Warnings and things to watch for

libra10

Regarding the Western Union scam mentioned above, my daughter was almost caught out by this. The buyer sent an apparently valid looking cheque issued by a large chain store.
The cheque was for a considerable amount of money. They wanted them to bank the cheque and when cleared, send the goods and remaining amount of money somewhere abroad, using Western Union .
Niavely, she was almost taken in and about to lose a lot of money, or possibly to become involved in money laundering.
Now the CID are involved and hopefully someone will eventually be brought to justice.

Islander_3

Another thing to watch for is someone setting up an account with your name and address to obtain goods or payment - Ebay do not check whether the name and address belongs to the person setting up the account, and, once either goods or money have been obtained and the account is in default they only attempt to contact the user by the designated email address (which obviously does not belong to the named person, and of course they get no reply). This has happened to me and the first I knew of a default on this account was when contacted by a debt collection agency - at the moment I am trying to convince them the account has been set-up by someone else with fraud in mind, and, have sent various emails to Ebay (they are "investigating". It seems to me that all they have to do is ask the person whom is out of pocket the address to which they sent the goods/payment - this would easily allow them to persue this). I have also been to the police with what I thought was identity theft and have been told that this is deception and only the person whom has suffered a loss can log it with the police as a crime - until they do it is a civil matter.

Anyway I await the result of Ebays "investigation"

Islander_3

Ebay have now agreed that the account was set-up by someone else to obtain goods or money fraudently - however they do not let the collectons agency know until they have completed their investigation, so the agency will continue to bug you (these companies like to word thier communications in such a way as to frighten people - god help the vunerable!!).

s@sha

Another thing I've just learned. Be wary of auctions where the seller states they can't send the item until a certain date in the future, especially if they offer Paypal as a method of payment.

Paypal don't allow sellers to list them as a payment option if the seller can't send the item within a minimum time after the transaction takes place. I think it is 14 days. Although Paypal don't actually do anything to stop them, of course. >:(

And not many people know that if you need to complain to Paypal about non-receipt of an item, and try for a refund,you only have 30 days from the time you paid to do so. Just think: that is barely enough time for an ordinary auction, especially if the seller tells you he's had problems etc, so you give him the benefit of the doubt.
So if you buy something knowing it can't be delivered for a few weeks, pay with Paypal AND then it still isn't sent when the seller said so, you will be way out of your 30 day limit.
And it is better to pay with a credit card rather than a debit card, as if you do get caught out, most CC 's have online fraud protection, whereas most debit cards don't. Also, at least with a credit card you can do a chargeback if you have to.

I only found this out as I bought something in september that couldn't be sent until the end of October. Because the seller had 100% positive feedback I trusted him & paid straightaway through Paypal by debit card. When I had problems getting the item, Paypal said there was little they could do because the 30 days had passed & my bank said they could do nothing because using a debit card was 'the same as if I'd paid in cash' ..there was no fraud protection.

Luckily the item did turn up eventually,but I think a lot of people don't know about Paypal's 30-day rule, and get caught out by auctions with delayed delivery dates.

derbyjo

I've been caught out in the way S@sha describes. I used my debit card, thinking I was helping everyone out (think there are less charges through Paypal with a debit card), the seller had good feedback, but I wasn't expecting delivery for a couple of weeks, 6 months later and the guy has been charged with fraud against me and some others.

LAPTOP WARNING
There seems to be a new trend, which involves a bogus seller using a defunct ebay account to sell goods, I enquired about a sony vaio and received a message from the purported seller saying we could sort out personal collection, then half an hour later a message from a person with an email address similar to the seller's name saying that she wasn't selling it and not to bid. The auction was stopped. I then saw another goods deal for a laptop and asked the seller about collection (seems to rattle the dodgy sellers) and received a message from an email address offering to stop the auction if I paid £600 for the laptop (it is worth £1800) but the strange thing is that the email address is I am sure the same as the previous dodgy one. I immediately contacted ebay and sent a message to the higgest bidder and then sent 3 more messages to the highest bidders, but they obviously didn't believe me as they continued to bid. I hope i am wrong about it being a fraud. Am I able to put in the email address in case there is a problem with this person?

steadybagger

Never, ever pay by wire transfer i.e western union or bank transfer. Always pay by Paypal or similar or use your credit card. Do not use a debit card.

I am an Ebay power seller and prefer payment via bank transfer, Paypal is not that safe if you are a seller as buyers can ring their CC up and do a chargeback. If you think Paypal is safe have a look at https://www.paypalsucks.com

SaraSeahorse

"Re surcharging for PayPal:

It's true that you're not allowed to do it, but what you CAN do is to offer a discount if the buyer chooses to pay by an alternative method. I've just started putting a bit extra on my P&P charge and telling bidder that P&P will be reduced by 40p (on low-value items) if they pay by a method other than PayPal"


you are still then in effect charging extra for paypal and would still be in breach of the regulations

scandarahar

Re the http://www.fraud-auctions.com/ site -

I just had a look and at the hijacked ID's. There is a guy bidding £10000 currently on a job lot of mobile phones being sold by one of these hijacked ID's.


Does anyone know how accurate this site is before I contact the bidder to point him in the direction of the site and if it is erroneous could I be construed as interfering in a sale?
I use eBay a lot and would hate to be barred for good intentions.

netdumdum

I would be very wary of buying anything of any value on Ebay, PayPap protection is only valid for 30 days, if you do run into problems the only thing you can do is leave negative feedback! Wow thats great consumer protection.

Dont get me wrong I like ebay and have bought and sold loads of stuff but please do be careful!

fancellu

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/16/petty_fraudsters_ebay/