Ebay buyer warning

[Woj]

I recently purchased an NOS GM part on ebay and had an unusual circumstance arise. Shortly after I won the auction, I received the usual ebay email stating that I won the auction with the usual close-out details. Almost immediately an official ebay looking email shows up, supposedly from the seller, stating that his paypal account had been locked out due to fraud and that I would receive an email with payment instructions. I then received what looked like an official ebay invoice for the part, but with no payment instructions other than a total. At this point I asked for a phone number to verify the auction and payment with the seller. I received an email stating again that I would receive payment instructions; along with a refusal to supply a phone number. This time another fake ebay invoice arrives instructing me to pay with a Western Union money order to Belfast UK. Game over for me.

I contacted ebay with details of the transaction and emails and they replied with their corrective recommendations. I was able to get in touch with the real seller in short order, through ebay, and explained what was happening on my end. The seller had no official fraud on his end, but he changed his passwords anyway. I was able then to complete the transaction through paypal.

The bogus seller used an email address of "[email protected]"

Please be aware of this in case you find yourself in a similar situation.

Phil Woj.