Received a order today.
Seemed suspect as the address included a “#” symbol and a number after the street address.
This is usually a sign that the address belongs to a freight forwarding company as the number references the freight forwarding account assigned to the addressee.
Sure enough the address came up as a UPS Store in California.
The buyer registered his eBay account using his middle initial as his first name with his usual last name.
That name is connected with a well known freight forwarding company in California.
Since the name and address of that freight forwarding company gets well known after a period of time and reported on such sites as BadBuyersOrg this buying agent for foreign buyers has resorted to using a UPS Store as collection point for items purchased on eBay.
Although the UPS Store offers freight forwarding its very unlikely this person is going to take business away from his own freight forwarding company.
The phone number provided by this person belong to someone else.
There are no international transaction fees on the the purchase since the company set up an office in California and uses U.S. funds - another way to mask that the item is actually being purchases on behalf of a international buyer.
We are talking about buying agent buying tens of thousands of items on eBay and hiring a private freight forwarding company to fly them to another country such as South Korea.
Of course as eBay eBay could care less at all as long as they get their commission, which they still get if you the seller get ripped off.