I'm new to eBay selling, and have been listing a few bits and bobs from lockdown decluttering.
The auction had ended on one item, it had sold for about £4, there were 5 bids listed.
I then had a message from the person who was the third highest bidder saying they'd had an automatic notification from eBay to pay for the item, but they hadn't won. I apologised and said I would ask eBay to look into it. I couldn't find any way to email them so left it as I was busy that day.
4 days after the auction finished the person listed as the winning bidder hadn't paid, so I sent them a reminder. And they replied and said they hadn't bid on it and didn't want it 
.
I contacted eBay through live chat and they said the winning bidder must be lying, but I couldn't be bothered to open a case to force them to pay (plus they would probably leave negative feedback) so I just cancelled the whole auction.
But the more I think about it, it seems really weird. Can eBay be hacked and fake bids made? And had someone sent the non-winning bidder a fake request for payment? I'm baffled.