Selling item on Ebay - does this sound fishy?

[gigglesnirt]

well usually i wouldn't be afraid, because its paypal and its pretty secure, but if you keep getting emails about people that keep opening companies in different countries, i would just let the item get bid on by the people out there, dont touch it till the end when its won, and give it to the winner

[eversio11]

Laptops are the perfect fraud item, they usually cost bundles, more than a desktop computer, but they're about a fourth of the weight to ship.

I feel sorry for that jcs guy, not only did he lose his laptop and not get the money, he now OWES paypal the money. Ouch.

[TheNotoriousMogg]

[indyram]

A while ago I almost got screwed. I had a truck of mine listed on auto trader for sale. This lady from Africa e-mails me that she wants to buy it. I figure she is probably an honest person. She even called me on the phone. Any way she tells me that I would have to arrange for shipping. She said she would send me a corporate check for the amount plus some extra to cover the cost of shipping. She then wanted me to send the remaining amount to her by western union. So I figure what ever. Anyways like a week later I get a check in the mail from the lady for $48,000. Yeah right this is BS. Anyways I took the check and the e-mails to the police. The feds ended up extriditing them back to the US because the check came from a US company. The charged like 20 people with fraud from a whole lot of other things as well. So anyway I would beware.

[TuRbO_$kY|iN£]

wow ill never sell on ebay again

[eversio11]

Originally Posted by TuRbO_$kY|iN£

wow ill never sell on ebay again

Don't let a couple bad experiences out of the tens of thousands of exchanges that go down everyday on ebay deter you. I've bought and sold over 100 things with ebay over the course of 3 years and I have never had any problems except for one person backing out of an auction.

[damir831]

Originally Posted by indyram

A while ago I almost got screwed. I had a truck of mine listed on auto trader for sale. This lady from Africa e-mails me that she wants to buy it. I figure she is probably an honest person. She even called me on the phone. Any way she tells me that I would have to arrange for shipping. She said she would send me a corporate check for the amount plus some extra to cover the cost of shipping. She then wanted me to send the remaining amount to her by western union. So I figure what ever. Anyways like a week later I get a check in the mail from the lady for $48,000. Yeah right this is BS. Anyways I took the check and the e-mails to the police. The feds ended up extriditing them back to the US because the check came from a US company. The charged like 20 people with fraud from a whole lot of other things as well. So anyway I would beware.

I heard that exact same story happen to a lot of other people, that's why that laptop story sounded so fishy to me. One guy who was selling a car actually knew that the buyer was about to screw him over from the beginning, so he played along. After he received a $10,000 check for a $5,000 car, he told the guy from Africa that he shipped the car even though he of course didn't cuz he knew what was going to happen. He deposited the $10,000 check into his bank account and the bank actually took the check because the routing and check numbers were valid. After about a month though, the check came back and it had a "invalid check" stamp on it. It takes the bank about a month to send the checks out and be %100 sure that the checks are valid, that's why all these scammers want you to act quickly so the bank doesn't find the mistake before you send them the money. The African guy kept writing the guy who was selling the car nasty emails for a month and when the guy finally scanned and emailed him the check with the "invalid check" stamp on it, the African guy shutup.

Think about it, these guys can totally screw you over.

You receive an Invalid $10,000.
You send them your car for $5,000 shipping included and he tells you to send him the other $5,000 CASH back and those $5,000 are really your money because you'll deposit $10,000 and withdraw $5,000 - Checks can always be rejected and tracked, cash can't.

So you think you have $5,000 in your bank account but...

The car is gone
The $5,000 that you supposedly got for your car are gone
Another $5,000 of CASH that YOU send HIM are gone. You basically send him your OWN money for that invalid check.

So you're left with no car and a $5,000 cash loss....those bastards

Oh btw, I sold the laptop. The buyer didn't have a varified paypal address so I sent her paypal payment right back because if she said that she didn't get it, she would have gotten her money back and I would be left without anything. She then shipped me a money order. Now I check the buyers out 5 times before doing any business with them.

[indyram]

I do a lot of buying on e-bay. I find it pretty safe, especially if you use paypal. I wouldn't do something like that out of the blue again. But I feel safe using e-bay. Besides there will always be bad situations no matter what.

[damir831]

Yes, if you're buying you can always use your credit card and get your money back if you're not satisfied. If you're selling, you always run into difficult situations. If you ship to an unvarified address, they can take your money and your item away if they want to.

[YellowMaranello]

Does anyone else think that it is slightly odd that a large business like that would go to eBay if they needed to buy computers and not straight to a manufacturer where they could get a warranty?

[boingo82]

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y03/m03/i03/s01
They usually run this scam out of Nigeria.

[damir831]

Alright, someone please answer my question because I'm supposed to ship my laptop out tonight. The buyer of my laptop tried to send me money through paypal but her shipping address was not verified because you have to add a credit card that has the billing address the same as the shipping address. After she sent me the $825 I sent it right back and told her to verify her address by adding a credit card number. She said that she didn't have one but she'll try to get her friend to sign up for paypal and add her credit card so that she would have a varified address. By shipping to a varified address, I woud be protected through paypal even if it was a scam. Later she emailed me and asked me if we could complete the transaction with a money order. I called my bank and my bank told me not to send her anything until I receive the money order and cash it. I received the western union money order check in he mail within a day and a half because she sent it through express mail. I got a $500 check and a $325 and went to my bank to check it out and they said that I should go to Western Union to cash it since it might take the bank some time to be %100 sure the this money order is valid. I cahsed it at a currency exchange yesterday and I'm about to send her the laptop tonight. They can't really scam people through western union, correct? I mean they have to pay for that money order with cash and once they do it's pretty much gone. This person is from New York. She didn't email me asking me if I could ship it internationally, she just won the bid just like anyone else would. I'm really not trusting anyone right now. Can they scam people with money orders? It seems very unlikely to me, but do any bank people here know if it can be done?