WARNING: Scammers operating here, sending PMs.

[dorkshoei]

Twice now in the past month I have received a PM from someone replying to my wanted ad here.

Both times they looked like scams from the getgo.  The sender of the PM had registered here the same day they sent the PM,  had zero public posts and provided no details other than "this person has what you are looking for,  email xyz@gmail.com"

For fun I emailed them.  First time no reply.  Second time,  they said they needed a day to provide info.  A day later they replied,  reasonable English,  picture lifted off another forum (took 2 mins to find the image searching for the item I was looking for in Google search, images tab) and most obviously they requested I pay via WESTERN UNION which is a clear scam.

I suggest if you get such a PM that you contact the admins.

[jars121]

I've had basically the exact same PM in the last couple of days. I assumed it was a scam so ignored it straight away; I'll report it to admins now

[EHT]

If we used PayPal (not friends & family) I expect the buyer should be protected in this case? Just in case the scammers persist and become more competent...

[Halcyon]

If we used PayPal (not friends & family) I expect the buyer should be protected in this case? Just in case the scammers persist and become more competent...

Don't rely on that. PayPal's "buyer protection" policy has many conditions (and vary between countries). One of the first things it states is "You have no automatic entitlement to receive any payments under the Buyer Protection Policy."

In some cases, you may be better off using a credit card to pay for your items (via PayPal) and requesting a charge-back from your credit card provider. A decent bank will even refund small amounts with no questions asked, out of courtesy to their customers.

[dorkshoei]

Mods have informed me that they have disabled ability for people with 0 posts to send PMs.    Personally min of 10 is more effective but they said they had too many complaints when it was previously set to 5.

Bottom line:
- no details other than email xyz,  red flag
- check the posting history and join date of anyone you're considering buying from, if in any doubt insist on PayPal purchase funded by a major credit card.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

[coromonadalix]

Now i pay only thru Paypal with an linked credit card,  paid only once directly with my credit card, had problems and lost the transaction $$. 

Paypal can protect up to 60 days, maybe more in some cases. 

If "they dont use Paypal" i simply dont buy from them ....... even i did manage to get almost scammed on a Deer-5000 at an ridicoulous price  loll 

I was fast enough to go in the cancell order route in Ebay, even received an fake shipment tracking number and got refunded,  but the other 43 buyers may not got the chance to do so ??

As Dorkshoei wrote :

Bottom line:
- no details other than email xyz,  red flag
- check the posting history and join date of anyone you're considering buying from, if in any doubt insist on PayPal purchase funded by a major credit card.

[DK-1]

I assure you all someone (the same thief i believe)sent me two message with dfferent accounts but obviously all with 0 (zero) post to tell me a friend of a friend has many IR soldering station to sell, i put (on the second hand section) a request about an IR used machine to buy.
So i  can say the same thing about who started this topic, we have a thief/crook want to cheat a forum member!

[Inverted18650]

What about BUYERS? Anyone ever had issues with forum buyers; being charged back, etc, from "newish" users? While the "seller protection" is a bit better with PayPal, I am still a bit worried.

[dorkshoei]

What about BUYERS? Anyone ever had issues with forum buyers; being charged back, etc, from "newish" users? While the "seller protection" is a bit better with PayPal, I am still a bit worried.

Paypal seller protection is significantly better than eBay.  For eBay seller pays return shipping for a SNAD and buyer can misfile as SNAD even if real reason is they changed their mind or didn't read the description properly. There is a huge thread on eBay community site on exactly this.

Under PayPal the buyer is responsible for return shipping even in the case of a SNAD claim.  PayPal also will not get involved by reviewing photographs.

I had to go through it recently when a custom made medicine cabinet arrived in terrible condition.   Seller refused to pay return shipping ($70) and rejected claim as he'd not received item back.  PayPal said if I wanted refund I had to pay return shipping and they would not review photographs.  In the end I had to go through VISA, they also wouldn't review photographs but will consider independent evaluations on company letterhead, so I got two and eventually won,  full refund,  didn't need to return (but would have had seller ever contacted).

I think charge backs are just one of the risks of selling.  For expensive items  I use anti tamper serial number stickers to prevent parts swapping, use adult signature required even though PayPal only mandates for >$750,  take detailed photos of the item, working/running, with anti tamper stickers and shipping label visible and include 2 images of this on a sheet of paper inside box.  If it turns out the buyer is a scammer, very unlikely especially on a forum like this, they will hopefully realize i will fight them and hopefully they'll (unfortunately) move onto someone else.

I'm on some forums that have a feedback system and its very common for sellers with good ratings selling in demand items to ask for payment by Paypal gift.

I've only purchased two items from eevblog sellers,  one required payment via Amazon gift card and the other by personal check (very little protection for them and they shipped same day they received the check). They had decent post history so I complied and both items arrived fine.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

[bitbanger]

...For expensive items  I use anti tamper serial number stickers to prevent parts swapping,...

Do you have a link/source for such stickers?