Help! Best Transaction Method?

[pgwalsh]

I'm looking to purchase a laptop from someone and it's not through ebay or anything. He lives in Canada and I'm wondering what the best transaction method is? I was thinking of doing Cash On Delivery and then checking the product, but I'm not sure if that's the best way. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Juventuz]

What about PayPal? Can't you use them?

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by Juventuz
What about PayPal? Can't you use them? I've heard for PayPal, but I'm not familiar with them. I'll keep that option open.

[rainman::|:|]

If you don't use eBay, or even if you do on big items, i strongly suggest you consider Escrow. Escrow works as follows:
1. You send a trusted 3rd party the money.
2. Upon receipt of money received, seller ships the product
2. After inspecting the equipment, you notify 3rd party to release funds.

It's the only way to protect yourself in the process. There used to be a service called iEscrow, i don't know if they're still in business but i'm sure you can find a reputable company on the 'net for these dealings. They take a small fee but it's worth it for peace of mind.

:)
pnw

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by paulwhannel
If you don't use eBay, or even if you do on big items, i strongly suggest you consider Escrow. Escrow works as follows:
1. You send a trusted 3rd party the money.
2. Upon receipt of money received, seller ships the product
2. After inspecting the equipment, you notify 3rd party to release funds.

It's the only way to protect yourself in the process. There used to be a service called iEscrow, i don't know if they're still in business but i'm sure you can find a reputable company on the 'net for these dealings. They take a small fee but it's worth it for peace of mind.

:)
pnw
That certainly sounds like the ideal solution. Thanks for the suggestion. How to find that third party. Too bad B of A doesn't offer this service, that would make it easy.

[mmoin]

www.escrow.com is the service used by Ebay. It's not cheap, but I assume it's quite reliable since Ebay uses it.

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by mmoin
www.escrow.com is the service used by Ebay. It's not cheap, but I assume it's quite reliable since Ebay uses it. Thanks, I'm going to try and use this one. This person wants to use moneybookers.com, but I've heard nothing about them and the information on the site is lite at best.

Thanks for your help

Peter

[OKComputer]

i suggest www.c2it.com


its similar to paypal but though citibank.

[pgwalsh]

Okay, I've tried to conduct business with two people that were really stuck on their services and they didn't want to use escrow.com.

The first was http://www.money-bookers.com
The site says it's verisign secure, but doesn't offer any of the features of escrow.com. You can actually conduct business blind. I don't trust this method.

The scond was http://www.energy-escrow.com
This site has no ratings of any kind and I could put together something like this in a day or two. It seems sketchy. The unprofessional look and the non autmated transaction system seems to ring scam site.

Has anyone every used either of these services? Is there a place that rates these services? I feel like it's a scam, but I don't know.

[rainman::|:|]

there's no reason for them to refuse a reputable site. why would they? i'd be suspicious as hell. granted these other sites probably aren't frauds (it's rather elaborate), but better safe than sorry, scams are getting 'better' all the time. the saying about "there's a sucker born every minute" isn't true; it should be "there's always a scam artist willing to go the extra mile to rip someone off".

if they can stick to their guns, so can you. if you don't feel comfortable with a transaction, don't do it, their loss. surely you can find a similar deal with people willing to be straightforward.

best of luck, and trust your instincts!

:)
pnw

[rainman::|:|]

This energy-escrow place seems to have a system whereby they don't accept credit cards, just "e-gold" and wire transfers. This is a sign of fraud - the credit card companies would tear them apart if they're defrauding people, whereas individual people are less likely to take action. The general site condition, the crappy unrelated clipart that adorns the linkbar... i would not send them "egold" in a million years.

i hate to say it, but i think you might be getting scammed here... and i'm not one to flip out that easily.

you could try contacting your state's attorney general with info about the site. believe me, it's a good step to take - that's what the attorney general is there for. they're very willing to work with people on these kinds of issues.

best of luck
paul

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by paulwhannel
This energy-escrow place seems to have a system whereby they don't accept credit cards, just "e-gold" and wire transfers. This is a sign of fraud - the credit card companies would tear them apart if they're defrauding people, whereas individual people are less likely to take action. The general site condition, the crappy unrelated clipart that adorns the linkbar... i would not send them "egold" in a million years.

i hate to say it, but i think you might be getting scammed here... and i'm not one to flip out that easily.

you could try contacting your state's attorney general with info about the site. believe me, it's a good step to take - that's what the attorney general is there for. they're very willing to work with people on these kinds of issues.

best of luck
paul
Thanks Paul..
I thought the sites looked rather suspect. That's one reason why I was asking if anybody has used them. When they don't have a corporate sponsor like a bank or lending house, then I start to wonder. No certificates or anything that would suggest a safe transaction.

[rainman::|:|]

hate to triple post, but this has my attention now. They've registered the domain "energy-escrow.com" through MelbourneIT, Melbourne Australia. They claim to operate out of Canada, which is why they can offer services to america with no license. and here's there whois information, please note that their listed owner's address is in LA (it's actually the address of a Thai video shop called Oui's Video) and the technical contact is in Florida.

WhoIs Result For energy-escrow.com @
whois.melbourneit.com
Domain Name
energy-escrow.com
Creation Date
2002-11-21
Registration Date
2002-11-21
Expiry Date
2003-11-21
Organisation Name
Energy Es.Intl
Organisation Address
5265 HOLLYWOOD BLVD
Los angeles
90027
CA
UNITED STATES
Admin Name
JAGAPUNT ROJBOONSONGSRI
Admin Address
5265 HOLLYWOOD BLVD
Los angeles
90027
CA
UNITED STATES
Admin Email
radicalescrow@aol.com
Admin Phone
(323)4645121
Tech Name
Verio Hostmaster
Tech Address
5050 Blue Lake Dr.
Boca Raton
33431
FL
UNITED STATES
Tech Email
hostmaster@VERIO-HOSTING.COM
Tech Phone
888-663-6648
Name Server
ns19a.nameservers.net

[pgwalsh]

Thanks Paul.
I too looked at the who is, but didn't go as far as you did. So, how do we report a site like this, which seems to be setup for a scam? I have found two different people on Yahoo Classifieds asking me to use this service. I imagine that I should report them to Yahoo and then to someone else.

It would be great to have a site that lists legit businesses.

[rainman::|:|]

I agree that someone should run a directory of verified companies. I already called my local field office of the FBI, and gave them the info, he said it's likely they already have a case against them if it's really a fraud case, but he'd forward the info to the LA FBI for further investigation...

the FBI officer didn't sound like he was terribly thrilled about it, since no one's (to our knowledge) lost any money, but hey, it's all we can do... i mean it *is* technically possible that this is legit, but i don't think so. I love their excuse for not giving a telephone number on the site, that they don't think users really want it. makes me laugh.

:)
pnw

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by paulwhannel
I agree that someone should run a directory of verified companies. I already called my local field office of the FBI, and gave them the info, he said it's likely they already have a case against them if it's really a fraud case, but he'd forward the info to the LA FBI for further investigation...

the FBI officer didn't sound like he was terribly thrilled about it, since no one's (to our knowledge) lost any money, but hey, it's all we can do... i mean it *is* technically possible that this is legit, but i don't think so. I love their excuse for not giving a telephone number on the site, that they don't think users really want it. makes me laugh.

:)
pnw
It's hard to get any government office or official to be proactive instead of reactive. When they are reactive they seem to react too late.

I did as you suggested an filed a complaint with the Attorney General. Even if it is legit, at least I'll know. They probably wont do anything, but it doesn't hurt to try.

[Gus]

Maybe we could talk Arn into starting a section for known, proven scammers and scam sites of Macintosh-related deals. It seems as though these things are gaining steam lately in the Apple spectrum. It would be nice to have a place like this where we could check quickly if somone is legit or not. Of course, it might make Arn a little nervous too. Whatcha think?

Regards,
Gus

[rainman::|:|]

i think it would definitely be cool to have a forum to post your experiences with different websites (and ebay users to some extent), we pretty much trust each other and it could be useful in identifying scams... i doubt arn would want whole forum devoted to it, tho. Scams do seem to be quite heavy lately, maybe in a little while it will be a necessity... kind of sad, really, people will do anything for a dishonest buck..

:)
pnw