Fraudulent Nixie Clock Purchase warning

[Paul Parry]

Hi Guys,

Just a heads up, there appears to be some one in France with a taste for Nixie Clocks.

I had a French customer hit Buy It Now on eBay on a £229 clock, I received notification through from Paypal that all was ok and given a confirmed shipping address, so sent it tracked via UPS and thought no more of it.

I then received an email from this French chap today querying why I had sent him an empty box. He was just as confused as I was - I had a signed Proof of delivery from UPS. He then explained that someone had hacked his eBay account and more importantly his Credit card details. Someone had logged into his eBay account, brought my clock and then given a false delivery address. He has reported this to the Police and his Bank.

The French Guy had also reported this to Paypal about 3 weeks ago, and thankfully because he had done this, they were aware of Fraud on his account. The next thing I knew is that Paypal had removed £259 from my account and put it on hold. Interestingly the French guy never opened a case on eBay or with Paypal. I called Paypal and they will refund my money and also the money back to the French guy.

If anyone has recently sold a clock to France, just email the buyer and check it is Legit.. as someone there seems to like them.

Cheers,

Paul

[Alex]

So was the box intercepted at his address or did you send it to a different address to the account holder who then emailed you as someone then sent him on a empty box? Did he even order the clock in the first place?

All sounds very strange...

[Paul Parry]

It looks like his ebay account was hacked and a nearby address was put in for his details. The fraudster logs in as the French chap, orders lots of items ( not just a Nixie clock ) Receives the goods and then re-delivers the empty parcel to the correct address. It is an apartment block so I suspect a Neighbour. The French guy never ordered the clock, and has had several empty boxes arrive, and quite a few sellers asking him what is going on. Paypal I must admit acted promptly and honoured the sale from my point of view, I had my funds released within 12 hours of phoning them and they verified that there was fraudulent activity on the French guys account. Does seem like quite an elaborate scam though. I shall be watching eBay to see if the clock in question re-appears!