This Great eBay Scam Will Warm Your Heart - Super Story

Schadenfreude. It's when you enjoy others' misfortune. Read BadgerMatt's insane eBay story of how he sold tickets for $600 to a woman who then reneged on the deal (and then got her coughing-up eventually), and you'll be feeling it too.

Seriously read this, it's an AMAZING story!
hahaha

"I had tickets to a sporting event and couldn't attend. I made a 1-day listing and clearly stated that the tickets must be picked up in person within 24 hours (the game was the evening after the auction ended, so there wasn't any time to ship the tickets). A woman won the auction for about $600. The auction had ended at 10:00am and by 5:00pm she still hadn't responded to my emails trying to organize the exchange. Finally, at 9:30pm, I got a one-liner email: "I overbid and my husband won't let me buy these. Sorry and enjoy the game!

"

I first tried explaining that I wouldn't have the time to resell the tickets (I already got turned down by the losing bidders). She said, "... that's not my problem. It's eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want." I still don't understand the car dealership reference.

I was pretty upset. I was basically going to be stuck with tickets to an event that I couldn't attend. That's when I got the idea to convince her to change her mind.

I created a new eBay account, "Payback" we'll call it, and sent her a message: "Hi there, I noticed you won an auction for 4 [sporting event] tickets. I meant to bid on these but couldn't get to a computer. I wanted to take my son and dad and would be willing to give you $1,000 for the tickets. I imagine that you've already made plans to attend, but I figured it was worth a shot."

At 11:30pm she responded to Payback: "I'll do it for $1,100, no less. I can meet you at the game if you agree. I need your phone number."

At 11:35pm, Payback wrote: "Deal. Here is my number..." (Thanks Google Voice for the throwaway number). She called a few minutes later and made Payback "promise" to go through with the deal. She emphasized that she'd be out a lot of money if Payback backed out. Payback swore he would never do such a thing.

At 11:45pm, the woman emailed me: "Fine. I'll buy them. But you have to drop them off at my house tonight. I'll have the cash ready." So at #ing midnight I drove to her house across town and met her on the road in front of her apartment building. She was a nasty and rude individual. Things didn't get any better when I told her I wanted an extra $20 for the trouble of driving there at midnight (yeah, pushing my luck, I know). It became very awkward and she literally threw 31 $20 bills at me. I counted them before handing over the tickets. I said, "thanks for the great transaction" as she flipped me off while walking away.

At 10:00am she called Payback to make sure they were still on for the exchange. Payback said that he could no longer go to the game and wouldn't be able to do the exchange. She blew her #ing top and I swear to god started speaking in tongues. Payback said, "Ma'am, this is eBay, not a car dealership" and hung up.
I got a rabid email 10 minutes later telling me that I was going to hell and that she's reported me to the local police, FBI, and... the fire department. WTF?"

gizmodo.com...

This guy is a HERO!!!
hahahaha

Honestly, that's pretty smart of him, and not only that it actually worked
and what the hell... Fire Dept???

Makes me think how I could have done something interesting in previous situations I had in the past

My heart feels all warm!!!

It's a good story but I don't believe a word of it.

You have to be able to confirm your identity to set up an ebay sellers account with a land line (you can't do it with a throw away number) and you also have to have your account linked to a paypal account before you can sell anything and that has to be linked to a valid bank account

Otherwise people would be setting up scam accounts left right and centre


Edit it seems I misunderstood, it wasn't a sellers account. Hmm I can't remember what info you need to set up a normal buyers account.

Can anyone else?

reply to post by davespanners


I have two ebay accounts and 3 bank accounts which means I could easily have 3 paypals as well.

Haha nice story. Let this be a lesson to all of you people who back out of sales .. this guy got his moneys worth and free satisfaction

I wonder if she went to the concert? hahaha

reply to post by ModernAcademia


I might be that the process for setting up an Ebay account in the US and the UK is different. It appears from the things I've read on the net that they do a bit more identity checking in the UK, I had assumed that was the case in the US too, but maybe not.

It would seem to me though that it would be ridiculously easy to scam people on ebay if you didn't have to leave any trace as to who you actually where before you could buy things.

I understand that he bought the items outside of the system through an email, but how could it be possible that ebay wouldn't be able to link the scam account to his real account and ban him as ebay have access to all messages sent through the ebay message system.

Can you really register on ebay with a fake name / address / phone number and no bank details?

Mmmm..it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when someone gets what is coming to them. Hopefully next time she'll think before she decides to screw someone over.

Brilliant! That guy surely is a champ.

you can have many ebay accounts as you like.
Im in the UK, i have 2 accounts, same address, same name, even pay with 1 paypal account at times using the different ebay id's.
Luckily no one has backed out of one of my deals!!

he shouldnt have made the car dealership reference and kept his mouth shut that was a stupid move obviously youd get caught doing that!

I about this on another site too. EPIC! This man is awesome.

That was a cool story and I would say most likely true, people get greedy.

What a brilliant move on his part.

LOL!!! I love stories like this. This guys did great. Unfortunately nasty people like this lady usually don't learn even when they get taught a great lesson like this.