is this a scam?

[azyl]

I have paintings on Fine Art America . On this site originals are not offered for sale through the FineArtAmerica secure checkout system. They say to contact the artist directly to purchase an artwork.

So, someone did contact me. They asked me kindly how much the painting would be with shipping and said they could pay through paypal...

I gave them the info they wanted, and my paypal adress for payment.

an hour later I received payment in my paypal account.

Everything is looks really good except this...the buyer has requested I ship to another adress instead of the one listed in paypal. I normaly wouldn't fuss about this but the painting is a big one and it just scares me a bit.

If anyone knows if this is a scam, please do tell so I can take care of this.

Thanks
Lisa

[JeffG]

I have no idea if this is a scam, but having a shipping address different than a billing address is not uncommon. I used to have things billed to my home address, then shipped to my work address to ensure I wouldnt have a big package sitting alone out on the porch.

[jocelynsart]

You will not be covered by Paypal if the address you ship to is Not the one registered to the Buyer's Paypal account.
Jocelyn

[sks]

Wow, Jocelyn... I didn't know that either
Thanks for the heads up.... and I'm so glad I checked out this thread.
I'm also on Fine Art America
Cheers
Sharon

[TBond]

I wouldn't think it's a scam but as Jocelyn said, you will not be protected by paypal... Is it at least in the same town?

[timelady]

I agree that it may not be a scam but definitely tell them you can only ship to the Payer's registered address, the one on Paypal, to be protected under Paypal's seller policies. It is pretty standard business practice to only ship to the address registered with form of payment, for small businesses at least. The Paypal address will be the address registered to their credit card since that's how Paypal works.

Tina.

[hillrune]

You should ask why a different address and whose address it is.
I have done it when there was a proper explanation. For instance as a gift.

[azyl]

Thanks all for answering.

It seems legit. The buyer paid me right away and provided me with another adress in the "note to seller" on the paypal transaction details page. It's because they will be on vacation. And at least the other adresse is in the same state.

It's not like they sent me the other adress in a seperate email or anything. So after talking it over with my husband we decided to take the chance and ship it.

If it's a scam I honestly don't know how they would scam me. The only thing that comes to mind is that they would clame that the painting never arrived and want there money back. But I have tracking and insurance on it plus it's not a 2000$ painting either.

So if it's a scam I'll be back to tell you all about it. Lets hope it isn't