Am I being scammed on TB?

[ShowLow]

Let's say the guy agrees to ditch PP and do a cash sale. Then what if the cash is phony?

This whole thing smells rotten. There are plenty of legit people on TB. Look for an honest buyer who doesn't play games. "Friend," shipping label, what next? Sorry this is happening. JMHO.

[DwaynieAD]

Originally Posted by DWBass

Dude.......refund the money and ignore further contact from the scammer!

Do NOT, under any circumstances, keep the money and move it to your bank account!

This has been said a half dozen times and ignored. It is the best darned advice in this thread.

[johnson79]

Originally Posted by DWBass

Dude.......refund the money and ignore further contact from the scammer!

Do NOT, under any circumstances, keep the money and move it to your bank account!

Exactly. It's not worth the hassle. Refund/cancel the sale and re-list the bass. This sounds very shady...

[kjpollo]

Sad thing is, not all of these deals are scams. I sold a bass here on TB about 2 years ago under kinda similar circumstances and everything was fine. I'm in CT and my buyer was in RI. One of his bandmates goes to school very close to my workplace so I met his buddy in the college parking lot- I got paid and the buyer got his Yamaha bass.

But I agree this one does seem fishy. Sad, but fishy

[ldervish]

Originally Posted by Crazyeelboy

Seems like you have an easy enough way to deal with this:

1) Send the money back to the buyer.
2) Get some ID from the buyer.
3) Get full info on the buyer's friend.
4) Have the buyer send funds to his friend.
5) Meet the buyer's friend in person and exchange the bass for cash.
6) Sign a receipt for the cash and the bass.
7) Enjoy the money.

^^^ This ^^^

You seem like the kind of guy who "appreciates the buyer's good intentions but doesn't really trust delivery companies with expensive and delicate instruments & is willing to go the extra mile to make sure your bass is delivered safely. That's what TB'ers do for each other."

If the deal is bogus he'll balk and all this drama ends. If he's legit, you go do the deal. Either way you can sleep soundly.

If you actually get as far as delivering it, for extra protection go accompanied by a witness. It's easy enough nowadays to photo or "videotape" using cellphones during the exchange process.

[tomydacat]

Cant you Refund the money to him through paypal

[Immigrant]

Scammers are crafty effers.

This is close to a Craigslist scam that has been attempted on me no less than four times. I'd post the bass ad and get an email something like this:

I want your bass for a gift for my niece, but I'm traveling to New York for two months. I'll send you a check, then my shipper will come pick up the bass...

I actually copied the whole first sentence of the acual email and pasted it into Google search. Thousands of results, all the same.

Scammers suck. There is a special corner of Hell waiting for them. Right between Bernie Madoff and the Kochs.

[charliefreak]

Take the money and keep the bass! Turn it around and scam his arss! There's nothing illegal about keeping money that somebody deposits into your personal account. He knows this. However, make sure it's a payment and not an authorization. Auth's can be dropped at any time.

[AltGrendel]

Originally Posted by DWBass

Dude.......refund the money and ignore further contact from the scammer!

Do NOT, under any circumstances, keep the money and move it to your bank account!

+1

[DWBass]

Originally Posted by charliefreak

Take the money and keep the bass! Turn it around and scam his arss! There's nothing illegal about keeping money that somebody deposits into your personal account. He knows this. However, make sure it's a payment and not an authorization. Auth's can be dropped at any time.

Right! So you want the seller to become a criminal as well!!??

[smcd]

How is it possible to have money paid to you through PayPal, and then have that payment retracted? I've never heard such a thing.

[jabsys]

Originally Posted by smcd

How is it possible to have money paid to you through PayPal, and then have that payment retracted? I've never heard such a thing.

Hacked paypal account or claim the item never arrived are two common ones.

[ampeg2]

Paypal usually holds the your money for x amount of days to confirm customer is happy. So you really don't have anything at this point. Tell him you want it picked up by himself and get receipt that he is happy with purchase.

[bassmonkeee]

Ignore the people saying move the money to your account.

Reject the payment. If you don't ship to a verified address, you have no recourse through Paypal. If you have no proof of a tracking number, you have no recourse through Paypal.

If he wants the bass so much, tell him to send the money to his friend who lives 30 miles away from you, and you will gladly exchange the bass for a Postal Money Order and you can meet him at a Post Office while you cash said Money Order.

Remove Paypal from the process. Without shipping to a verified address, you have NOTHING to save you from losing the money and the bass. Period.

Any decision to "keep the money" is simply making you a thief and anyone suggesting it is someone to avoid dealing with on Talkbass in their own right.

[smcd]

Originally Posted by ampeg2

Paypal usually holds the your money for x amount of days to confirm customer is happy. So you really don't have anything at this point. Tell him you want it picked up by himself and get receipt that he is happy with purchase.

To the best of my knowledge, PayPal doesn't hold any funds at all. Once you receive the "ok to ship" notice, you can immediately transfer those funds to your bank account. If the customer is unhappy, PayPal will put a hold on your account until the dispute is settled, but I've never experienced a "customer satisfaction hold". Ever.

[smcd]

Originally Posted by jabsys

Hacked paypal account or claim the item never arrived are two common ones.

I'd say those are pretty rare occurrences, wouldn't you?

[jabsys]

Originally Posted by smcd

I'd say those are pretty rare occurrences, wouldn't you?

Not really, I'd say it pretty common these days.

Originally Posted by smcd

To the best of my knowledge, PayPal doesn't hold any funds at all. Once you receive the "ok to ship" notice, you can immediately transfer those funds to your bank account. If the customer is unhappy, PayPal will put a hold on your account until the dispute is settled, but I've never experienced a "customer satisfaction hold". Ever.

Paypal often holds money for 21 days to make sure the customer is satisfied https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mp...s-availability

[slick_tu]

I didn't read every post, so maybe someone already said this. DHL only does International shipping now. They used to be cheaper than UPS and FedEx and would pick up at your home for only $4. more. For the past few years they dropped everything but overseas shipping.

I always require a signature.

I didn't know that PayPal could yank the money after it was deposited into your personal bank account, but it seems logical; thanks for that heads up.

Not the same as this, but a TBer from Taiwan purchased a bass from me. My listing stated CONUS only, but he asked me to ship it to forwarding shipper in Cali. They in turn shipped it to him. That way I sisn't have to deal with the Customs forms, etc. Everything worked very well and was on the up-and-up. Again, this is not the same thing, though.

[smcd]

Originally Posted by jabsys

Not really, I'd say it pretty common these days.

I don't want to sound like I'm shilling for PayPal, but they are the most popular (non-credit card) method of payment on the planet. If this were a common scam, they'd be on top of it. I've made hundreds of PayPal transactions, and never had a problem with that kind of thing.

Originally Posted by jabsys

Paypal often holds money for 21 days to make sure the customer is satisfied https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mp...s-availability

That isn't their normal way of doing things. They say they "may" hold for 21 days with "some" sellers. This, I imagine, is for sellers with a bad history. Every single payment I've received from PayPal has gone through immediately and with no problem.




It seems to me many people in this thread are spreading misinformation.

[tdub0199]

send the money back to the buyer and walk away.....