Oy... here goes...
So I was ebaying a new powerbook which I realized I was too poor to afford, when an ebay user emailed me and asked if he can pay me $1400 for a $1300 powerbook, but I'd have to ship to Phillipines. Since at the time, there were a few more days left on the auction, I'd figured I'd entertain his notion, thinking that he'd never pay or I'd refuse if he wanted me to go through an international escrow. Things took an interesting turn, when moments later, he paypals me $1400 + enough to ship the darn thing via 2nd day.
I figured, "hey, why not -- it's a quick $100, and I already got the cash...." My greed (and honesty, ironically) got the best of me, and I went ahead shipped the Powerbook the next day via Global Express.
Now, nothing has gone awry yet, but some how, I started coming across other ebay users experiencing fraud (a funny one can be found here -- http://www.mannequin3d.com/powerbook/ ), and that paypal does not provide protection against charge backs. I've taken some precautionary measures by taking the money out of Paypal and into my bank account, and the transaction has already been cleared.
I'm worried sick about this -- obviously I couldn't afford to keep the powerbook in the first place , and I don't want to be scammed out of the $1400, and not have the powerbook either. Is there anything that I might have overlooked where I could still get scammed? There's currently no signs that this is a scam, other than that it follows the patten of many other scams. I could very well be worried over nothing, and that this guy really couldn't get a powerbook over to the Phillipines.
Am I just being paranoid? Another steps that I'm missing to protect against being scammed? Obviously, the best is if I simply refused to begin with, but too late for that now...let's think triage at this point...
Thanks for the input.
=========================
To quickly recap some of the nitty-gritty that came up later:
-Buyer was a personal verified member for 2 years, 5 months
-Package was fully insured, with tracking and signature confirmation via USPS global express.
=========================
Thanks for everyone's input so far, the support means a lot. For those w/ less than supportive comments, yeah, I know, I screwed-up. Just trying to give heads up to others as well as trying to get some input as how to proceed.
So I was ebaying a new powerbook which I realized I was too poor to afford, when an ebay user emailed me and asked if he can pay me $1400 for a $1300 powerbook, but I'd have to ship to Phillipines. Since at the time, there were a few more days left on the auction, I'd figured I'd entertain his notion, thinking that he'd never pay or I'd refuse if he wanted me to go through an international escrow. Things took an interesting turn, when moments later, he paypals me $1400 + enough to ship the darn thing via 2nd day.
I figured, "hey, why not -- it's a quick $100, and I already got the cash...." My greed (and honesty, ironically) got the best of me, and I went ahead shipped the Powerbook the next day via Global Express.
Now, nothing has gone awry yet, but some how, I started coming across other ebay users experiencing fraud (a funny one can be found here -- http://www.mannequin3d.com/powerbook/ ), and that paypal does not provide protection against charge backs. I've taken some precautionary measures by taking the money out of Paypal and into my bank account, and the transaction has already been cleared.
I'm worried sick about this -- obviously I couldn't afford to keep the powerbook in the first place , and I don't want to be scammed out of the $1400, and not have the powerbook either. Is there anything that I might have overlooked where I could still get scammed? There's currently no signs that this is a scam, other than that it follows the patten of many other scams. I could very well be worried over nothing, and that this guy really couldn't get a powerbook over to the Phillipines.
Am I just being paranoid? Another steps that I'm missing to protect against being scammed? Obviously, the best is if I simply refused to begin with, but too late for that now...let's think triage at this point...
Thanks for the input.
=========================
To quickly recap some of the nitty-gritty that came up later:
-Buyer was a personal verified member for 2 years, 5 months
-Package was fully insured, with tracking and signature confirmation via USPS global express.
=========================
Thanks for everyone's input so far, the support means a lot. For those w/ less than supportive comments, yeah, I know, I screwed-up. Just trying to give heads up to others as well as trying to get some input as how to proceed.
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