Ebay Auction help....

[Mercury]

Ok, so I have a question for you. I just purchased a laptop for a great deal on Ebay. Here is a link:

EBay Link

So I go to westernunion.com and filll out the apprpriate forms and they tell me I need to call them to verify info. I do so and they tell me that they cannot accept that transaction because they have the account of this seller marked for an EBay Laptop Scam, which was filed 1.13.03. This seller has no negative feedback from that period, nor did they leave any. I mentioned this to the seller, who actually lives in Lithuania, and they said to send it to a different name there, and that they could not do the transaction any other way (i.e. escrow or what have you). The seller lokks to be a part of sonnexco.com and I was wondering if any of you had heard of them or not. their ebay feedback it excellant, but I am worried about the western union info. What do you think?

 

[TeeSeeJay]

I'd probably trust western union instead of the ebay feedback.

 

[Mercury]

Yeah, I did, and as it turns out, Ebay contacted me to let me know that they were closing this guys account because someone else had taken control of it. Lucky for me I was to nervous to actually send the money right away.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

There are certain categories on eBay so rife with fraud, it isn't worth bidding. Laptops are one of them. Even if I could get a Pentium IV laptop with 512MB of RAM and a 100GB hard drive, all for $50.00, I wouldn't bid.

Thank goodness that you didn't get ripped off.

Also, BIG tip: Never, and I repeat, NEVER send money for an auction through Western Union. Why? Because, even though you think you're sending the money to St. Louis, the money can be picked up ANYWHERE there's a Western Union office.

For instance, someone can hijack an account that's got great feedback, load up a lot of auctions on high-end stuff, insist on money through Western Union, and walk away with thousands of dollars before the complaints start rolling in. The original owner of the account is left with a huge feedback hit, and the thief walks away free.

So don't use Western Union.

Also, the latest round of scams use fake escrow companies. You think you're putting your money safely away until you've verified the goods, and several weeks later when you haven't gotten the goods, you contact the escrow company. Only your emails bounce back. And you reach a disconnected phone number.

So watch out for that scam, as well.

 

[TeeSeeJay]

There are certain categories on eBay so rife with fraud, it isn't worth bidding. Laptops are one of them. Even if I could get a Pentium IV laptop with 512MB of RAM and a 100GB hard drive, all for $50.00, I wouldn't bid.

Thank goodness that you didn't get ripped off.

Also, BIG tip: Never, and I repeat, NEVER send money for an auction through Western Union. Why? Because, even though you think you're sending the money to St. Louis, the money can be picked up ANYWHERE there's a Western Union office.

For instance, someone can hijack an account that's got great feedback, load up a lot of auctions on high-end stuff, insist on money through Western Union, and walk away with thousands of dollars before the complaints start rolling in. The original owner of the account is left with a huge feedback hit, and the thief walks away free.

So don't use Western Union.

Also, the latest round of scams use fake escrow companies. You think you're putting your money safely away until you've verified the goods, and several weeks later when you haven't gotten the goods, you contact the escrow company. Only your emails bounce back. And you reach a disconnected phone number.

So watch out for that scam, as well.

Western Union's "BidPay" service involves them actually cutting and mailing a Money Order to the exact address you specify. That's pretty safe. Sellers like it because it puts the fee burden on the buyer (vs. Paypal's seller burden)