So some russian guy emailed me to ask me a question about my ebay auction

[cheezy321]

Heres the question he asked me.

Q: Hi, I'd like to buy your item, but I need to know: 1. Is it possible to ship item to Russia (i ve got shop there) and mark it (in declaration) as a gift? 2. I prefer paypal, do you accept it ? 3. Can you ship by USPS Global Express Mail (EMS) (www.usps.com)? 4. Do you ship same day with payment? 5. Do you combine shipping (if I d like to buy more your items)? I'll pay all shipping charges Have a nice day and thanks!

He prefers paying with paypal. Can he still scam me with paypal? Im confused on how it would work if he paid with paypal, then i transferred the money instantly to my bank and waiting for it to clear. What do you all think?

Im leaning towards ignorning him.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I wouldn't pay you with WU

 

[yukichigai]

If this is a PayPal/eBay scam it's new to me. All of his questions sound like legitimate questions a foreign buyer would ask. (Marking it as a "gift' is so customs won't hold it/reject it/inspect it/etc.)

I'd wait for whatsisface... erm... whosiwhatsit... the eBay guy who posts here before proceeding with the sale, but it doesn't sound like a scam.

 

[FuZoR]

yeah it doesnst seem to fishy to me

/me strugs

 

[AMDZen]

Seems fine. There is no way he can scam you if he is paying via Paypal, you are good to go.

 

[CraigRT]

I wouldnt ignore him, I see nothing wrong.

 

[NightTrain]

I steer clear of international bidders but to each his own.

And by steer clear I mean have them blocked by location.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: cheezy321
Heres the question he asked me.

Q: Hi, I'd like to buy your item, but I need to know: 1. Is it possible to ship item to Russia (i ve got shop there) and mark it (in declaration) as a gift? 2. I prefer paypal, do you accept it ? 3. Can you ship by USPS Global Express Mail (EMS) (www.usps.com)? 4. Do you ship same day with payment? 5. Do you combine shipping (if I d like to buy more your items)? I'll pay all shipping charges Have a nice day and thanks!

He prefers paying with paypal. Can he still scam me with paypal? Im confused on how it would work if he paid with paypal, then i transferred the money instantly to my bank and waiting for it to clear. What do you all think?

Im leaning towards ignorning him.

LOL at that part!

 

[randalee]

He sounds 100% legit to me. I've done some good business with overseas folks. Not anyone from Russia, but many other places. They have all been polite and everything has gone smoothly for me. Just use USPS just like he mentions and Paypal for payment. In the customs declaration form, say it's a gift, and it will save him some on the pickup.

Randy

 

[neonerd]

Originally posted by: AMDZen
Seems fine. There is no way he can scam you if he is paying via Paypal, you are good to go.

 

[kami333]

It all sounds reasonable.

However, I would NOT accept payment via paypal. He can still do a retraction. Get it through WU instead, and ship only after you have picked up the money.

 

[Reel]

Originally posted by: kami333
It all sounds reasonable.

However, I would NOT accept payment via paypal. He can still do a retraction. Get it through WU instead, and ship only after you have picked up the money.

You are playing right into his hand...

 

[kami333]

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333
It all sounds reasonable.

However, I would NOT accept payment via paypal. He can still do a retraction. Get it through WU instead, and ship only after you have picked up the money.

You are playing right into his hand...

Why?

I paid my way through college with eBay and sold many items internationally, I'm currently working in Europe so I make a lot of international purchases now too.

Show me one instance of a seller being scammed after recieving a legit WU when no refund was involved.

 

[MattE]

I would stay the hell away from that. It's a stolen Paypal account.

I had a guy from Brazil win one of my auctions for a BFG 6800GTOC bundle, for 1300 bucks. He paid me with paypal, but said it was his buddy's account.
I refunded the money, and reported him to Ebay.
His account was deleted the same day.

Be careful.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333
It all sounds reasonable.

However, I would NOT accept payment via paypal. He can still do a retraction. Get it through WU instead, and ship only after you have picked up the money.

You are playing right into his hand...

I thought there was no way to retract payment once the money is physically in a person's hand after picking it up from WU?

 

[IBuyUFO]

You could still get scammed using paypal. And if you do get scammed paypal will not do much to help you recover the money. The guy could be using a stolen paypal account and when the owner finds out he has been charged he can get a charge back from the credit card company. Paypal will try to get money out of your bank account or where ever you have your paypal linked to. I would wait two weeks after payment for overseas folks but that's just me. Correct me if I'm wrong?

 

[MattE]

I wouldn't use Paypal for out-of-country transactions. Read the paypal policies carefully, and you'll find that Seller protection for non-US sales is virtually non-existent.

 

[Reel]

Originally posted by: kami333

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333
It all sounds reasonable.

However, I would NOT accept payment via paypal. He can still do a retraction. Get it through WU instead, and ship only after you have picked up the money.

You are playing right into his hand...

Why?

I paid my way through college with eBay and sold many items internationally, I'm currently working in Europe so I make a lot of international purchases now too.

Show me one instance of a seller being scammed after recieving a legit WU when no refund was involved.

Don't the scammers usually offer that they will use Western Union? I find it funny that we would steer the seller toward what the scammers usually use. I suspect that the buyer may be legitimate but the area for the seller to be cautious of is that they will not have seller protection selling to a Russian address and the buyer could retract his credit card payment.

 

[kami333]

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333
It all sounds reasonable.

However, I would NOT accept payment via paypal. He can still do a retraction. Get it through WU instead, and ship only after you have picked up the money.

You are playing right into his hand...

Why?

I paid my way through college with eBay and sold many items internationally, I'm currently working in Europe so I make a lot of international purchases now too.

Show me one instance of a seller being scammed after recieving a legit WU when no refund was involved.

Don't the scammers usually offer that they will use Western Union? I find it funny that we would steer the seller toward what the scammers usually use. I suspect that the buyer may be legitimate but the area for the seller to be cautious of is that they will not have seller protection selling to a Russian address and the buyer could retract his credit card payment.

Not at all, scamming sellers will only accept WU precisely for the reason why he should ask for it, once the money is sent and picked up there is no going back. The recipient doesn't even need to show an ID, all they need is the tracking number for the money.

 

[Reel]

Originally posted by: kami333

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333
It all sounds reasonable.

However, I would NOT accept payment via paypal. He can still do a retraction. Get it through WU instead, and ship only after you have picked up the money.

You are playing right into his hand...

Why?

I paid my way through college with eBay and sold many items internationally, I'm currently working in Europe so I make a lot of international purchases now too.

Show me one instance of a seller being scammed after recieving a legit WU when no refund was involved.

Don't the scammers usually offer that they will use Western Union? I find it funny that we would steer the seller toward what the scammers usually use. I suspect that the buyer may be legitimate but the area for the seller to be cautious of is that they will not have seller protection selling to a Russian address and the buyer could retract his credit card payment.

Not at all, scamming sellers will only accept WU precisely for the reason why he should ask for it, once the money is sent and picked up there is no going back. The recipient doesn't even need to show an ID, all they need is the tracking number for the money.

So it is only bad to pay by WU. It is ok to sell by WU? What about BidPay? When I sold my laptop, the foreigners would always suggest that they would pay by WU BidPay and I was worried about that so I would turn them away.

 

[Eli]

Unless you've got no other offers or something, pass....

 

[kami333]

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: kami333
It all sounds reasonable.

However, I would NOT accept payment via paypal. He can still do a retraction. Get it through WU instead, and ship only after you have picked up the money.

You are playing right into his hand...

Why?

I paid my way through college with eBay and sold many items internationally, I'm currently working in Europe so I make a lot of international purchases now too.

Show me one instance of a seller being scammed after recieving a legit WU when no refund was involved.

Don't the scammers usually offer that they will use Western Union? I find it funny that we would steer the seller toward what the scammers usually use. I suspect that the buyer may be legitimate but the area for the seller to be cautious of is that they will not have seller protection selling to a Russian address and the buyer could retract his credit card payment.

Not at all, scamming sellers will only accept WU precisely for the reason why he should ask for it, once the money is sent and picked up there is no going back. The recipient doesn't even need to show an ID, all they need is the tracking number for the money.

So it is only bad to pay by WU. It is ok to sell by WU? What about BidPay? When I sold my laptop, the foreigners would always suggest that they would pay by WU BidPay and I was worried about that so I would turn them away.

Like I said, find me one instance of a seller being scammed after recieving a legitimate WU where they didn't send a "refund" back to the sender. Western Union even warns you that their service is not meant to be used for sending money to strangers, that's what excrow services are for.

As for BidPay, it's about as safe as recieving a money order (since that's what they send you, a Western Union money order). Sure there are fake/spoofed BidPay payment sent emails and fake money orders but as long as you wait until the money order is physically in your hands and verify that it is authentic, you should be safe.

 

[RaiderJ]

Paypal w/o seller protection = bad

I'd use Western Union or even a money order. The buyer then can't claim fraud on you. International stuff is a pain. I wish Paypal protected its sellers more (ones with good feedback at least).

 

[MaxFusion16]

I suggest you use bidpay instead, no charge to you and complete protection.