I sold an item on ebay and received this message today:

Hi,
I live in Italy but may I ask you to ship this book to an American friend living in the USA, please?
I will pay with PayPal and I will change the address in my PayPal account.
Thank you very much,
Angelo

I'm worried this is some kind of rip-off scam.  Anyone have any advice?

It seems pretty obvious.

Either:

a) he thinks he'll get cheaper shipping from his friend, likely because he's storing a bunch of stuff for him to send as one large shipment by mail or by personal visit;
b) he'll avoid duty because it's being sent as a gift from his friend; or
c) he doesn't trust international shipping from an ebay seller.

Heck he might even be moving to the USA sometime. This does not raise any flags to me. I used to do this all the time when I was in Canada.

There are some fraud scenarios that Heather and I had to deal with, where someone else writes to you and poses as the auction winner, asking you to change the shipping address to elsewhere.  (There's a "phishing"-like term for this, but I don't recall offhand what it was).  

If you're sure that the email came from the buyer, then I'd be much less concerned about any kind of fraud, etc., per Sea-to-sky-games.

HermitFromPluto wrote:I have bought gifts for friends and relatives in the UK and USA through Ebay and had the Seller send to a local address rather than Australia, but I have always worked out the details of the transaction with the Seller prior to bidding. It is a little strange that they ask you to do this after the auction is over. I would follow up with them first.

I don't find it that odd. I don't bother working things out much with sellers beforehand as I don't know that I'll win the item, I don't want to give the impression that I'm going to win at all costs and I simply don't want to waste a lot of their and my time arranging things until it is "mine".

I wouldn't be too paranoid with it. Suss him out and take the gamble.

Folks herewith some reasonable explanations:

* many of the US sellers tends to f**k international bidders; i have 2 neg feedback due to that... the handling fees towards italy can be higher than shipping charges for "unknown" reasons

* the bidder may have a friend who collects more than 1 purchase and then sends to him in a flat box... cheaper for sure than multiple shipping

* duty custom in italy are a bunch of retarded... i have no problems in paying what is due, but last time i had to pay, i got a bill of 6.8 euro whereas the real taxation on the item's value was only 0.45 euro... can you understand that you might be entitled to avoid this robbery?

...i could add several other explanations but these (IMHO) are the most relevant ones...

hence, go ahead and try to facilitate the italian fellow!

coastiemike8 wrote:I am going to go ahead and send to his friend. Hopefully all goes well.  I'll keep you updated if anything negative happens.  I guess my experiences as a police detective have me view the cynical sides most of the time.  Thanks for all the replies.

You are not a big time seller. and as you have the items it is NOT against E-Bay to insist on shipping to a confirmed addy.
WHY would he NOT write you about this BEFORE hand?
Trust your instincts...........

Umm, because the buyer can say "I never got the item I paid for. Look, PayPal, here is the tracking number. See, it went to a different address. Give me my money back. Oh, and ssssssshhhhhh, don't tell him I did actually get the item..." Just because you get your money doesn't mean the guy giving it to you cant take it back again. Especially with this kind of easily frauded purchase.

Thank you. I wasn't aware that money paid with Paypal could be withdrawed, so no I understand why such request looks suspicious.

gyg wrote:I think he might just be pre-empting the 'nobody ships to Italy because their postal service sucks thing'! )

This is a unfair comment. Albeit I'm deadly set on blasting the average Italian civil servant, I must say that in the last two years nothing has been lost by the Post Office. My biggest worry has been fighting against a certain percentage of sellers, including British ones, attempting to make me pay far more than shipping costs for reasons "unknown" (for example I was just landed a £ 15 bill for shipping a Ghostbusters RPG boxed set from the UK) which always results in one star for shipping costs on the feedback left. There are of course some uncrupolous buyers here, perhaps more than other countries, and other pretty unware of shipping costs (especially overseas) but let's not push things too far  

We're all seeing a lot of auctions with the phrase ' will not ship to Italy' - Perhaps Italy is the new Brazil! )

I always wonder if Italy and Italians bashing is still a popular sport in the UK and, sadly, it is indeed. I'm used to see sniding remarks in The Economist but reading them here too...    I'm sure in the future I'll attempt to avoid you the hassles and the great danger to ship items here. I don't want to see fine British people like Gyg having to do business with a lowly country such as the Brazil of Europe  

Sigh...