I'm selling my old iPhone 5 that has a broken power button on eBay. I had someone offer me $140 (probably a fair price for what they go for, not alarmingly too good to be true) for it through a direct message and they said send them a paypal request to circumvent fees and they have 300+ positive feedback at 100%. It seems like this is common although eBay obviously frowns upon it.
So I sent them a request on PayPal, and the name that comes up is not in English....
To: Быстров Алексей (rapid1962alex@gmail.com).
The address is in Pennsylvania though.
So what do you guys think? Is this a scam? If I am the seller how would a scam work here if he pays first?
It's a scam. Technically, because they are skirting Ebay's rules by trying to bypass fee's. You'll sell and ship, and eventually their payment will bounce. Not only that, but the Paypal account they are using is most likely a hijacked one.
Don't fall for it. They are counting on greed here, and they trap a lot of people due to that factor...
I've been on Ebay since 1997, and I've had a PayPal account since around end of 2001.