When I say “Horror Story”, I truly mean it. If you read my personal online seller horror story that I shared with you in May 2021, I hope it made you realize how something 100% innocent can turn into something completely terrifying. I also shared a genuinely scary video that details two eBay purchase stories that are so creepy you might not sleep tonight. Today I wanted to share with you a similar situation that happened to someone who posted their traumatic experience on Reddit because, as online sellers, it is imperative that you are aware of the dangers you face if you don’t take precautions. Here’s how his story goes:

This guy lists a Laseractive video game system on eBay:

As expected, it sells. Unfortunately the buyer had 0 feedback and seemed to have created the eBay account just to make this purchase.

Also as expected, the buyer didn’t pay. The seller (let’s call him Frank), goes through the standard process of attempting to collect payment followed by the World Famous “Unpaid Item Dispute” followed by the Cancelation Request. BUT, right before the cancelation request was official the buyer reached out to Frank and said Frank needs to ship.

Frank immediately noticed that the email communications from the buyer appeared to be using Google Translate because the English was overall poor and didn’t really make sense.

Frank politely explained that the buyer has to remit payment before the Laseractive can be shipped. But this made the buyer FURIOUS.

The buyer began flooding Frank with angry emails through eBay; not three or four emails, we’re talking 20+.

The emails went from the buyer demanding shipment to the buyer making actual threats, swearing and acting overall scary and belligerent. Shockingly, the crazy buyer began to threaten to call the police… which was odd, because Frank was also debating contacting authorities.

Then things take a turn for the worse….

Just like with my personal online seller horror story, Franks insane buyer began Googling Frank. The crazed lunatic was able to use Franks eBay I.D to find other online accounts under the same name, one of which was Franks YouTube account. Additionally he found posts Frank made in forums using the same account I.D.

Frank began getting flooded with YouTube comment messages on all of his videos. He began getting alerts that “someone has replied to your forum post”... guess who “someone” was? Yep. The stalker!

The psychopath was able to use these other platforms to obtain Franks personal information, such as PERSONAL email address. The stalker began utterly spamming Frank with threats from all angles, through all platforms.

The deranged buyer then slammed Frank with a bad feedback on eBay and continued to send messages through all platforms stating that he was going to destroy Frank, Franks life and Franks business.

After a week of being bombarded with harassing messages and threats, the unhinged buyer sent another message to tell Frank that if he ever wants this harassment to end he needs to send the Laseractive.

Frank refused and the buyer ramped up the harassment and threats. It became so intrusive and unbearable that Frank had no choice but to delete ALL of his accounts. He had to basically scrub himself and his business from the internet. 

LESSONS LEARNED:

• Never, ever use your eBay / Poshmark / Mercari ID for other things, such as forums
• If you are using forums, always pick an alias that isn't your real name, business name or other IDs. 
• Do NOT use 1 email for everything. Make a business email for business and a personal email for non-business
• Never have your email address publicly displayed unless it is a business email; for example, our email, Support@BigBrandWholesale.com is displayed on all of our business-related sites, but our personal emails are not linked to anything related to BigBrandWholesale.com
• Most importantly, BE AWARE of the dangers you face.  Take the time to read all of our content.  We spend a lot of time writing it so you can protect yourself and your family.   Next read: read my personal online seller horror story