Help! selling a powerbook on Ebay...need advise!

[qtip919]

Hi,

I am currently selling a powerbook 15" on ebay, and I am getting contacted by people who say they are from Indonesia and that they will pay immediately (more that I am asking for) if I will send the computer there and accept credit card payment.

Is this a total scam?

Has anyone ever taken someone up on one of these offers?

Please advise...

thanks

*** Forgot to mention:

According to this person, is no way to use paypal in Indonesia so this is why they wanted to do a credit card transaction.

Sounds fishy...

 

[stoid]

When we were trying to sell a car, a guy contacted us and offered to pay more than the requested price, and we realized immediately that it was a scam. I'd be very wary. If they want the computer that bad then tell them that you would very much appreciate their bid.

 

[qtip919]

thanks, I figured as much....

I was just *hoping* to hear if someone else has experienced this ...

so many scams on ebay...

 

[Grimace]

never EVER conduct business with buyers in Indonesia. That country has the highest credit card fraud rate on the planet - really!! Singapore is just as bad...

 

[Sun Baked]

Since people have caught on that the money orders and cashiers checks are often times bogus (you really want postal money orders now) -- they're switching back to stolen credit cards.

When it's out of the country, no reason for it not to be direct.

But they'll tend to order a lot of stuff from retailers and e-bay and have it routed to a drop box -- usually somebody's house that they change the cards address to -- and they just reship it to the final location.

The person in the drop location is a e-mail "business opportunity" person they recruit.

Some "business opportunity" -- get paid to launder stolen goods.

 

[klyau6]

i actually once sold a shirt to a girl in malaysia, and they didn't have PayPal there either so I don't think the whole PayPal thing is a lie. However, stay away from the credit card! Ask them for a certified check or something instead, and wait until the funds clear if you go w/ that person!

 

[qtip919]

Thanks all!

I will enjoy sending flame mail to these people who keep contacting me...

 

[tsk]

As other people have mentioned this is a scam. I had the same thing from the Ukraine trying to sell my last system.

Here are my suggestions:

Be very careful, if in doubt, don't do the deal.

Paypal sucks. You can get screwed so many ways. Personally, I would not ship anything out of the country (not Canada, not anything) with them. I would only ship in the US to the *CONFIRMED* address. That will minimize the chance you get totally scammed. Make sure you require a signature on the shipment too.

If you have a great feedback rating, you can consider being choosy about payment methods (ie no Paypal) but most likely this will mean you lose top dollar sale price.

If you really have a serious bidder out of the country, suggest Western Union. This scared off each of my suspected scam artists. And obviously make sure you have money in hand before shipping.

Just be very diligent. If you have any doubts, google can be a good resource. Also, good idea to confirm addresses before you ship. There are a lot of people who want to steal your laptop.

Good luck.

 

[qtip919]

You bring up some very good points...thanks for sharing your experience...

by the way, has anyone used this site: www.qchex.com ?

Ive had several other people ask if I would accept payment from them...

thanks

 

[aswitcher]

Re: Help! selling a powerbook on Ebay...need advise!

Originally posted by qtip919
Hi,

I am currently selling a powerbook 15" on ebay, and I am getting contacted by people who say they are from Indonesia and that they will pay immediately (more that I am asking for) if I will send the computer there and accept credit card payment.

Is this a total scam?

Has anyone ever taken someone up on one of these offers?

Please advise...

thanks

*** Forgot to mention:

According to this person, is no way to use paypal in Indonesia so this is why they wanted to do a credit card transaction.

Sounds fishy...

This thing screams SCAM. Report them to eBay if they are trying to tempt you out of the auction or any other abuse. If they win you should ask for credit card details and postal address, and then go to visa/mc and alert them as per eBay policy as a likely suspect transaction attempt. As a seller you have the right to refuse any bidder IIRC but best to check directly with eBay.

 

[VincentVega]

I agree with the others that this is a scam. Avoid like the plague.

Relevant links (by way of example; there's plenty more on Google):

Here

Here

Here

Here

In short, don't even go there!

 

[michaelrjohnson]

props to you for recognizing it and trying to do some research first.

good work!

 

[tsk]

Originally posted by qtip919
You bring up some very good points...thanks for sharing your experience...

by the way, has anyone used this site: www.qchex.com ?

Ive had several other people ask if I would accept payment from them...

thanks

I haven't used them. Never heard of them either for that matter.

One thing I forgot to also mention is that often these scammers use fake escrow services. I don't know if this is an escrow service, but I would be careful.

 

[nolem]

i had the same thing happen to me when seeing how much I could get for my 15 inch 1 ghz on ebay, I decieded not to go with it, seemed to weird.