Today I too was ALMOST a victim to "Dante Richman." He bid $150 for a Psychology textbook I had listed and asked me to text him at a certain number, which I'm most positive is from one of those apps that generate a fake number for you. I then proceeded to text him, and per his request I sent additional photos to prove the condition was up to standards. He then asks for my email, and tells me he wants to have the item shipped to Georgia as a gift for his nephew. In my mind I just thought that was weird because who buys a Psychology textbook for their nephew? In addition to having the item shipped to Georgia, he wanted me to get an eBay gift card with an amount o $300 dollars shipped with the item. His text to me read: "I work with the US Marines and not able to have it shipped, I will add $300 to your payment for the eBay Gift Card, $30 for gas and stress & $50 to cover for the shipping cost." He persisted for me to get the gift card today, which made no sense to me if I was going to send it to his nephew tomorrow as discussed. When I did not respond within 30 seconds (LITERALLY) he sent me 3 texts in a row asking if I could get the gift card today! "Can you get the gift card today and get everything done to ship out tomorrow" "???" "Okay can you get the gift card today??" Rude.
So I say yes, because I was just trying to be nice, and just was waiting for a notification from palpal, an email from PayPal, and also was checking to see if the money he had said he was going to send me was in "activity" or "balance" but to my surprise it was not. The email I DID receive was from an email saying "***YOU GOT MONEY FROM YOUR BUYER***" as the subject, and when I clicked on it, looked weird and like a scam email. I just assumed it was a copy of his receipt but still the money wasn't in my PayPal account or bank account so I told him, to which he replied "The reason why the funds hasn't reflect on your account is because Paypal needs to verify the gift cards from you first as a proof of purchase because some sellers will received a cleared funds in their account and they will refuse to purchase the card. So money has been debited from my account, Paypal is the one holding funds until you email them the picture of the card for confirmation so they can release all your funds into your account before shipment. It's a measure for protecting both sellers and buyers." "Did you understand??" "?????" So I just stopped replying. Checked their eBay account (deactivated). So yeah, look out for "Dante Richman" or someone with a similar motive. Waste of my time especially because I really needed to sell the item.
