Caution advised on offers

[Ken Fox]

I listed an X60 for sale here recently and stated clearly on the listing that I did not want to ship it outside of the USA. Other sellers of course will have different approaches.

In any event, I have received two offers in the last day, by PM, from people with very little (or no) activity on this board, asking me to ship the laptop to overseas destinations I would be cautious about.

My advice would be to exercise a lot of caution with such offers, should you receive one. It is easy to fake such things as emails purportedly from Paypal showing that you have been sent cash. There were lots of scams going on over on ebay with the sales of laptops. Ebay appears to have had some success in cleaning up that problem, which may have pushed some of perpetrators to other places, perhaps including here.

Be careful selling anything expensive, especially if you are asked to ship it to a far away destination.

[minc3d]

This is VERY common on postings I used to make on Craigslist for laptop sales. I would send people an email address to send off a paypal payment to, and would receive a FAKE paypal email that was changed to make it look like I had received a payment when this was not the case.

After I asked the person to give me the auth ID for the payment they could never produce it.

Be VERY careful about scams like this. ALWAYS check your paypal account to see if a payment has truly come in from a buyer.

[fje]

How could you be "faked" if you look at your paypal account and you don't "see" the money there?

Appologies, but I cannot understand the problem.

And I have been one of the ones that not residing in the US someone in eBay told me he didn't want to sell to me due to the difficulties he had had with overseas buyers....

Of course, any honest buyers should understand you don't send the item before be sure you got the money... and, on the other hand, the advantage of paypal is their "buyer protection".

[minc3d]

When I say "faked" I mean the spammer sending you a fake paypal email LOOKING like from paypal saying "Youve got a payment" and making you trust them that money actually came in.

[fje]

I understand what you said... but, again, why you don't look at the current status of your real and actual Paypal account ?

as far as I know, no possibility of "fake" in the account.

[fasterbybike]

When I say "faked" I mean the spammer sending you a fake paypal email LOOKING like from paypal saying "Youve got a payment" and making you trust them that money actually came in.

Not much different to being sent a cheque in the mail (just faster). Until that cheque is cleared by the bank, you don't have your money. Likewise with e funds, until those funds are in your account, any advisory messages are just that - an advisory.

My personal experience is that I've dealt with several members on this forum using Paypal and Moneybookers for payment and assumed that they would not send the goods until they had cleared the funds. Worked well for all involved.

HTH

D

[Ken Fox]

If you are careful the risks are low, but an offer from someone who has not participated on the board and who comes from thousands of miles away should be a warning sign.

International sales have more risk, for the buyer and for the seller. The US is the largest free market for such goods as laptops, and it is harder for a buyer from a smaller country to have the choice of used or new laptops you can find here, so I understand the difficulty. Still, why take the risk when you would be dealing with someone who hasn't participated here much (or at all), who comes from a country many would associate with shaky dealings?

Even if everyone is careful there can be other problems such as a warranty not being accepted in the country the laptop was shipped to. There was a very long thread here a number of months ago from some poor fellow who bought a laptop that he thought had a warranty in his European country, only to find that Lenovo/IBM would not honor it even though the laptop should have been covered, according to US published information.

[Harryc]

I have used Paypal for many years, perhaps some years more than most here. Anyway, you should be aware that a credit card funded paypal payment can still be withdrawn by Paypal. I had this happen to me once. A scammer paid with a stolen credit card. It was initially approved by Paypal and the funds deposited into my account. About a week later Paypal informed me the CC was stolen and the funds were then removed from my account by Paypal. Don't think they can do that? Think again ...
Then there is the eCheck scam - http://reviews.ebay.com/LATEST-SCAM-ON- ... 0002382959

[ajkula66]

Also, be well aware that any shipment to an unconfirmed address is dangerous, since the funds can be withdrawn by the buyer with no questions asked. Even if you have proof of delivery, PayPal will side with the buyer. Been there, done that, cost me $500+...never again.

The only countries that provide confirmed addresses are USA, Canada and UK. Period.

Ship anywhere else if the item has been paid by PayPal and you're at risk unless you know the buyer.

[fje]

I have "confirmed address" and not USA, Canada, UK. I feel "Euro area" is able to have confirmed address too.

[ajkula66]

You need to check that again...you may be verified but NOT confirmed unless you reside in one of the countried that I've listed.

[fje]

As far as I know and I checked again in Paypal (Europe), there are two process to follow, verification and confirmation, and I followed both, so, again, I feel that in the Euro Zone it is possible.