Auction fraud on the rise, some say.... (you know ebay is involved)

[NOX]

Auction fraud on the rise, some say
Con artists getting more clever, vigilantes more frustrated

By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC

July 29 ? Has auction fraud gotten worse recently? That depends on whom you ask. Dennis Barringer went hunting for con artists recently after he ordered a laptop computer from an auction seller and received a phone book instead. His vigorous vigilante efforts since then have landed him two death threats. Another vigilante, Michael Carr, says in some categories on eBay, 75 percent of the items offered are scams. And even eBay concedes that auction criminals are getting more crafty all the time.

LOL, the phone book part is funny.

What I don't understand is how people allow themselves TO GET ripped off!?

For example about two months ago I sold my sons iMac G4 at ebay (because I knew it was where I would get the most for it, which I did ). The transaction was smooth, maybe that was because we agreed to use www.escrow.com. It assured both the buyer and I that no one would be getting the short end of the stick.

I don't understand why people are so naive, and don't use these kinds of services. The fees to guarantee won't be getting ripped off big time, are small in my opinion, well worth it. Or just plain common sense helps too!

If it sound to good to be true it most likely is.

Anyway, here is the full story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/784132.asp?pne=msn

 

[PsychoAndy]

problem with escrow sport:

#1 takes forever
#2 too large of an X variable

lets say we run escrow. lets say UPS breaks the damn things. guess what? i cant get my money until UPS pays out (3 months) and until then we're both SOL.

theres also a hell of a lot of buyer fraud. its not just the seller that can rip someone off.

EDIT: exactly. this is what the media tells us... sellers=con artists. not one mention of a seller getting ripped off by the buyer. and there are some who say there is no media bias.

 

[PsychoAndy]

"Sellers on eBay also face fraud" - an article extensively contributed to by PsychoAndy & Associates

 

[NOX]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
problem with escrow sport:

#1 takes forever
#2 too large of an X variable

lets say we run escrow. lets say UPS breaks the damn things. guess what? i cant get my money until UPS pays out (3 months) and until then we're both SOL.

theres also a hell of a lot of buyer fraud. its not just the seller that can rip someone off.

EDIT: exactly. this is what the media tells us... sellers=con artists. not one mention of a seller getting ripped off by the buyer. and there are some who say there is no media bias.

Sorry bud, but from what you have stated, you obviously have not use the service!

It took less then a week for the buyer and I to complete our transaction via escrow.com. It took two more days after that for escrow.com to send my funds via ACH into my bank account.

Depending on how YOU choose for your money to be sent to you will also determine the length of time (which shouldn?t take more then two weeks tops even if you choose for it to be mailed to you).

As far as ?variable?, I?m not to sure what you mean by that? The only real variable to determining how you get paid! The rest is done buy escrow.com for a small fee. They verify that the buyer as in fact secured the funds with them, before you are allowed to ship your item to buyer. Weather it be via check, MO, or CC. They wont let you send the item unless buyer sends money to them first!

As far as USPS, or any other carrier is concerned, well that?s another issue, and has nothing to do with making sure you don?t get ripped off from the seller or buyer!



From your link above:

Many buyers choose to pay through PayPal, a service eBay has announced it is acquiring. Sometimes, Tom says, someone will sign up for a PayPal account with a stolen credit card. They'll send the seller a PayPal payment and ask for a shipment, often overseas. The seller sends the merchandise, but payment on the stolen card is stopped, so the seller loses the goods and the money.

Again, naive. It's a well known fact that you should never allow the buyer to pay via CC using PayPal. And why many don't allow it on AnandTech. People using ebay (or any auction) should do the same to protect them from getting ripped.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: NOX

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
problem with escrow sport:

#1 takes forever
#2 too large of an X variable

lets say we run escrow. lets say UPS breaks the damn things. guess what? i cant get my money until UPS pays out (3 months) and until then we're both SOL.

theres also a hell of a lot of buyer fraud. its not just the seller that can rip someone off.

EDIT: exactly. this is what the media tells us... sellers=con artists. not one mention of a seller getting ripped off by the buyer. and there are some who say there is no media bias.

Sorry bud, but from what you have stated, you obviously have not use the service!

It took less then a week for the buyer and I to complete our transaction via escrow.com. It took two more days after that for escrow.com to send my funds via ACH into my bank account.

Depending on how YOU choose for your money to be sent to you will also determine the length of time (which shouldn?t take more then two weeks tops even if you choose for it to be mailed to you).

As far as ?variable?, I?m not to sure what you mean by that? The only real variable to determining how you get paid! The rest is done buy escrow.com for a small fee. They verify that the buyer as in fact secured the funds with them, before you are allowed to ship your item to buyer. Weather it be via check, MO, or CC. They wont let you send the money unless buyer sends money to them first!

As far as USPS, or any other carrier is concerned, well that?s another issue, and has nothing to do with making sure you don?t get ripped off from the seller or buyer!

When I looked into escrow, I asked a CSR about that sort of scenario and thats the information I was provided. I dont know if the policies changed, but that was my take on the situation. The only escrow TX i will run is thru my lawyer on a fed wire. thats it.

My main concern is that murphy's law kicks in, and for whatever reason:

I dont get my funds
Customer doesent get product
Payment gets chargebacked
Product gets refused
Product is undeliverable
Product is damaged

WHATEVER, I dont want anything that can or will happen to screw with my recieving of funds. Even if any of that happens, all teh P.O's I get are prepaid so i dont worry about getting hung up on X $ amount for X amount of time because the customer cant get product.

 

[NOX]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy

Originally posted by: NOX

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
problem with escrow sport:

#1 takes forever
#2 too large of an X variable

lets say we run escrow. lets say UPS breaks the damn things. guess what? i cant get my money until UPS pays out (3 months) and until then we're both SOL.

theres also a hell of a lot of buyer fraud. its not just the seller that can rip someone off.

EDIT: exactly. this is what the media tells us... sellers=con artists. not one mention of a seller getting ripped off by the buyer. and there are some who say there is no media bias.

Sorry bud, but from what you have stated, you obviously have not use the service!

It took less then a week for the buyer and I to complete our transaction via escrow.com. It took two more days after that for escrow.com to send my funds via ACH into my bank account.

Depending on how YOU choose for your money to be sent to you will also determine the length of time (which shouldn?t take more then two weeks tops even if you choose for it to be mailed to you).

As far as ?variable?, I?m not to sure what you mean by that? The only real variable to determining how you get paid! The rest is done buy escrow.com for a small fee. They verify that the buyer as in fact secured the funds with them, before you are allowed to ship your item to buyer. Weather it be via check, MO, or CC. They wont let you send the money unless buyer sends money to them first!

As far as USPS, or any other carrier is concerned, well that?s another issue, and has nothing to do with making sure you don?t get ripped off from the seller or buyer!

When I looked into escrow, I asked a CSR about that sort of scenario and thats the information I was provided. I dont know if the policies changed, but that was my take on the situation. The only escrow TX i will run is thru my lawyer on a fed wire. thats it.

Well, I'm not here trying to promote escrow.com (or any other escrow service). It's just that I've used the escrow.com service and I've seen how it protects both the buyer and seller (which they?ll explain to you before the start of your transaction).

I just don?t understand why more people don?t take more precautions, that way the media won?t have anything to write about.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: NOX

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
problem with escrow sport:

#1 takes forever
#2 too large of an X variable

lets say we run escrow. lets say UPS breaks the damn things. guess what? i cant get my money until UPS pays out (3 months) and until then we're both SOL.

theres also a hell of a lot of buyer fraud. its not just the seller that can rip someone off.

EDIT: exactly. this is what the media tells us... sellers=con artists. not one mention of a seller getting ripped off by the buyer. and there are some who say there is no media bias.

Sorry bud, but from what you have stated, you obviously have not use the service!

It took less then a week for the buyer and I to complete our transaction via escrow.com. It took two more days after that for escrow.com to send my funds via ACH into my bank account.

Depending on how YOU choose for your money to be sent to you will also determine the length of time (which shouldn?t take more then two weeks tops even if you choose for it to be mailed to you).

As far as ?variable?, I?m not to sure what you mean by that? The only real variable to determining how you get paid! The rest is done buy escrow.com for a small fee. They verify that the buyer as in fact secured the funds with them, before you are allowed to ship your item to buyer. Weather it be via check, MO, or CC. They wont let you send the item unless buyer sends money to them first!

As far as USPS, or any other carrier is concerned, well that?s another issue, and has nothing to do with making sure you don?t get ripped off from the seller or buyer!



From your link above:

Many buyers choose to pay through PayPal, a service eBay has announced it is acquiring. Sometimes, Tom says, someone will sign up for a PayPal account with a stolen credit card. They'll send the seller a PayPal payment and ask for a shipment, often overseas. The seller sends the merchandise, but payment on the stolen card is stopped, so the seller loses the goods and the money.

Again, naive. It's a well known fact that you should never allow the buyer to pay via CC using PayPal. And why many don't allow it on AnandTech. People using ebay (or any auction) should do the same to protect them from getting ripped.

The REASON AT doesent do so is because #1 they cant on personal accounts #2 they get hit with fees #3 they run the risk of chargeback. We're not talking about AT, we're talking about internet commerce as a whole. Yes, we know the risk and horror stories. Does everyone? If they did, we wouldnt be having this conversation.

 

[NOX]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy

Originally posted by: NOX

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
problem with escrow sport:

#1 takes forever
#2 too large of an X variable

lets say we run escrow. lets say UPS breaks the damn things. guess what? i cant get my money until UPS pays out (3 months) and until then we're both SOL.

theres also a hell of a lot of buyer fraud. its not just the seller that can rip someone off.

EDIT: exactly. this is what the media tells us... sellers=con artists. not one mention of a seller getting ripped off by the buyer. and there are some who say there is no media bias.

Sorry bud, but from what you have stated, you obviously have not use the service!

It took less then a week for the buyer and I to complete our transaction via escrow.com. It took two more days after that for escrow.com to send my funds via ACH into my bank account.

Depending on how YOU choose for your money to be sent to you will also determine the length of time (which shouldn?t take more then two weeks tops even if you choose for it to be mailed to you).

As far as ?variable?, I?m not to sure what you mean by that? The only real variable to determining how you get paid! The rest is done buy escrow.com for a small fee. They verify that the buyer as in fact secured the funds with them, before you are allowed to ship your item to buyer. Weather it be via check, MO, or CC. They wont let you send the item unless buyer sends money to them first!

As far as USPS, or any other carrier is concerned, well that?s another issue, and has nothing to do with making sure you don?t get ripped off from the seller or buyer!



From your link above:

Many buyers choose to pay through PayPal, a service eBay has announced it is acquiring. Sometimes, Tom says, someone will sign up for a PayPal account with a stolen credit card. They'll send the seller a PayPal payment and ask for a shipment, often overseas. The seller sends the merchandise, but payment on the stolen card is stopped, so the seller loses the goods and the money.

Again, naive. It's a well known fact that you should never allow the buyer to pay via CC using PayPal. And why many don't allow it on AnandTech. People using ebay (or any auction) should do the same to protect them from getting ripped.

The REASON AT doesent do so is because #1 they cant on personal accounts #2 they get hit with fees #3 they run the risk of chargeback. We're not talking about AT, we're talking about internet commerce as a whole. Yes, we know the risk and horror stories. Does everyone? If they did, we wouldnt be having this conversation.

Read my post above and you'll see I've already covered this area.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: NOX

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy

Originally posted by: NOX

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
problem with escrow sport:

#1 takes forever
#2 too large of an X variable

lets say we run escrow. lets say UPS breaks the damn things. guess what? i cant get my money until UPS pays out (3 months) and until then we're both SOL.

theres also a hell of a lot of buyer fraud. its not just the seller that can rip someone off.

EDIT: exactly. this is what the media tells us... sellers=con artists. not one mention of a seller getting ripped off by the buyer. and there are some who say there is no media bias.

Sorry bud, but from what you have stated, you obviously have not use the service!

It took less then a week for the buyer and I to complete our transaction via escrow.com. It took two more days after that for escrow.com to send my funds via ACH into my bank account.

Depending on how YOU choose for your money to be sent to you will also determine the length of time (which shouldn?t take more then two weeks tops even if you choose for it to be mailed to you).

As far as ?variable?, I?m not to sure what you mean by that? The only real variable to determining how you get paid! The rest is done buy escrow.com for a small fee. They verify that the buyer as in fact secured the funds with them, before you are allowed to ship your item to buyer. Weather it be via check, MO, or CC. They wont let you send the money unless buyer sends money to them first!

As far as USPS, or any other carrier is concerned, well that?s another issue, and has nothing to do with making sure you don?t get ripped off from the seller or buyer!

When I looked into escrow, I asked a CSR about that sort of scenario and thats the information I was provided. I dont know if the policies changed, but that was my take on the situation. The only escrow TX i will run is thru my lawyer on a fed wire. thats it.

Well, I'm not here trying to promote escrow.com (or any other escrow service). It's just that I've used the escrow.com service and I've seen how it protects both the buyer and seller (which they?ll explain to you before the start of your transaction).

I just don?t understand why more people don?t take more precautions, that way the media won?t have anything to write about.

Its not that sellers dont take precautions, its that theres always someone wet behind the ears that gets burned because they dont know better.