am i getting conned ?????paypal /ebay

pennymakespounds

i know there's been loads of postings about problems with ebay/paypal with cons /scams etc but i've never read them in detail as it's a subject that's never applied to us ... till now !!!!!

Today ... put 3 ipods up for sale on ebay.

sold them all within a couple of hours...BUT !!...

1) to an american ... very little feedback ....paypal notification came through but then he emailed to say he thought the price was in dollars , now realised in £ so doesn;t want it and therefore was now going to " get the money stopped going into paypal " ?????

2) english girl .. zero feedback ... but sent email saying she'd put the paypal payment through but it had been rejected by her bank... couldn't understand why ..had got hold of her bank and they said it should be ok ..but we've heard nothing more yet..

3) ..from malaysia !... zero feedback paid by paypal ..so it does look ok ????

can anyone give me some advise on what to do or not do...or to watch out for ..what is likely to happen on any of these.

I did tell my son to immediately transfer all money from paypal to his bank .. but i did notice the "5 to 7 working days" statement ...so wondering whether anyone can get at the money before it goes....seem to remember this is where./when some of the scams happen.

I've also told my son that we shouldn't post any of the items out until we know the score !..

soolin

It is possible for the buyers to chargeback their payments in certain circumstances so although I usually suggest that items are sent out quickly to comply with paypal terms and conditions I think I would suggest waiting in each of these cases.

The American one might not be worth the bother if he doesn't want the item now, you'll only end up spending hours exchanging e mails and arguing. Try one e mail first telling him that his bid was binding and maybe asking him to repay all your fees and charges if he wants to default If not, go through the NPB process on him and neg him in due course.

The second one might be legit, paypal are having major problems at the moment with payments being refused all over the place. Give her time to sort it out and make sure you have the money safely tucked away just in case.

With the Malaysian one check the feedback as I don't trust any Far East transactions as there are so many non UK scammers.

If you do decide to wait until the money hits your bank account please remember that it is going to take a long while as Monday is a bank holiday. You are unlikely to see the payment in your bank account until at least the 11th January (the 6th working day). Paypal terms and condition require you to post the item out in a timely fashion, 7 days is suggested, but your buyers might not realise that.

If you do send any items out remember to protect yourself by making sure that the items are sent by an online trackable method. For the uK that would be Special delivery as recorded doesn't give enough insurance for items over £28, but I'm not sure what method you can safely use for non UK packages. If any of these buyers make a claim to paypal for non delivery it is up to the seller to prove delivery, again in a timely manner. The time conditions and lack of trackable method is one reason why I will not sell high price goods overseas, I cannot protect myself against chargeback.

Electronic good and phones etc are the most widely scammed items on ebay. It might be better in future to list for uK only so you can use special delivery post, and don;t use BIN as you can't control who bids. At least with a regular auction you do have some chance of pulling bids from dodgy looking buyers before they win the auction.

Good luck

Soo

Hintza

I agree with Soolin.

I think your mistake was not limiting it to UK (EU??) buyers.

1. Agree that the US buyer will be a pain. Refund less costs. These guys are dozy ......have seen a neg feedback suggesting all EBay transactions should be in US$....lol (sent him an email suggesting US wasn't the centre of the universe!!)

2. Think PayPal was playing up today, so I would try and contact buyer by phone if money not deposited within 24-48 hours. If you can not contact wait the appropriate time and take action..

3. Malaysian buyer could be fine? any rapport? But it could be problematic. Can you get their details to check them out. If you have not stated that you will not sell overseas you will probably be in breach of EBays T/C.

In future limit to UK or Europe to be on safe side and if people ask you can post overseas if you are happy.

robowen

The Malaysian one sounds dodgy to me.   :-/

I thought the far east was the place to get technology.  :-/

Do they not have phones over there  ??   :-/

For future listings, I'd only sell to uk based bidders as previous posters have said.

I place a paragraph on my listings which states :
"Bidders with zero feedback to contact me 1st BEFORE bidding, else bid will be cancelled"

and I stick to it.  Can't do much about bids that come in with 10 secs to go, but others get cancelled.

If they don't contact you, they are not worth dealing with.  :(

ohh ! when you cancel a bid, make sure you block them from bidding again.
Its amazing how they can finally read your instructions when they are banned from bidding ! ::)

soolin

Like you robowen I also added a line to my auctions when I recently sold some high price items asking 0 feedback bidders to contact me first.

I actually had three 0 feedback bidders bid so I emailed each of them asking politely if they could just confirm receipt of my email and confirm that they were able to pay by one of the payment methods I had listed. None of them responded at all, so I just pulled their bids.

On my lower price items though I don't worry about low or no feedback sellers and I have had very few problems as I just don't think that 'cheap' items attract problems quite so much.

Soo

Epiphone

Don't sell to the Malaysian bidder, it's a scam.

pennymakespounds

yup...you're right !!

later last night i got my son to withdraw paypal money into his bank... but an hour later paypal emailed him to say they had stopped it as the buyers transaction looked dodgy and they stopped the transaction.

malcolmord

Same with me, I put a Sony T630 up for sale and put an extremely hopefull £115 BUY IT NOW.

Within 5 minutes I had a buyer and you guess it, its a con.

This is the email I've been sent from someone in singapore

HELLO,
HOW ARE YOU DOING? I WOULD LIKE TO BUY YOUR ITEM AND I WE BE PAYING YOU A SUM OF £140.00,I WILL BE PAYING VIA WESTERN UNION MONEY ORDER BIDPAY,ONCE I MAKE THE PAYMENT,THE BIDPAY WILL SEND A COMFIRMATION OF THE PAYMENT TO YOU ONLINE,VIA E-MAIL, THE ITEM WILL BE SHIPPED TO MY FIANCEE IN NIGERIA,I AM SENDING IT TO HER AS A BIRTH-DAY GIFT WISH WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE ENDING OF THE MONTH,WISH I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ATTEND DUE TO THE DISTANCE,I WILL PREFER YOU SHIPPING THE ITEM TO HIM VIA UPS,DHL OR ROYAL MAIL SPECIAL DELIVERY,LET ME HAVE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS YOU WANT THE MONEY ORDER TO BE DELIVERED,SO I CAN MAKE PAYMENT ASAP.
LET ME HAVE THE TOTAL COST.
HERE'S MY FIANCEE'S ADDRESS
SUNDAY SMITH
18 MOJISOLA STREET
IFAKO IJAIYE
LAGOS
23401
NIGERIA

I'm just going to hang fire and wait for the non-payer process to take place.

Can anyone advice me what else I should do.

Many thanx