Incorrect. You can with USPS Express Mail.
Also something to note: International shipments with USPS Express require a phone number. So I would definitely email the buyer and get his real phone number.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sold my MBP on ebay, now concerned about getting scammed!
- Thread starter murdercitydevil
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Incorrect. You can with USPS Express Mail.
Also something to note: International shipments with USPS Express require a phone number. So I would definitely email the buyer and get his real phone number.
To OP, i have had this happen many times to me, it's almost certainly a scam. There are hundreds of 0 feedback accounts and they always do it the same way. They'll win the auction through buy it now and then ask for an invoice but then you'll never see the money.
There's a way to prevent this however. If you re-list your item (which is what i did the first time this happened) there is an option at the bottom of the edit listing page with advanced options. Under those advanced options is one which allows you to prevent users who do not have a credit card on file from bidding on your auction.
Because these accounts are almost always a scam they never have a credit card on their account info. I set that option to yes, there's a second option which allows that to be overruled if they have X number of feedback, which i set to 5. That means nobody with a feedback of less than 5 who doesn't have a credit card on file can bid on my items, it gets rid of the vast majority of scammers.
Good luck.
There's a way to prevent this however. If you re-list your item (which is what i did the first time this happened) there is an option at the bottom of the edit listing page with advanced options. Under those advanced options is one which allows you to prevent users who do not have a credit card on file from bidding on your auction.
Because these accounts are almost always a scam they never have a credit card on their account info. I set that option to yes, there's a second option which allows that to be overruled if they have X number of feedback, which i set to 5. That means nobody with a feedback of less than 5 who doesn't have a credit card on file can bid on my items, it gets rid of the vast majority of scammers.
Good luck.
This makes sense. I realize now that I should have researched a bit more as to what precautions are necessary for sellers; if I sell again, I will definitely put limits such as these on my listing. Thanks.
I understand that this is a high value transaction, but it can't hurt to send him an invoice. (Make sure to calculate your shipping costs with insurance, etc properly.) Send him an invoice. Then, the ball is in his court.. If he pays through paypal, then as other posters have mentioned, you just mail it out. If he balks at the cost, etc, you can always cancel the transaction at that point through mutual agreement.
Next time, you can list your MBP but make sure to double-check your settings where you can prevent bidders with low ratings/reviews and people in other countries from bidding. (Once a product is listed, you can't change it, so you have to do it beforehand.)
Next time, you can list your MBP but make sure to double-check your settings where you can prevent bidders with low ratings/reviews and people in other countries from bidding. (Once a product is listed, you can't change it, so you have to do it beforehand.)
send him an invoice through paypal.
ONLY accept payments through paypal.
ONLY send your macbook until you see the money in your Paypal account, don't just trust emails.
If he (or some fake email from paypal) says that the money will show up once it's confirmed that you sent the item, it's a scam.
Use tracking number, or even registered mail.
Its probably a scam. I had a guy who wanted to buy my iPhone 3GS for $1,600! This was around May 2010. I sent eBay an e-mail and they found out the guy was trying to run a scam, and they allowed me to re-list and use certain settings to block particular people.
Thought there was a feature that made the buyer pay first before it was shipped. Every time I buy on ebay i get a prompt that says the seller requires that you pay now.
jlc1978
macrumors 604
Unless you get real cash, even certified money order can be forged. In fact, that's a common scammer technique. Western Union, the favorite tool for scammers worldwide to get money, is a safer bet since once you have the cash in hand you can ship and the buyer can't get the cash back.
Personally, I'd skip the deal and move on.
jlc1978
macrumors 604
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)
Question - just how strong is eBay's seller protection? Do they cover you if the buyer uses a stolen credit card or claims what you shipped was not as described or what was received? I sold stuff way back in the old usenet days and early on on eBay but am hesitant to now.
BigZ243 said:
Question - just how strong is eBay's seller protection? Do they cover you if the buyer uses a stolen credit card or claims what you shipped was not as described or what was received? I sold stuff way back in the old usenet days and early on on eBay but am hesitant to now.
You know you can cancel a bid due to no feedback correct? Just call paypal and talk to them and they will route you to eBay if needed. Don't try to call eBay as I found it damn near impossible to find any number and the one I did just told me websites to visit.
If a buyer buys something from you with a stolen credit card, and the paypal receipt shows "OK to ship" and you ship it to the exact address on the receipt with a signature confirmation (if value is over $250), then yes, paypal will protect the seller and it will be up to paypal to recover their money from the fraudulent transaction. The seller gets to keep his money if he has already sent the item according to the specific seller protection rules.
kitzuki
macrumors regular
You are entitled to your opinion this is borderline racist not all Nigerians are scammers. Hell I've been scammed by more people in DC than in other countries. To the OP send the package only if the buyer is willing to pay through other means thank PayPal because PayPal/eBay will screw you over requesting that the buyer has received the item and is working meaning he can not say anything at all and they hold your money for 2 weeks or he could just say he didn't receive the item even with tracking information sent to PayPal I sold a ps3 to someone in California thatte package hadinsurance and even the buyer had physically signed for it he said he didn't receive it. Had to dispute. With PayPal for a month and they still wanted to give the b his money back.
Tldr dont use PayPal if you are a seller
my experience...
I just sold my electric violin for $1700 to a new member with no feedback (dumb i know, but he bid before i realized i didn't put a restriction on number of feedback). I had kept hearing about the scams where they claim you sent them an empty box or a box with a brick in it (to match the weight). apparently you're kinda screwed in those situations... what I did to prevent that was have it packaged shipped and insured through "The UPS Store".. if they packaged it themselves they surely aren't going to insure a brick for $1700 🙄 So I thought I covered my ass... then the guy leaves me positive feedback all good right? then three days later claims its broken... well i know it worked when i sent it and why he didn't try it before leaving feed back only god knows. long story short, after much back and forth communication he opened up a case in ebay claiming item was not as described, We both argued our case and a week or so later I get an email from ebay saying that the case has been decided in buyer's favor. In the same email in the comments it said "Buyer made an non authorized return and did not provide tracking information, and therefor is not entitled to a refund. You do not need to do anything further. case is closed" Still not exactly sure what happened, but you should be protected in the sense that if you don't get your item back (or back correctly, has to be sent with tracking and sig confirmation) they don't get a refund. so there is little chance you'll be out the money AND your product. who knows where my violin is... still waiting for it to show up on my doorstep. not sure what happens then! According to ebay's wonderful CS i can keep it 🙄
This happened to me on ebay when selling one of my MBP's. Even though the shipping was already gonna be free for him....he wanted me to use a shipping label that he had already paid for for overnight. Also, I might add that he was paying more than the thing was worth haha.
Anyways, so I call paypal to make sure that I am in the right. Cuz what would happen is, as soon as I mark it shipped he would cancel the payment and say it was unauthorized. But the laptop would conveniently already be at his house (next day shipping).
Calling paypal in advance saved me, they reserached the auction and everything to make sure there was nothing fishy going on (that I was doing). Sure enough as soon as I marked shipped, he gets on paypal and cancels the payment saying that it was unauthorized. I called paypal back and they researched it...cleared it. I got my cash and sent the dude an email saying "GOOD TRY SCAMMER" or something along those lines. It was awesome...and I sold it for more than I paid for it haha 😀
He messaged me back saying that I screwed him over because "someone got on his account and purchased it" haha...RIGHT.
Anyways, so I call paypal to make sure that I am in the right. Cuz what would happen is, as soon as I mark it shipped he would cancel the payment and say it was unauthorized. But the laptop would conveniently already be at his house (next day shipping).
Calling paypal in advance saved me, they reserached the auction and everything to make sure there was nothing fishy going on (that I was doing). Sure enough as soon as I marked shipped, he gets on paypal and cancels the payment saying that it was unauthorized. I called paypal back and they researched it...cleared it. I got my cash and sent the dude an email saying "GOOD TRY SCAMMER" or something along those lines. It was awesome...and I sold it for more than I paid for it haha 😀
He messaged me back saying that I screwed him over because "someone got on his account and purchased it" haha...RIGHT.
Well it seems there's still a mixed opinion, maybe this will change some of your guys' minds, maybe not. I got an email back -
This was my original email to him - "I received your request for an invoice on this auction. Before I send you that, I would like to get a *working* phone number, so that I can call you and discuss shipping prices. The number posted on your location/info, (450) 881-7893, is disconnected. Until I speak to you over the phone, I'm afraid I can't proceed with this sale. Thanks."
And his reply - "sorry for the inconvenience, my phone has a little problem, but i will try and call you on a paid phone, but in the main time i have looked on the shipping price on United State Postal Service and i got the price between $75 - $100 for shipping, but dont worry i will pay for the shipping cost.
just give me your email address because am making payment directly from my paypal account."
He seems very very eager to pay me all this money.
This was my original email to him - "I received your request for an invoice on this auction. Before I send you that, I would like to get a *working* phone number, so that I can call you and discuss shipping prices. The number posted on your location/info, (450) 881-7893, is disconnected. Until I speak to you over the phone, I'm afraid I can't proceed with this sale. Thanks."
And his reply - "sorry for the inconvenience, my phone has a little problem, but i will try and call you on a paid phone, but in the main time i have looked on the shipping price on United State Postal Service and i got the price between $75 - $100 for shipping, but dont worry i will pay for the shipping cost.
just give me your email address because am making payment directly from my paypal account."
He seems very very eager to pay me all this money.
Sounds like a scam to me, just read his reply, basic grammar and spelling mistakes in it.
If it was me, I would relist on ebay or try to sell it privately
Even if he pays via papal they can still claim the payment back if it turns out to be from a stolen card etc
If it was me, I would relist on ebay or try to sell it privately
Even if he pays via papal they can still claim the payment back if it turns out to be from a stolen card etc
Enter his email in PayPal and make sure that the shipping address is the same as his account address.
I work in this line of work - one trick that sometimes works is searching their email address in Facebook. If you get back a regular looking profile under the same name, you are almost certainly fine.
Zero feedback, can't write, has a disconnected phone, wants to call *you* from a pay phone, and is eager to pay 100 bucks in shipping.
Sounds totally legit!
Sounds totally legit!
mgartner0622
macrumors 65816
Yes, at this point i'd just recommend re-listing.
List it on eBay as a buy it now with immediate payment required.
I sell on ebay, and before I listed items like that, I always had scammers wanting to buy my items.
The next thing you know, he'll be saying "I'm on a business trip in Nigeria, can you ship it to me here?" Well, actually no, the grammar would be a bit worse. 😛
List it on eBay as a buy it now with immediate payment required.
I sell on ebay, and before I listed items like that, I always had scammers wanting to buy my items.
The next thing you know, he'll be saying "I'm on a business trip in Nigeria, can you ship it to me here?" Well, actually no, the grammar would be a bit worse. 😛
Yeah I think I'm done with his situation. His email that's listed on ebay (the only one I could find), is some weird gibberish from a yahoo.ie address. No record of it on paypal when I try to send him money. No google results from searching that address. Nothing in paypal for a different yahoo address that he used as an example when asking for who to send the money to (trying to get my email). So I'm just going to cancel all of it. Thanks again everyone for your advice and suggestions!
canucksfan88
macrumors 6502a
1. im sad with your generalization about us Canadians, trust me, we aren't all scammers =(
2. after reading what he/she typed...ITS A SCAM.
perhaps you could take a page out of someones book and do P-P-P-Powerbook v2? xD
2. after reading what he/she typed...ITS A SCAM.
perhaps you could take a page out of someones book and do P-P-P-Powerbook v2? xD
lol honestly this doesn't sound good at all.
It's 2011, phones do not have little problems.... Even his landline has little problem, he should at least know someone with a cellphone.
Cancel the transaction and re-list the item.