Ebayname:
marti.hofma
Edit: scammer changed his/her ebay ID to "plueschkatzen"
Edit 2: scammer changed his/her ebay ID to "2014_farnz"
Guys be aware of this scammer on ebay! She (maybe it's a 'he') had the rare Final Fantasy 8 Zell, Irvine and Diabolus on auction (number: 251562206528). In the description she says she willing to sell the statue for € 300 and has other statues to sell too!
So I was definitely interested in buying that statue plus the other FF8 statue (Selphie, Quistis and Leviathan) both for the total asking price of € 800.
I contacted her and asked her to put statues on ebay for BIN. She then told me she couldnt do that because of certain limitations/restrictions on her ebayaccount. So it was going to be a deal outside of ebay but via paypal. She offered a discount of € 50 if we would go that route. That included shipping.
So I agreed and send her payment via paypal of € 750. The payment is covered by paypal any way so why not I thought (and because I really want those statues!). I marked the payment for 'goods'.
She immediatly send me the money back because of a limitation on her paypalaccount; she told me paypal has put the money on hold for 21 days until the buyer confirms the goods have been received. She was not into sending me the statues without having the money to pay for shipping. I understand that.
She then tells me that she asked her husband to use his paypalaccount which didnt seem to have a restriction or limitation. For the trouble this is causing me aparantly she offered a € 10 discount.
So she sends me an invoice via her husbands account. An invoice of € 740 and marked as 'services'. Paying an invoice marked as 'payment for services'... it didnt feel comfortable to me!!! So I cancelled the moneyrequest for this 'services'invoice and send out a payment of € 740 (as payment for 'goods').
Again she refunded the money back to me, again with the same story of accountlimitation and restriction. She then came up with another paypaladress. We tried that too but same 'problem' all over again!
She then tells me to just pay the invoice based on 'services' to her husbands account. She told me she had this problem with another buyer too and they solved it with payment via 'services'. I told her I'm not really comfortable doing that because according to paypalrules, the money is not covered when a payment has been send as 'services' (only if payment is for 'goods').
She understands that but is not willing to send out the statues because she hasnt got any money for shipping. So she came up with a solution: I would get two invoices (from her husbands account), one of € 200 (marked as payment for 'services') and one of € 540 (marked as payment for 'goods'). € 200 was a big of a risk for me and shipping isnt that high (seller is located in Germany, I'm in The Netherlands!) so I told her to send two invoices; one of € 125 (services) and one of € 615 (goods). I told her to put in both descriptions that it's for payment for both statues. She agrees and send me both invoices, I paid them both directly.
She emails me back saying it went fine and that she will ship the statues first thing tomorrow and she would email me tomorrow to provide the trackingcode.
Well 'that' tomorrow was on 24th of june! She never emailed me back while I emailed her every day since. I got suspicious so I asked a buddy of mine to contact the seller and to show interest in the other statues she has for sale in her previous auction. He got replies straight away! What even worse was she was telling him the statues I had paid for were still on sale!!! She told my friend she can immediatly ship out those if he paid for it, outside of ebay! So my friend emailed her back and asked her why she wont send the statues I paid for to me. Suddenly she got quiet again...
After that I was aware she was simply trying to scam/trick me so I opened up a dispute on paypal and a claim to get my money back. The seller never responded to paypal in this matter. I fortunatly got all of my money back (today...) via the paypal claim. But what a waste of my time!
So guys be aware of this scammer on ebay. I checked her previous auctions and I might had to see this coming.
Beware of scammer on ebay!
Great you got your money back. Very good warning. Thank you.
Let me guess. It's a chicken.......crossing the road trying to get to the other side?
