So I had my first eBay auction this week. I was auctioning off a piece of original artwork that was handmade by myself. I got one offer by the end of the auction so I messaged the buyer to congratulate him and get his payment, address, etc. We start to text back and forth and he seemed like an honest guy saying he just wants to give the item to his cousin for his birthday.
Then things took a right turn.. After confirming that he wanted it, the buyer asked me if it would be possible to add $200 worth of Steam gift cards to the package before shipment. I normally wouldn't (and definitely don't now) do that kind of stuff for customers but this was my first ever original artwork I had sold and my first online sale as well so I felt generous.
"Maybe it would make the buyer want to come back" I thought to myself. I then got a legitimate-looking email from support@paypal.com that read and I'm paraphrasing:
In order to unlock the full payment amount I needed to send a photo with the Steam gift cards already scratched to confirm activation. This is a security measure to protect both parties.
This I thought was a little suspicious but it made sense to me that Paypal had to make sure the cards were active so I bought the cards and send the photo. A minute later I get a text from my buyer saying that he didn't realize that $200 isn't going to be enough so then he asked me to go out and buy $600 worth of Steam gift cards to go with the shipment and in return he would send me $900 to cover the cost of the cards as well as the artwork. At that time, I received another email from Paypal requesting that I send a photo of the additional gift cards my buyer just asked for. I don't know why I did it but I had already spent a lot more money then I was comfortable spending so I was desperate for my buyer's payment. It was late and I should not have done it but in my naivety, I bought my buyer $600 worth of Steam gift cards. I did not scratch them at first because I planned on taking them back because at this point, I was suspicious however, the email from Paypal specifically said if I don't send a photo of the scratched cards I would not receive my payment. I did some research online and I concluded that the Paypal email had to be real. It was from Paypal.com, it was addressed me by name, it ended with -Team Paypal, it even had a disclaimer at the bottom so it had to be real, right?
Well when I woke the next morning I was in some what of a panic, I had barley slept the whole night because I was so anxious to know whether or not this buyer was being serious. I reread all my emails I got from Paypal and I reluctantly decided that maybe I'm being paranoid. Everything seemed normal except the fact that they wanted the cards scratched but like I said before, a piece of me made sense of that. After I scratched all the gift cards and send the photos to Paypal, I get another email from Paypal a few hours later..
This email claimed that my buyer had "accidentally" charged himself $300 too much and that if I wanted to receive my payment I would have to send in an additional $300 and they would send $1200 to cover that cost . At this point I had already spent $600 and was still being asked to spend more money. I told my buyer this was getting ridiculous and that I didn't have any more money to send so I got another email shortly after only asking for $200 and then another email asking for $100. Obviously after my buyer refused to wire me his payment, I canceled his order and reported him to eBay. But here I am at the end of my story, with $600 worth of gift cards that I can't return and are probably activated so I can't sell them and now I don't have enough money for food and rent.
In short, don't be dumb like me, if it seems even the slightest bit like a scam, IT IS.
