eBay Scam?

So, I think I’ve been an unwilling participant in some sort of fraudulent eBay activity, and I’ve strangely actually benefited. I think.

First I’ll just give you a timeline of things:

– Back on September 4th I listed my Sequentix P3 for auction on eBay under auction number 290157675079. This auction went well, eventually being sold for US1805.00
– Payment was received from the buyer via PayPal from a verified account and the address matched the one sent to me from eBay, so everything looked good. I withdrew the money from PayPal and everything seemed fine.
– The P3 was sent via UPS tracking number 1ZT915V20390002211.
– Package was received, seller let me know, mutual feedback was exchanged, everything seemed good.
– Suddenly, on 29-Sep-2007 I received a note from eBay stating that:

Dear c0nsumer (c0nsumer@nuxx.net),

The results of the following listing(s) have been cancelled due to bidding activity that took place without the account owner’s authorization:

290157675079 Sequentix P3 Analogue Sequencer w/ MemX (Analog)

We have cancelled the listing(s) to maintain the integrity of the eBay site, your account, and the bidder’s account that was accessed. We are working to restore the bidding account to its rightful owner, and we are working with the account owner to prevent any additional unauthorized activity. Since the account owner did not initiate these bids, all fees resulting from the listings in question will be credited to your account within 7 days. If you do not see the credits posted to your account after 7 days, please feel free to contact us through ?Contact Us? in our Help section.

At this point the fees for the Sequentix P3 auction were refunded to my eBay account, so I now have a balance of -$46.03. The auction itself is gone, and the buyer’s account seemed to be deleted. However, the positive feedback was still reflected on my account

– Suddenly on 02-Oct-2007 I see a new auction up on eBay, 270172361341, which is for a Sequentix P3, using a copy and paste of my auction description along with some of my photos. The seller was from California and the account was brand new. (Listing day creation, zero feedback.)

– A few days later I check again and the seemingly fraudulent new P3 auction has been pulled, and the account for the user who originally bought my P3 is activated again.

So, I’m not really sure what was going on. I’ve heard nothing about disputed payments or non-received items, so everything seems good from my end. At first I thought that maybe the person who bought the P3 from me was actually some sort of eBay scamming middleperson, and then it was being resold for a hopeful profit. She didn’t really fit the profile of someone who’d normally buy a high-end sequencer. (Fourty-something real estate salesperson from rural New York with no eBay history of buying other musical instruments.)

But, maybe she was just buying it for someone else.

I’m just not sure what’s going on here… I guess there’s also the chance that she legitimately bought the P3, her account was stolen, some previous auctions were canceled, including the one from me.

On the upside I’ve now got a $40-some credit with eBay. It’s too bad that I can’t actually recover that credit back to PayPal.