ByronBayChris Posted 18October, 2014 Report Share Posted 18October, 2014 I have been meaning to write this for months, so finally got some time to sit. This is not a new scam, but more and more people are being caught out due to PayPal being used more. Imagine this. I am selling my pretty ordinary Falcodore for $12,000. I have the usual tyre kickers offering $7,000, then one buyer offers me $12,000 sight unseen. He tells me that he had the identical car which was written-off due to an accident, and he wants to get another one the same. Mine is the only one he has found on his searching, and he is happy to pay for pickup for this reason. He will arrange the pickup and he offers to pay via PayPal. Happily accept his payment, which arrives as promised the following day. A few days later, Mr CEVA turns up and carts away my prized Falcodore. Happy Me, doing a little Happy Dance. The buyer gets the car and immediately complains that it is not what he thought. The condition is far worse than I said in the ad. The tyres are old. The engine leaks oil (notice I did not use a P-Car in this example ). He wants a discount of $6,000 to pay for the repairs. Of course, I say no, not on - you should have performed a PPI on the car first, so he is not getting a refund. Then 4 months later, I get an email from PayPal stating they are reversing the transaction and the full $12,000 is to be returned to the buyer. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (repeat a few times) So, I have the $12,000 refunded out of my account and back into the buyer's account. And he still has the car. SO WHAT JUST HAPPENED ? The buyer took advantage of the 180-day Buyer Chargeback rule imposed by the Card Schemes (Visa/Mastercard etc). It states that a buyer has up to 180 days (some say 145 days) in which to lodge a dispute for a credit card transaction. The dispute can be "Goods not fit for purpose" or "Goods delivered are different to this advertised". So all the buyer has to do is find (or make up) differences between the ad and the car he received. Who knows, he may have even swapped the engine out with one which does not run etc etc etc. Companies have known this for years, that the have almost ZERO protection when accepting credit cards over the internet, phone or mail. Yet, it is now Mr Joe Public who is now a Credit Card Merchant (courtesy of PayPal) yet has the same risks. In summary, where possible, buy using a CREDIT CARD online, but sell using DIRECT CREDIT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstone Posted 18October, 2014 Report Share Posted 18October, 2014 Good on ya. I hadn't heard of this one. I had one that sounds the same. He asked for paypal account details or bank account details. He was on a boat in the Pacific buying for his don in the N.T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJM Posted 18October, 2014 Report Share Posted 18October, 2014 I've had the "I'm a sailor at sea so can't come and have a look but I'll pay via PayPal and arrange to have it collected" Happy to wait until you return to port, buddy. Show me cash or bank cheque or forget it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAFE Posted 18October, 2014 Report Share Posted 18October, 2014 bank cheques can also be cancelled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Man Posted 18October, 2014 Report Share Posted 18October, 2014 Johnny Cash can't get cancelled! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pauly Posted 19October, 2014 Report Share Posted 19October, 2014 Wouldn't buy a car off eBay... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted 19October, 2014 Report Share Posted 19October, 2014 Having been on both ends of the credit card charge back I don't really think it's as big of an issue as it's made out. Sure some of the banks are more protective of the consumer, but that's what PayPal is there for. I had my account hacked and $1000 stolen from my savings account via PayPal, they reversed the transaction straight away. I bought a car from eBay, but showed up with a bank cheque to collect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByronBayChris Posted 19October, 2014 Author Report Share Posted 19October, 2014 Sure is, Russ, but one of our members here had this type of scanned tried on him. He thought it smelt a bit fishy...... So did not complete the sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hugh Posted 20October, 2014 Report Share Posted 20October, 2014 Sure is, Russ, but one of our members here had this type of scanned tried on him. He thought it smelt a bit fishy...... So did not complete the sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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