choice, how different are the email addresses? Have you questioned him on it?

[Big G]

the one provided by ebay is @yahoo.co.uk the other @live.com

I have replied this morning so I'm awaiting what he says.

the live.com address says the same name as he signs his messages off with. I bet he's setup ebay with an address and never followed through settings up the paypal bit.

still. I'll wait to see what he says.

[karlst]

He could be using 2 paypal addy's, 1 that is listed with ebay and another so that he can try and avoid fees etc,

this sounds like the most likely option, but so your protected, insist on using the one ebay takes you to.

also, if he is is spain, how come he has a @yahoo.co.uk email addy??

[Big G]

could of moved there or decided to take a long holiday for a year or something I guess.

just waiting on his reply

[Big G]

Hi there Gareth,

It`s now 1.30 here. I have looked in both of my PayPal accounts, as I have one in Sterling for UK transactions, and one in Euros for European transactions.
The payment of the extra £10 came through just fine. But there is NO sign whatsoever of the £55.00 yet. I have clicked on every email address connected with the transaction, ( @yahoo.co.uk ) the notification of payment is there, but when I click on the Paypal link in the email, and go to that Paypal account, there is only the £10 showing up on the Received section. The emails say that it has been sent, and has arrived? but God knows where it has ended up. I will keep on looking, but I am sure it is not going to appear anywhere this end. Would you please check from your end, and make sure that it has left your account.
This happened to me once, on a purchase from the UK. We left it a little while, then when nothing appeared at the UK end, I cancelled the payment through the eBay website, and just sent it as a payment to their email address. Similar to what you did with the £10. Just as long as you register it as an Ebay transaction, then they wont think that we are trying to do them out of their rightful fees. OK? But I will just leave the choice up to you, and will continue monitoring things my end.

Regards

R