Thanks very much for all your responses.
Over the course of the day I got more e-mails from this guy pretending to be Matsuiyastore or Noriaki. I was suspicious when he first asked me to contact him off eBay, but it just got worse from there. When I asked him whether he was Noriaki, he said, "Yes, it's me!" but never signs his e-mail with this name.
Then I decided to go back into eBay, find Matsuiyastore, and send another message through the "Ask seller a question" function. Sure enough, Noriaki responds to my questions and signs his e-mail with his name.
I then check my messages again and this imposter finally shoots himself in the foot when I ask him for payment methods. Here is his information:
E-mail address:
snettechnologie@aol.com
E-mail message:
"This are details so you can do the payment trought MoneyGram :
Lee Wiegers
56 fulham road
London
NW 3DS
United Kingdom
Once you have made the payment please reply back with :
Sender Full Name :
Adress :
City :
Zip :
Country :
Scanned Paper of the payment and the 8 - digital code ( called Reference number ) .
Thank You ,
Lee Wiegers"
Here are the warning signs:
1. He told me to contact him using an e-mail that was off eBay.
2. This guy's e-mails always ended up in my spam filter.
3. The guy's grammar totally sucked and his e-mails were super short and vague. But when "payment" is mentioned, his English suddenly improves somewhat and he even demonstrates some trace of proper etiquette.
4. He is inconsistent. First he responds in the affirmative when asked if he is Noriaki, then he tells me his name is Lee.
Sure, all this sounds like no big deal, but the real kicker is that
I initiated contact with Noriaki through eBay, and I got responses from the Matsuiyastore user ID--even the message stating that I should contact him through the outside e-mail address!!! I still can't figure that one out, unless somehow my computer has spyware or Noriaki's account was hacked or his messages somehow intercepted.
One thing I did notice was that I used the "respond" button directly from the eBay message I received in my normal e-mail inbox, as opposed to going into my personal eBay message inbox and replying from there. Maybe my computer or Internet Explorer has some spyware of some sort. Well whatever the case, I'm not that excited about using eBay anymore. I already got burned on several hundred dollars once before. This would have been disastrous.
Well, I immediately notified Noriaki about this but unfortunately I used the "respond" button in my outside e-mail to do so. If I don't hear anything, I'll do it the "proper" way within eBay just to make sure Noriaki knows.
Thought I would put this up as a warning. I think I'll be staying off eBay for a while.
