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foreign ebay buyer, how not to get screwed? (1 Viewer)

Christ Reynolds

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this is related to my other computers thread, in which i sold a couple old machines :) anyway, my buyer is in south korea. may not have been such a wise move to sell worldwide, but i didnt want to exclude a high bidder. the red flag went up with his first statement regarding paypal. here is the meat of his email back to me.


no visa for paypal? news to me. is this guy trying to pull a fast one on me? ive heard of people getting screwed over with bad checks and the like, and i'll be damned if i'm the next one. but i need help from you guys :) how can i protect myself, if he is out to get me? is his line about paypal not accepting visa an attempt to weasel out of the protection it gives me as a seller? thanks for any help.

CJ
 

ThomasC

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Chock full o' shit. PayPal accepts Visa. You can even get a PayPal Visa card. He did say that he can pay with PayPal through his agent.
 

Christ Reynolds

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yep, i already looked at their site and confirmed it. i thought i could be wrong (been known to happen) and wanted to confirm it, sure enough, visa logo. havent written him back yet.

CJ
 

ThomasC

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Wild guess, but maybe Visa only deals with PayPal in the U.S.
 

Christ Reynolds

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another thing i just thought of...my dad has a merchant account with visa and a few other cards, we use it to rent out a couple machines we have. would this be an option? could i accept visa directly, and not through paypal? i dont care much about the fees. that may be an option there. thanks.

CJ
 

Jeff Ulmer

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I wouldn't even consider PayPal as an option. Take a wire transfer, that way you know you have the money. If he pays with a credit card you are gambling that: a) it isn't stolen b) it isn't bogus c) he won't do a chargeback...

I don't know why sellers are so enamoured with PayPal or credit cards. Taking credit cards is very risky. You have no protection whatsoever, and if there is ANYTHING snakey about the transacation, YOU are the one who will suffer the loss. Don't take BidPay either, since you could easily end up with a bogus money order. Wire is the cheapest and most secure. Just get your bank to set up a new account for this purpose.

As for using your dad's merchant account, he may or may not be able to do non-card transactions. I know that when I looked into it, getting a regular MA was no problem, but they wanted me to post a $40,000 bond if I wanted to accept non-card (net or phone) orders. I still wouldn't do it, for the reasons above.
 

Christ Reynolds

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i asked at the anandtech forums (for volume), and a few guys over there suggested i go with bidpay, because unlike paypal, it's impossible to do a chargeback with bidpay. and i'm getting the funds deposited in my bank account, not a money order. let's say i did get a money order, how could it be fake if it comes directly from bidpay/western union?

CJ
 

Malcolm R

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I don't know how it's the cheapest. Most banks around here charge $10-$20 per transaction to receive a wire transfer, and even more to send one.
 

Craig

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I've used Bidpay a couple of times in the past and it's worked well. I guess someone could send a fake Bidpay email stating the money order had been mailed (Bidpay emails to let you know someone has paid you, then emails again when they actually put the money order in the mail), then the buyer would have to mail a fake money order. However it says on the Bidpay website that you can check the status of the transaction online, so you could see whether or not they really went thru Bidpay.
 

Jeff Ulmer

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My bank doesn't charge for receiving funds, though sending by wire does cost about $8 CDN. PayPal charges 4% of the amount to receive credit cards.

As long as you deposit directly to your account, BidPay should be okay, but I would still go with a wire, since it is the most secure. There is a scam where the faker sends a bogus BidPay notice of payment, when none has been made. I want to see cash in my account before shipping anything of value to people in regions where scams are prevalent.
 

Christ Reynolds

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he is using bidpay, and there is no money order involved, i'm getting the funds deposited directly into my bank account. but i was under the assumption that bidpay/western union was the source of the money order, not the actual buyer. am i wrong?
that's what i'll be doing here.

CJ
 

Craig

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You are not wrong. Bidpay mails the money order to you, not the buyer. You might be safer getting an actual money order if you're really concerned about fraud if that is still possible. I don't know how Bidpay works with regards to direct deposits into your bank account, but if it's like PayPal, there always the danger they'll debit your account if the buyer pays with a credit card, then does a chargeback.
 

Jeff Ulmer

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Good point - check BidPay's policies on this. The same goes if the card is fake or stolen. I would also see what their policy is if the payment is made with a bogus card, and whether they will try to claw the payment back from you.

Like I said earlier, a wire is the safest.
 

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