p.10 #1 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
jbohland wrote:
I am posting to warn others here on FM to be extra cautious when contacted by someone different than than the original poster of an item. I was scammed.
I inquired about a lens for sale. The original poster had notifications turned off for PM and did not immediately respond. But someone else contacted me and said they had the same item for sale. His pitch seemed credible although I was suspicious because he found me - I din't find or contact him.
I agreed to buy the item and paid for it using Paypal. Instead of receiving the lens I received a worthless metal token; it looks like a pressed coin or medallion. The person represented himself as Michael Cifranic and my Paypal payment was made to Tyler Wick. Ashamed to say I was duped.
I have had several easy and successful transactions here on FM but it seems the world keeps getting darker. Beware.
I am in the middle of a claim with Paypal. I hope I get my money back ($720)....Show more →
This exact thing happened to me just this week. Someone contacted me via email out of the blue saying they found me on FM. Said they had the item I was looking to buy and offered me a too-good-to-be-true price. He wanted me to pay via PayPal and the payment was going to his "wife" who had a man's name. He wouldn't give me a phone number or address. Has no online presence of any kind. Google showed nothing on his name or email address. Point is, BEWARE..............scumbags are out there and are actively looking for you!
p.10 #2 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
PayPal purports to protect all parties to the transaction but in reality it does not. Several years ago I sold a few hundred dollars worth of prints via my website. The buyer paid by PayPal. I transferred the payment from my PayPal account into my regular bank account and the next day I sent the order to the printer for fulfillment. After the order shipped from the printer to the buyer I was notified that PayPal had undone the transfer of funds to my bank account, and undone the the transfer of funds to my PayPal account. In other words, PayPal took all of the money back. Why? Because they discovered a "problem" with the credit card the buyer used to pay for the print order with PayPal. So at that point I had paid the printer and shipped the prints, and despite all of PayPal's representations about secure transactions and all parties being protected, I was left with absolutely nothing. After a ridiculous amount of time I finally got a person on the phone at PayPal, and after a lot of back-and-forth discussion that person simply admitted that there was nothing fair about the situation, but too bad for me. The bottom line was that PayPal wasn't going to be stuck so instead, I was going to be stuck. Ultimately, the buyer did pay me for the prints, but that was all about the buyer being an honest person. PayPal, on the other hand, sucks. Plain and simple....they suck.
p.10 #3 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
Receiving a payment from paypal is essentially like getting a yellow sticky note with a hand written tentative promise to perhaps pay money in the future. In other words, a deal with paypal payment is equivalent to sending the item first on good faith, and then hoping the buyer will send you the money later. The only thing you have to rely upon is the reputation and honesty of the buyer, so that's what a seller needs to check very carefully. Paypal "protections" are of no use for the seller. For this reason, it should not surprise any new members here that sellers are often very reluctant to make a deal.
p.10 #4 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
kcvideo wrote:
I received this pm from a buyer -
"Hi, I'm from Vancouver Canada but I make purchases from FM sent to Washington and then I go pick up. Are you okay with that?
Thanks"
Does anyone see a problem with selling to this buyer?
I live in Canada, and also have a US mailbox. It's pretty common up here as a lot of US retailers will either not ship to Canada, or price gouge on the shipping. (IE; they will advertise FREE shipping anywhere in the US, but it's $150 USD to ship 10 miles across the border type of thing)
That being said, my US address is verified by PayPal, I'm sure that just about anyone who has a US mailbox can do the same, leaving the protection for seller and buyer in place.
p.10 #5 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
I and another forum member were recently scammed by member KJBruin. Please heed Fred Miranda's warning. Even reputable members can have their accounts hacked, which is what happened to me.
I'd like to share the way I got scammed: hopefully it's helpful for other forum members. I'll put this out there: I was dumb. Don't be dumb like me.
A Canon 24-70 MK II lens was for sale for $800. Seller KJBruin has 30+ positive reviews, including one recent review. Communicates in fluent English, but mentions he prefers payment through Google Pay or Cash App. Says their Paypal account was cancelled after a bad transaction with a buyer. After much back and forth over several days, I decided this guy is the real deal and sent payment through Google Pay, ignoring the advice posted in numerous places on the forum. Seller never provided tracking number and later Fred Miranda informs me that this seller's account has been compromised.
In hindsight, seller had a long buying/selling history but had not sold at all in the past 8 years. Then recently the seller sold one item to a forum member who only has one review and whose account date was from around the same time period as the seller. It's possible these accounts are both being run by the same scammer, who may have obtained both accounts' login info in the same data breach.
If there's one thing I want to emphasize it is that an individual's track record means nothing if their account has been compromised. Please follow Fred Miranda's advice and protect yourselves. $800 is a mistake I'll bounce back from and I'm glad this didn't cost me more.
Anyways, it sucks to share a post that evidences what a dummy I was, but if reading this post makes one person take more caution, it'll have been worth it to me.
p.10 #6 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
SELLERS BEWARE: THIS APPLIES TO ALL PAYPAL METHODS, REGULAR AND FRIENDS & FAMILY. This scam was tried on me several times when I listed a computer for sale.
The "buyer" first asks if it's still for sale. Then they say they will pay your asking price and want overnight Fedex or UPS, but they want it shipped to Miami or close to Miami. The address they give you is actually a re-shipper.
Then they ask you to send them a Paypal invoice, which they "pay" right away but the message comes from some other email address and looks like Paypal but it is not. DO NOT OPEN THIS EMAIL OR CLICK ANY LINKS IN IT. The money doesn't show up in your Paypal account. This is a fraudulent account.
If you fall for this and actually ship your product, it will end up somewhere in Central America, and they will default on the payment, leaving you no protection since they paid using a "business" Paypal account that does not have seller protection for you. You are out your item and receive no payment.
This is one of the many reasons I do not accept Paypal payments except from people I know, or people with high reputation here on FM or other legitimate site.
Be safe out there. Simply using Paypal is not enough.
p.10 #8 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
zachfang wrote:
Hi guys, I really like the buy/sell section here, literally treating it like Ebay. quick question: I'm recently approached (via PM) by a member who has 0 posts, and asked if I'm still interested in an item.
Generally speaking, there is a high chance this is going to be a fraud right?
Thanks
YES YES YES, I am new here , I had the same problem,
p.10 #9 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
I have problems with purchasers who don't understand Verified Address in my sales. If you have lots of ratings, why is your address "unverified" on payPal?
p.10 #10 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
In one case where I had doubts about a new buyer I sent the lens to beheld for pickup the nearest FedEx location. Atleast they would have to show their ID. It worked out but I intend to do it again if I have questions.
p.10 #11 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
The issue I have with fredmiranda and scammers is that they’re taking the photos of high end items that are posted for sale here and then using them to create fraudulent ebay auctions (and probably other places as well). I wish someone could get a contact at eBay who could shut those down when they’re found by one of us.
p.10 #13 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
bradhusick wrote:
SELLERS BEWARE: THIS APPLIES TO ALL PAYPAL METHODS, REGULAR AND FRIENDS & FAMILY. This scam was tried on me several times when I listed a computer for sale.
The "buyer" first asks if it's still for sale. Then they say they will pay your asking price and want overnight Fedex or UPS, but they want it shipped to Miami or close to Miami. The address they give you is actually a re-shipper.
Then they ask you to send them a Paypal invoice, which they "pay" right away but the message comes from some other email address and looks like Paypal but it is not. DO NOT OPEN THIS EMAIL OR CLICK ANY LINKS IN IT. The money doesn't show up in your Paypal account. This is a fraudulent account.
If you fall for this and actually ship your product, it will end up somewhere in Central America, and they will default on the payment, leaving you no protection since they paid using a "business" Paypal account that does not have seller protection for you. You are out your item and receive no payment.
This is one of the many reasons I do not accept Paypal payments except from people I know, or people with high reputation here on FM or other legitimate site.
Be safe out there. Simply using Paypal is not enough....Show more →
I agree with you.
For few years I never used Ebay to sell my photog equipment. Last week, I started to sell my lenses on Ebay again, two scammers sent messages to me asking if my lenses were still available.
And they asked me to take down my listing and told me that the buy now button weren't working on their browsers. Then asked me to send paypal invoices to their email addresses.
I thought someone finally wanted to buy my lenses; but then why they wanted to buy the lens outside Ebay rules.
I googled it and found out that this scam has been around for years on Ebay and the last time I sold some items on Ebay in 2010, this scam is never happened to me.
p.10 #15 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
bostonmacos wrote:
Next time I'm using a proxy to buy.......send money they send product and only when they say its legit does the money exchange hands....
Sounds nice, but there are way too many buyers out there for me to even give a second thought about someone who wants to complicate the process, and I bet a lot of other sellers would feel the same way.
Why would I bother to go through your intermediary when there are lots of people who are willing to send me money directly?
I'm not saying your idea is bad, just that you will probably be drastically cutting down on the number of people who are willing to sell to you.
p.10 #16 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
Not sure how to report a possible scammer.
User name: Gregory10
Just signed up on 10/09/20
They usually respond to WTB ads. So far has reached out twice even after the first time we got into going back and fourth about payment and just said forget it.
p.10 #17 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
I'm more or less new to FM and find it a wonderful site if you want to prevent ebay charges.
Several transactions went perfectly and when I started to post WTB ads it started to get strange. Several people - with accounts 1 or 2 days old - sent me messages saying that they know someone who has that wanted item to sell with an email address. Sounds fishy, doesn't it ?!
Both were just scammers... I'm very sure of that (users Shelvydal and Ryessi)
p.10 #18 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
jourprof wrote:
I have problems with purchasers who don't understand Verified Address in my sales. If you have lots of ratings, why is your address "unverified" on payPal?
Well, PayPal has some serious problems with 'verified' and 'unverified' addresses.
I'm a PayPal user since 2001, used ALWAYS the same address as billing and shipping addresses. Since 19 years ! And sometimes, only sometimes, my address gets marked as 'unverified', no one knows why. I called them and they looked it up and assured me that my address is 'verified' in their system and they have no clue, why it should get marked as 'unverified' in their emails. Some of their programmers obviously have no idea what they are doing...
So, no way to rely on that. Other honest people, I'm sure of that, must have the same problem. And PayPal is too big to solve that problem somehow
p.10 #19 · Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
Just got a scam attempt on a "Wanted To Buy" posting.
- FIrst PM from "Anderpete" (only a member for a few days) who sent me to another, non-member who has a great price but will only accept "Friends and Family" to yet another email person. Gee whiz.
- The various emails/cast of characters to watch out for are:
Anderpete (AKA Andrew Jones, zero posts, member for 10 days, no Buy&Sell account)
The person with the camera: David Kelly <[email protected]>
His phone/text no: 406 800-5616
The person who he wants you to send money to: [email protected]
I'M THINKING THAT IT'S SO PREVALENT THAT I SHOULD PROBABLY AVOID THAT FUNCTIONALITY HERE? YOUR THOUGHTS @fredmiranda?
Alert: Uninsured payments and tips for safe transactions
