Advice on selling new rMBP and how to avoid scammers

[LMD75]

I put my 2015 BTO 13" rMBP on Gumtree and someone has offered me the full asking price requesting that is is sent via Royal Mail /Parcel Force to a UK address in London and that the payment is to be made by PayPal. The person is buying it for a relative.

As its a £1400 item I would rather face to face deal.

What can I do to prevent being scammed? If someone sends the money to your PayPal account can I withdraw it immediatelly to prevent them from reversing the payment and making up some story such as it was not in the box or damaged etc?

How do I know that they havn't hacked someone elses PayPal account? Is this simply too risky for a high value item? What are the typical scams?

 

[z31fanatic]

I put my 2015 BTO 13" rMBP on Gumtree and someone has offered me the full asking price requesting that is is sent via Royal Mail /Parcel Force to a UK address in London and that the payment is to be made by PayPal. The person is buying it for a relative.

That is a definite scam. I receive messages like that all the time on Craigslist.

If I were you, I'd use ebay or local sale only for cash, no paypal. eBay is good because of the amazing exposure you get but you will most likely get the least money once you pay the selling and paypal fees (13% together).
Paypal is fine if you are using ebay, but otherwise I won't use it unless I personally know the person dealing with.

 

[LMD75]

Here is the full email:

Thanks for getting back to me, I`m very much interested in making an immediate purchase for the macbook pro,I`m buying it as present for my cousin in London UK. I believe in good faith it in good condition. Secondly my payment is to be made through (PayPal secure payment) if we come to a solid agreement, Please inform all other prospective clients an offer has been placed on the item. I will be offering you £1430. About the shipping it will be mail via a Royal Mail delivery or Parcel force. Please make sure you get in touch with me your PayPal payment e-mail address so as for me to effect the payment as soon as possible.
Thanks and awaiting your prompt response....

 

[z31fanatic]

Yep, a very generic email. It has scam written all over it.

Are you in the UK?

 

[LMD75]

Yep, a very generic email. It has scam written all over it.

Are you in the UK?

Thanks for the reply. Yes I am from the UK. I didn't fancy the 13% cut on a new rMBP as I am already selling it at a £159 loss but if this is what it takes then I need to do this. Have not had any interest on private classifieds or enthusiast forums. Just a couple of time wasters who ask "Is it still for sale?" or "Does it come with a charger?" then never hear back from them.

 

[z31fanatic]

Unfortunately the BTO 15" don't hold their value as well as some other Macs so you have to be prepared to lose a good chunk even if it's only 2 or 3 months old.

 

[LMD75]

Unfortunately the BTO 15" don't hold their value as well as some other Macs so you have to be prepared to lose a good chunk even if it's only 2 or 3 months old.

It is actually a 2 week old 13" model with 512gb SSD and upgraded 16GB RAM.

 

[LxHunter]

Just a couple of time wasters who ask "Is it still for sale?" or "Does it come with a charger?" then never hear back from them.

This is a typical CraigsList Kijiji scam just trying to get your email address

As other posters already said - the email you received about buying for relative is a common scam. They will send you an email that looks like you have received a PayPal payment - but it is fake.

I always sell my Apple devices for cash locally - through CraigsList or Kijiji.
Never had a problem getting a fair price for an Apple device.
Just have to ignore the time wasters (majority) and the scammers (minority)

Selling through eBay has become more risky now that eBay has swung the balance of power to the buyer. Too many types of buyer scams to list here - Just Google "eBay buyer scams"

Also I know its a scam because on one will offer to buy a used £1,559 machine for £1,400.
Your asking price is unrealistic.
My best guess is you can attract a real buyer at £1,200

 

[gngan]

Here is the full email:

Thanks for getting back to me, I`m very much interested in making an immediate purchase for the macbook pro,I`m buying it as present for my cousin in London UK. I believe in good faith it in good condition. Secondly my payment is to be made through (PayPal secure payment) if we come to a solid agreement, Please inform all other prospective clients an offer has been placed on the item. I will be offering you £1430. About the shipping it will be mail via a Royal Mail delivery or Parcel force. Please make sure you get in touch with me your PayPal payment e-mail address so as for me to effect the payment as soon as possible.
Thanks and awaiting your prompt response....

Scam alert in bold. Immediate? Why would anyone say this when they want to buy something? We don't buy second hand stuff to relatives. If it's for my owe use then yes. I don't believe in good faith for a second hand product when I have never seen it with my own eyes.

 

[Rusty33]

Scam alert in bold. Immediate? Why would anyone say this when they want to buy something? We don't buy second hand stuff to relatives. If it's for my owe use then yes. I don't believe in good faith for a second hand product when I have never seen it with my own eyes.

Let's not forget the author forgetting to remove "for the macbook pro" and the hastily deleted space between the following comma and the next word.

 

[LMD75]

Thanks all for the input. I'll ignore that scammer and will drop the price and sell it locally with collection only.

 

[maflynn]

Thanks all for the input. I'll ignore that scammer and will drop the price and sell it locally with collection only.

I only sell locally and for cash. Even when I state such, I still get people asking to wire me the money (more then the price) and ship the computer. I just ignore them

 

[newellj]

I put my 2015 BTO 13" rMBP on Gumtree and someone has offered me the full asking price requesting that is is sent via Royal Mail /Parcel Force to a UK address in London and that the payment is to be made by PayPal. The person is buying it for a relative.

As its a £1400 item I would rather face to face deal.

What can I do to prevent being scammed? If someone sends the money to your PayPal account can I withdraw it immediatelly to prevent them from reversing the payment and making up some story such as it was not in the box or damaged etc?

How do I know that they havn't hacked someone elses PayPal account? Is this simply too risky for a high value item? What are the typical scams?

Replying specifically to your question in bold above. No, withdrawing the money immediately will not prevent PayPal from reversing the funds transfer. You should already know that, as a PayPal user but what you probably don't realize (because it's fairly counter-intuitive) is that PayPal's terms of service make it virtually impossible for a seller to defend a buyer's claim that they did not receive the goods if the buyer sends the funds as payment for goods. Why? Because PayPal only recognizes certain forms of carrier proof of delivery, and there is no recognized proof of delivery for an in-person, face-to-face transaction.

You can do things like videoing the transaction but that is almost certainly not going to keep PayPal at bay if the buyer scams you by claiming that they never received the goods.

You could also ask to be paid using PayPal's "friends and family" payment, which should not be subject to being reversed, but it's technically a violation of PayPal's ToS to ask for payment that way so it's possible you could wind up being screwed anyway.

By the way, since it came up recently, you can't use VenMo to pay for goods at all, and if someone does VenMo will automatically reverse the transfer.

This is all based on U.S. ToS. Things might be very different elsewhere - I think you're in the U.K., so you might want to check U.K. terms of service.

 

[LMD75]

Thanks Newellj. This is very good to know.