Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Sold my SR MBP on eBay, buyer wants WU

stevegmu said:
Can you explain how it would be a scam?
Click to expand...

I guess Western Union could always give the OP counterfeit money. That seems to be the only way for this to be a scam to me. Sigh... :rolleyes:

Can someone explain to me how a reputable third party giving you cash BEFORE you send the machine to the buyer is "definitely" a scam? The OP is not sending money to anyone, and that is where the WU/Ebay scams seem to be.
 
buyers and sellers can be scammed with western union. I would only trust a friend or relative sending through WU.

If you want my opinion, i would say, "i cannot except western union, there must be another way you can send money, how about paypal, or a cashiers check?"
 
wolfattack said:
buyers and sellers can be scammed with western union. I would only trust a friend or relative sending through WU.

If you want my opinion, i would say, "i cannot except western union, there must be another way you can send money, how about paypal, or a cashiers check?"
Click to expand...

I keep putting my laptop down to go to sleep, but I somehow keep getting sucked back into this thread...

Wolfattack - you state that "buyers and sellers can be scammed with western union", but you don't say how the seller can get scammed. Can you please elaborate on this for me? I'm a smart guy, and I just can't figure out how once Zorn has cash in hand that he can get scammed here.

I understand people saying it's a new person to Ebay, so that's a red flag. I understand not sending unsecured funds to someone you don't know. But for the life of me I can't figure out how getting paid via Western Union is a scam. They are a company that is in business to move money between people. They take money from party A and give it to party B for a fee. They guarantee the money will go from A to B (but you don't have to send the Ebay'ed item until you have the cash in hand).

If you can make a good argument on this, I'm happy to relent - but I just can't figure out what you're trying to say here...
 
Zorn said:
Figured I would ask this here since I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I put my SR MBP up for sale on eBay, and someone bought it using the Buy it Now, and they asked if they can send me payment through Western Union. They are a new account, but it says they are registered in the US. Is there any risk to this? From my understanding, once they send payment through WU and I pick it up, I have cash in my hands and there's no reversing it. Is there anything I should be looking out for here? I would appreciate any advice if anyone is more experienced on this type of thing.
Click to expand...

I only take paypal with verified members with a confirmed address only and ship 3-4 days after I receive the payment.
 
bamf said:
I keep putting my laptop down to go to sleep, but I somehow keep getting sucked back into this thread...

Wolfattack - you state that "buyers and sellers can be scammed with western union", but you don't say how the seller can get scammed. Can you please elaborate on this for me? I'm a smart guy, and I just can't figure out how once Zorn has cash in hand that he can get scammed here.

I understand people saying it's a new person to Ebay, so that's a red flag. I understand not sending unsecured funds to someone you don't know. But for the life of me I can't figure out how getting paid via Western Union is a scam. They are a company that is in business to move money between people. They take money from party A and give it to party B for a fee. They guarantee the money will go from A to B (but you don't have to send the Ebay'ed item until you have the cash in hand).

If you can make a good argument on this, I'm happy to relent - but I just can't figure out what you're trying to say here...
Click to expand...


There have been multiple ways people have scammed with WU. In all honesty, I do not know exactly how they work, I only know that I have read about people accepting a western union transfer, sending out the item, only to find out he would be later belligerently contacted about fraudulently accepting WU transfers and other crap.

Go for it, i am just saying i have heard of many people getting screwed over with Western Union. I am just trying to look out for this guy, because there are many easier ways to send money than Western Union. I really don't know of anyone who sells on ebay that would accept a Western Union transfer.
 
eBay even says to avoid anyone using Western Union. Just relist the item and be happy. There are more than enough red flags here.

And I don't think the OP stated what form of WU they are using. Often times they will send you a fake confirmation, or a fake Money Order, there are threads about on here if you look.

OP, don't waste your time trying to make a deal with this person. But if you must, you can learn the hard way.
 
wolfattack said:
There have been multiple ways people have scammed with WU. In all honesty, I do not know exactly how they work, I only know that I have read about people accepting a western union transfer, sending out the item, only to find out he would be later belligerently contacted about fraudulently accepting WU transfers and other crap.

Go for it, i am just saying i have heard of many people getting screwed over with Western Union. I am just trying to look out for this guy, because there are many easier ways to send money than Western Union. I really don't know of anyone who sells on ebay that would accept a Western Union transfer.
Click to expand...

A Western Union 'transfer' is cash. One goes to a Western Union location, picks up cash, then sends the item. There is no way for the seller to get scammed.
 
People seem to hear eBay and Western Union, and assume that it means scam in any scenario. However, the truth is that the risk lies in the person sending the funds, not the person selling the item of value. Here is a link.

The Western Union Scam. Read it yourself, and double check with a few other links.

Link - BBC news story

More scam victims

OP, call WU and tell them of your concerns. They will be able to reassure you or dissuade you if necessary. Also, once you do receive payment, keep any paperwork given you by WU if you do decide to go that route, just for your own records. Since the payment method isn't protected by eBay, you can protect yourself from any buyer claiming they sent an amount other than you received, etc. Good luck. :)
 
I don't see how you can be scammed if you're the seller. As long as you pick up the cash from WU before you ship the laptop I don't see how you can loose on this deal.
I would be interested to hear one of the people that are screaming for you not to do this to explain how a seller can be scammed thru WU if he picks up the cash before shipping anything.
I don't see any reason for you not to do this, if the seller sends you a forged WU confirmation, simply report it to ebay and re-list your item, if the confirmation is legit simply pick up your money at WU and after you have the cash ship the laptop to him.
This is potentially much safer than PayPal where the buyer can simply demand a charge if he has paid with a credit card leaving it up to you to prove that you shipped him the merchandise AND that he himself has received it.
 
I can talk about how people can scam with wester union since I have been through it. I went to a McDonalds one night and got me some food. I used my debit card as I do with 99% of the stuff that I purchase. The kid that took it sorta had it for longer then he should have, but at the time I didn't think anything about it. Well not but about 2 days later I get a call from my debit card company asking me if I sent $500 via western union to someone in AZ, I'm in KS, I said no, and they said that I had or that someone had with my debit card.

What the person did was sent money ($500) via the internet via my card and someone in AZ went to the western union location in and picked up the cash. I took the the proper steps to prove it wasn't me and the money was finally returned to me. So plan and simple that is how someone can scam with western union. They will send the money via the net with a stole card number, the seller will pick up the fraudulent cash and send their MBP, then when the money is found to fraudulent they will come back and get the money from the MBP sender and the scammer will get the MBP sent to some false address and walk away with it. easy as pie.

Don't do it. Sell it to a verified paypal member with a signature required! That way you are cover by paypal if anything happens.
 
Paypal is EVIL. In case of disputes they almost always side with the buyer and try to take the money back from the seller (a chargeback). This can occur if the buyer turns around and says his Paypal account was hacked. Paypal then reverses the charges.. AFTER you sent out the item. Read up on it, it's all over the interwebs.

See:
http://reviews.ebay.ca/Sellers-Beware-Paypal-Chargeback-Policy_W0QQugidZ10000000002541280
http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/going-through-hell-with-paypal-chargeback-issue-245272.html
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/The-Paypal-Chargeback-Scam_W0QQugidZ10000000002357116

If someone wires you money via WU, and you make sure you have hard CASH in your hand before sending out the item, then you are perfectly safe. The WU scam is used by sellers to dupe buyers, not the other way around!

See:
http://scams.flipshark.com/westernunion.html
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=2483
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4385956.stm
 
This is a very interesting thread but no one has mentioned or stated that they had any real personal experience with receiving funds through western union.

I sold a wow account and after corresponding via email to the "buyer" he had money funded through western union literally in about 1hr. I believe he had to pay an extra $15 for the service. He provided me a confirmation numberand I just looked up a local western union outlet provided the store with my drivers license and confirmation number. They paid me my money no questions asked.

When I got home I emailed the "buyer" my wow account information and wished the guy good luck.

I'm not sure how the "buyer" could have possibly scammed me after I received the cash. Western Union did not take any information from me. All they cared about was a photo id and confirmation number.

I would recommend that he pays you with that expedite money transfer method you get the cash and than you send him your laptop.
 
Exactly. As long as you have money in hand before you ship the laptop, you're fine.

In the scams, the buyer/seller/whatever usually sends a confirmation number for WU, and asks you to ship immediately, before recieving the payment. That, of course, is a big no-no. But if you go to WU, and they hand you the cash, you're free and clear. If anything, *they* are in a bigger position to get ripped off at that point than you.
 
OP, out of curiousity has he mentioned the MBP at all?

If he's used the word item then report to eBay straight away, I had 3 people try to scam me on eBay and even more on craigslist. NONE of them ever referred to the product I was selling by name, one even asked for "5 units" of it :)
 
There was a bloke on MR a while back who had been an unwilling party to a scam. He'd offered a Mac laptop on eBay and someone else (the baddie) had then offered his machine on another auction site. Poor unwitting buyer of the phantom machine had been instructed to make payment to the real seller, who delivered the laptop to the scammer (at a train station), obviously assuming the funds which had arrived were from him. The first he knew of the wrongdoing was when the police turned up at his door acting for the genuine buyer.

S'a jungle out there folks....
 
Why take the risk?

I would say dap1215 has pointed out how a WU scam could operate from a seller's perspective. Depending on how the money is paid from Western Union to you, if it was money that did not belong to the sender (as in dap1215's example) then the legal owner of the money may have grounds for retrieving it from Western Union, and Western Union would likely be quite keen to retrieve it from you.

Their site states quite clearly that their service 'isn’t intended to send money to someone you don’t know'. You don't know this person, they don't know you: why should either of you take the risk when there are other more secure means of selling available?

If you can't think of a reason why the buyer wants to put that amount of money at such an apparent risk, then you should at least consider that there's something odd about it, and when you're talking about a product worth several thousand dollars/pounds... why risk it?
 
I got Scammed on eBay / PayPal 4 days ago on a MBP

My MBP sold Sunday. The buyer sends me $2,425 on Monday to my PayPal account, with an unverified address. I call PayPal customer service, to ask them to make sure this came from the legitimate owner of the PayPal account. She said yes. I ask her about shipping to an unverified address, she says preferably not, but if I have instructions coming from the email associated with the buyers PayPal account, I "should" be safe.

I check the headers on several emails I had from the buyer and they "seem" ok. I ship via UPS Next Day. They get delivery just after 10 AM. I get an email from PayPal 20 minutes later saying that fraud was reported on the PayPal account. I am asked to send tracking information, which I did.

I have contacted PayPal 4 times since along with eBay offering to turn over all emails/communications with the buyer, to assist them in determining the origin of the emails, but have not gotten one response.

For me, next time I will use www.escrow.com even if I have to pay the fees myself. It's just not worth it when you have a high priced item.

QUESTION: Is there a way to trace my MBP when the new owner registers it with Apple?
 
Mikebuzzsaw said:
If he could send money with WU, why doesn't he just send money through Paypal which is easier and faster?

Beware of money orders too because people make fakes.
Click to expand...

If you take money via Paypal, MAKE SURE YOU MEET THE REQUIREMENTS FOR "SELLER PROTECTION!" It's not too terribly difficult for a buyer to get their money back from Paypal if they claim the seller ripped them off. It will take weeks to resolve.

I would suggest you go to the eBay forums and post your question there. Chances are if your buyer is trying to pay via WU, they are trying to scam you. This is a well-documented issue on the eBay Seller forums for high-priced items. Research carefully.
 
dap1215 said:
I can talk about how people can scam with wester union since I have been through it. I went to a McDonalds one night and got me some food. I used my debit card as I do with 99% of the stuff that I purchase. The kid that took it sorta had it for longer then he should have, but at the time I didn't think anything about it. Well not but about 2 days later I get a call from my debit card company asking me if I sent $500 via western union to someone in AZ, I'm in KS, I said no, and they said that I had or that someone had with my debit card.

What the person did was sent money ($500) via the internet via my card and someone in AZ went to the western union location in and picked up the cash. I took the the proper steps to prove it wasn't me and the money was finally returned to me. So plan and simple that is how someone can scam with western union. They will send the money via the net with a stole card number, the seller will pick up the fraudulent cash and send their MBP, then when the money is found to fraudulent they will come back and get the money from the MBP sender and the scammer will get the MBP sent to some false address and walk away with it. easy as pie.

Don't do it. Sell it to a verified paypal member with a signature required! That way you are cover by paypal if anything happens.
Click to expand...

You were a victim of credit card fraud - Western Union just happened to be the transport of the money. Western Union is liable in your case for not requesting proper ID of the person sending the money via your credit card.

So while I sympathize with the issue you had, it's not 100% applicable to the OP's query.
 
Your in control man, its your computer, so technically its your "store" and your rules apply, I personally would not take it. To risky, list on the page "pay pal only" etc. good luck.
 
Another scam is that the buyer will "accidentally" send a check for too much money, and ask you to wire them the difference, minus a small amount for your trouble. You do this, only to find out that their check wasn't legit, and after you've shipped them the item and wired them money to boot.
 
bamf said:
You were a victim of credit card fraud - Western Union just happened to be the transport of the money. Western Union is liable in your case for not requesting proper ID of the person sending the money via your credit card.

So while I sympathize with the issue you had, it's not 100% applicable to the OP's query.
Click to expand...

Sure, I agree that it's not the exact situation, I guess I am just saying that they buyer could use fake/scammed funds and it could come back on you. I do see the point that if you are the seller and have cash in hands how could it hurt. But it was just an example how people can scam with WU and how that could effect this situation.

I've ebayed for a long time and have had few issues. But let's face it our online market is getting saturated with crappy people doing crappy things. Which is sad. You should be able to sell something online without worrying about getting take to the cleaners. I hope that through this frustration that someone will develop a more secure way of doing biz online.
 
dringkor said:
Another scam is that the buyer will "accidentally" send a check for too much money, and ask you to wire them the difference, minus a small amount for your trouble. You do this, only to find out that their check wasn't legit, and after you've shipped them the item and wired them money to boot.
Click to expand...

i think this is the common scam. as for receiving funds via WU - no protection for the sender but once you have the cash in your hand i'd defy anyone to tell me how it can be got back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back