I HOPE MY GUIDE CAN HELP YOU PROTECT YOUR ITEMS AND SAVE YOUR NERVES AND MONEY

There are many different types of fraudulent activity and scams that exist on Ebay.

I don't know them all, BUT I WANT TO INFORM YOU on one of the schemes and EXPLAIN HOW IT WORKS because it can HELP YOU PROTECT YOUR ITEMS, money and nerves. In most schemes the seller is the one who suffers most.


For example:

You are selling your used computer and someone buys it from you through a Buy It Now option even without negotiating the price, at most asking you whether the computer is still in the same condition. The buyer asks you to ship the item using the fastest shipping available, where the price of shipping is of no concern.  The same computer as the one you have up for sale, only in brand new condition costs about $1000 in the electronics store , but you want to receive $950 for your used one. Relisting it for the 3rd time you finally have a buyer ready to pay the full asking price, but orders the item to be shipped ASAP with the fastest service available for whatever reason (work presentation, emergency flight out of the country, etc). Most likely you will happily run to the post office ASAP to send the computer in a hurry, without paying much attention to Buyer's unconfirmed address.  But in a couple of days you receive an email from PayPal, which states that the money you've received as a payment for the sold computer are now being confiscated, because these money were stolen from another person's PayPal account. Unfortunately by this time the item has already been sent and you have no way to stop the shipping, so in the end you lose the money and the computer. 

Thank God the computer was only worth about $700 instead of $2700; however, it is still a substantial loss. And to think, the only problem was that the buyer didn't have a PayPal confirmed address.


Here is how it works:

Hackers steal access to someone's PayPal account, change the address and pay you for the purchase from this account. As you must know, every PayPal account must be attached to a debit account or a credit card and the money are automatically taken from there without notice. In this situation, as the seller, you see that the money is received on your PayPal account, so you either leave it there or request for transfer of funds to your debit account or credit card, afterwards you go to the post office to send the item ASAP, just as you promised. Nevertheless, the transfer takes up to 3 days and if you are not an experienced user, most likely you will log out of your Ebay and PayPal accounts, returning 3 days later to check why the money is still not transferred. This is exactly what scammers want you to do. Going back to how the scheme works. Scammers find an empty apartment and add this address to a stolen PayPal account, so the computer you've sent went straight into their hands. When you got the payment on your PayPal account it showed as received just long enough until the real holder, from whom the money has been stolen, noticed the money missing from his/hers PayPal account. As u can understand, some people might not be aware of the absent money right away and only notice it a few days later. However, when the real account holder sees that the money is missing s/he will contact PayPal about unauthorized payment and PayPal will take away the money from your account. The worst thing is that in this situation PayPal will not reimburse you in any way because you've sent the item to an unconfirmed address.


Here is how to protect your assets in the future:

Do not send expensive items to unconfirmed addresses because most likely the potential victims are people who do not sell on Ebay regularly, have less than 100 feedbacks and are not fully acquainted with Ebay and PayPal rules.

This is exactly what happened to my friend. Lacking experience and knowledge about Ebay and PayPal rules, she sent her $2500 Macbook pro straight into the hands of some crook. Since the police does not deal with such cases and PayPal did not reimburse her because she did not follow their policy rules, she lost her computer and the money, gaining many sleepless nights.

SO PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN SELLING EXPENSIVE ITEMS!