Posts Tagged ‘Uk internet scam’

Dear eBay Queen;

I just sold my first thing on eBay, and am at a loss what to do now!  Do I have to print a shipping label and have the postage come out of my PayPal account, or can I do it the old fashioned way and make my own label and go to the post office?  I know it probably doesn’t look as professional that way, but I don’t have a scale so I would just be estimating the weight.  Please eBay Queen-  help the eBay Dummy!

Jackie A
Dear Jackie;

Congratulations on selling your first item!  When I first started, shipping and uploading photos were what gave me the most trouble.  With this specific package, I would go ahead and make a home made label, take it into the post office and have them add a delivery confirmation and postage.  For your next sale, you want to invest in some postal scales.  You can buy postal scales at Wal-Mart between $19.99 and $65.00, or even on eBay!  There is also a postal scale website that has scales from $6.95 to $100.00.  You can check those out here: http://www.postalscales.com/index.php?cPath=23&osCsid=9b7da8a3ac64bf9f518e83bf84e8f2a3

Once you have your scales in hand, you can very easily make labels through PayPal.  These labels include the delivery confirmation without paying the extra forty cents to the post office.  To make labels through PayPal, you will want to log in to My eBay, click on “sold”, and you will see on the right hand side where a buyer has paid you want to click on “ship”.  Then follow the directions to make your shipping label.

I’m sure you’ll find making labels this way much easier than going to the post office!

Dear eBay Queen;

I know this isn’t exactly an eBay question, but I don’t know anyone else to turn to.  My husband says it’s real, and my son-in-law says it’s fake.  It’s not that I doubt my son-in-law, it’s just, I would like someone else’s opinion.   I received this email last night:

“I’m writing this with tears in my eyes.  We came here to London for a short vacation and I was mugged last night at gun point. All of our cash, credit cards and cell phones were stolen off me; thank God we have our life and passport. I’ve been to the embassy and the police here, but they’re not helping issues at all, they asked us to wait for 3 weeks, but we can’t wait till then.  Our flight leaves in less than 3 hours from now, and we are having problems settling the hotel bills.  The hotel manager won’t let us leave until we settle the bill. You can speak with him through this number +447024074948, we are freaked out at the moment.  If you can wire the money to me through Western Union all you need is my name on my passport and location below.

Name:  (taken out)

Location: 31 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ United Kingdom

Amount: $2,450

I’ll refund your cash as soon as I get home.”

This isn’t a really good friend of mine, just an acquaintance. Should I send the money?  If this is a scam, how does it work?  I don’t understand why someone would say this happen when it didn’t.

BR; Topeka, KS

Dear BR;

This is a scam.  How it works is you send your “friend” the money via Western Union and the scammer picks up your money in your friend’s name.   Your friend is most likely at home doing what they normally do, and may not know that their account was hacked.  This is just another in the long line of email phishing scams.

I have a friend who had her email account hacked, and she was completely locked out of her email and account.  They had even set up automatic email forwarding to another account!

If this happened to me, I would contact my friend by phone, and then hit the delete button.

I am glad you thought to ask me about it.  Your question may have prevented someone else from falling for this scam.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 310204713382 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): Vintage kitchen tools sell well on eBay!  Check out this Antique 1907 Egg Beater. SOLD $308.19 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310204713382

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com.