Second Chance Scam?

I have bought and sold various items using eBay, and not a few of them motorcycles. My last purchase was made a couple of months ago from an eBay member the other end of the country. As the seller had 100% positive feedback from a score of 36, I had no qualms about sending payment for my bike as soon as I had established contact - after all, this is the spiritof Ebay, and whythe feedback system works - I mean, ifthe seller had made 36 deals all with positive feedback, I would be a tad unlucky to make the deal which went wrong?

Next day,I was busy arranging courier services to collect the bike, and was very surprised to recieve an email from a member I had had no dealings with, who enquiredwhy I had withdrawn from the deal on the bike I had just bought, and if there was anything wrong , as he had just been offered a 'second chance' offer on the same bike, and wondered whether to proceed or not?I was very shocked , as I had obviously not pulled out of the deal, and immediately thought the worst - I had visions of having to go to the other end of the country to attempt to sort out this mess personally.

I phoned the seller to see if my payment had arrived, andhe was adamant that the bike was mine and that he had recieved my payment, and also stated that he had also been contactedby no less than two other members who had also been offered second chance offers on the bike and he too had no idea what was going on.

Although I was asomewhat reassured, I was nevertheless extremely uneasy until my courier had picked up the bike and delivered it to me. I, of course, contacted Ebay and informed them of the scam, and they also investigated the problem on my behalf.

I have heard since that this is quite a common scam, although I am completely at a loss as to how the instigatorhopes to benefit from this fraud, as he must be the registered eBay seller in order to get paid more than once, and the seller has only one item to sell, so who was responsible and what did he hope to gain?

What is more important is that my immediate reaction was to blame the entirely innocent seller. I wasinitiallycertain that, even given his faultless feedback score, he was the one responsible for trying toattemptthis fraud. I am , of course, now totally certain he had nothing to do with it, and that he was as concerned as myself about what washappening to our transaction! Luckily for me, I guess , a happy ending!.