Paypal buyer SCAM warning

[Guest fluffcat1]

Recently people have been moaning at me ' you don't accept paypal for your phone auctions so I don't trust you' - despite a very high feedback. So I thought long and hard, knowing as I do the common scams involving paypal and phones on ebay, and thought I'd give it a go - BIG MISTAKE...I *nearly* got ripped off by a foriegn buyer...

It was for a recent buy-it-now auction on an XDA exec, I qualified my payapl acceptance as being 'subject to status' that I would wait 14 days before shipping, and the buyer emailed to ask whether she could use bank transfer to which I replied 'yes, of course, I'll discount it by

[Guest Samsonite]

sorry to hear of your woes.... yet another reason not to Ebay for me!!!

if someone as seasoned as your goodself is able to be put thru the hoops, what chance for a poor noob like me... i would get caught out good and proper..

Glad to hear you didnt get stitched tho... has it affected your Ebay rating?

Edited April 10, 2006 by Samsonite

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Er, but is there any proof this guy wasn't legit? :|

P

[Guest rockykabir]

I had a similar problem a few days ago. I was due to sell a phone...I requested that bidders with zero feedback or are newly registered can't bid. I also put up that only buyers can only buy with immediate payment via Paypal.

Everything was going fine and bidding reached a decent amount. But in the last minute guess what? a newly registered user with zero feedback bid and won the item.

Interestingly, he/she paid by Paypal immediately...which I thought was a bit odd - especially as I thought these scammers usually try to pay by Western Union or summat. The buyer wanted the item to be sent to the UK - his name was different from the email correspondance :evil:

I then went on to check some boards and found some horror stories about Paypal - things like chargeback and payment by stolen funds is becoming the norm unfortunately ;)

I asked the buyer that I will only send out the item if he gets their Paypal address verified - he was adamant. So we fortunately mutually agreed to cancel the sale.

I think in things like these - especially if you are not a power seller or summat - the benefit of the doubt isn't always the best thing to due. There was a chance that he was genuine...but I just didn't want to take the risk of possibly losing my phone and my money :P

[Guest Crispy]

Well, fluffcat, I can perfectly understand why people would'n trust you if you don't accept paypal... No matter how you look at it paypal is safer than any other payment systems, except, of course, a money order... Especially for the buyer...

I personally would'n buy anything on ebay without using paypal except maybe if the seller had an exceptionally good rating...

I think it's a bad idea if you abandon paypal altogether due to one bad experience, cause you will loose a whole lot of potential customers - me included...

[Guest rockykabir]

Another thing...is there any risk in giving our account details (i.e. Acc num, Sort Code) to a random...is it possible for them to scam me at a later date using my details?

I think in the future - for expensive items - I might consider only using direct money transfer

[Guest fluffcat1]

Er, but is there any proof this guy wasn't legit? :|

P

Yeah ( IMO) - they want me to send the item still!....anyone who's gone to the lengths of making a claim even though they are aware of the delay would just walk away IMO if *they* were legit. ...

In my case, they could leave the claim open, I would send the item, yet as it's an unconfirmed address they have on paypal my proof of delivery means nothing, so they could get the item and the money! Yes, I *could* trust that they will remove the claim once delivered, but as they were aware of, and agreed to the delay, it is bad faith on their part to try to claim in the firstplace, why should I trust them now that they will tell paypal it has been delivered, when despite being informed of the delay they claimed anyway for non-delivery?....

I wouldn't let this put me off ebay, but it certainly puts paypal in a poor light....and as for affecting my rating - after the first ( retalitory) neagative a couple of years ago after 7 years on ebay ( oooh I was mad!) I kinda got resigned to having the odd one or two - 6 out of 2100 transactions isn't bad IMO, and I'll do more damage to theirs if I have to ;-)

Richard

[Guest fluffcat1]

I personally would'n buy anything on ebay without using paypal except maybe if the seller had an exceptionally good rating...

2100 ( 1660 unique) not good enough for you then? Oh well. Nevermind. I'll get over it ;)

My sales do alright *without* paypal for the big items - I take it for phone fascia etc purely for ease of administration and people are less likely to try to scam for

[Guest fluffcat1]

Another thing...is there any risk in giving our account details (i.e. Acc num, Sort Code) to a random...is it possible for them to scam me at a later date using my details?

I think in the future - for expensive items - I might consider only using direct money transfer

Possibly. I do offer that for payment, but I have a special bank account to receive the funds into and the bank has a written instruction that funds from that account can only be transferred into 1 other nominated account of mine - with the same bank so instant. It acts as sort of a DMZ / buffer - they have (some of) my account details but there is nothing they can do with them...

Richard

[Guest Madeye]

Why not just state in your listing that you will only sell to UK based, verified address members if they want to pay via paypal?

Then if the winner doesn't have a verified address or is foreign you could offer a second chance to the next highest bidder.

You seem to be doing well enough without it so I won't try to change your mind, but I buy a LOT on ebay and will only pay by paypal for the ease of use and security (if you know what you're doing!)

I haven't bought anything today so I think I'll go do it now! I love receiving goodies in the post ;)

A Nixon 'The Banks' watch today maybe... seem to be in short supply tho.

Happy ebaying everyone!

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Precisely. I only sell to UK ebayers, and while i take paypal payment, i'll transfer it to my bank account before i post the item. Never had a problem doing so...

[Guest fluffcat1]

' date='Apr 12 2006, 17:52' post='731416']Precisely. I only sell to UK ebayers, and while i take paypal payment, i'll transfer it to my bank account before i post the item. Never had a problem doing so...

Transferring it out of your account won't help - if they claw it back for whatever reason your paypal account will go negative. Then, if you want to buy somethijng else you have to add that amount before you can use your account. If you say 'stuff it' and try to close the account or not settle the negative balance they will try to debit it from the various details you gave them ( debit card, credit card, bank account) and if you cancel all those they'll send the bayliffs around!

This can all be done upto 6 months after you have sold the item ;)

www.paypalsucks.com

Richard

[Guest barfoo]

Send the bailff round? Rubbish; they will threaten to do so but won't. It's too much bad publicity for them.

Why didn't you refund the paypal payment then rather than hold this guys money for 14 days? No wonder he got fed up....

Edited April 17, 2006 by barfoo

[Guest fluffcat1]

Send the bailff round? Rubbish; they will threaten to do so but won't. It's too much bad publicity for them.

Why didn't you refund the paypal payment then rather than hold this guys money for 14 days? No wonder he got fed up....

I said in my terms of sale I would wait 14 days for payments made via paypal dependant on status and they had an unconfirmed address - it isn't my fault they didn't read that or cannot understand english!.....

I couldn't refund directly without funding my account with *another*