Rule #1 - Do not wire money to anyone

[James L. Perry]

Rule #1 - Do not wire money to anyone

Rule #2 - When in doubt, refer to Rule #1

Rule #3 - If you do not have the merchandise in hand, in good and working
condition - See Rule #1

Rule #4 - Know your seller or kiss your money bye-bye.... Stick with Rule #1

When you post a WTB for anything, you may receive a fabulous price by email from a scammer who will offer you exactly what you are looking for.... unfortunately, if you wire any money for payment or deposit, they will ship nothing to you. They steal other real people's identity. Don't fall for a scam.

 

[Greg M]

Rule #1- Use common sense
Rule #2- If its too good to be true, then it is.
Rule #3- Never wire money to a stranger
Rule #4- PayPal is your friend
Rule #5- If they don't take PayPal, then refer to rule #1

 

[Chris Luker]

#13 If they offer to pay you with Paypal, but will have their shipping company come and pick it up to send it to Africa, it's a scam.

 

[Bill Sepaniak]

PayPal isn't "bullet-proof" either. See: http://myria.com/how-to-avoid-some-common-craigslist-paypal-scams

We have even been scammed with forged cashiers checks. (Apparently pretty easy to do with Photoshop and color printers.)

Best advice I ever received was from Reverand Ike ... He used to say in his sermons, "... Jesus Loves The Sound of Folding Money..."

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

Rule # 6

http://www.latin-dictionary.org/JM-Latin-English-Dictionary/F/7/Nulla_regula_sine_exceptione

 

[Greg M]

PayPal isn't "bullet-proof" either. See: http://myria.com/how-to-avoid-some-common-craigslist-paypal-scams

We have even been scammed with forged cashiers checks. (Apparently pretty easy to do with Photoshop and color printers.)

Best advice I ever received was from Reverand Ike ... He used to say in his sermons, "... Jesus Loves The Sound of Folding Money..."

Again see rule #1-

 

[Demetri Zuev]

The problem with PayPal is no one wants to pay the fees and when you're selling something significant those fees can be a real pain. I wired money to several members here, but my rules are:

1) Check a person's post count
2) Check the registration date
3) Check forum activity and the quality of postings. They shouldn't be +1s and thanks only
4) Check his website and IMDB/Vimeo page

If after all that nothing feels shady I feel confident wiring money. Maybe I'm wrong but this background check has never failed me up to this day. Nobody wants to pay PayPal fees from a $10-20 thousand deal.

 

[Erich Roland]

The problem with PayPal is no one wants to pay the fees and when you're selling something significant those fees can be a real pain. I wired money to several members here, but my rules are:

1) Check a person's post count
2) Check the registration date
3) Check forum activity and the quality of postings. They shouldn't be +1s and thanks only
4) Check his website and IMDB/Vimeo page

If after all that nothing feels shady I feel confident wiring money. Maybe I'm wrong but this background check has never failed me up to this day. Nobody wants to pay PayPal fees from a $10-20 thousand deal.

Agree with Demitri. I have been burned a few times over many years and a little bit of research goes a long ways. A lot of legitimate sellers may also have an ebay account and give you their handle and you can check the score and feedback. Send a message through ebay for a response to make sure its the right account. Check the address and phone number match the name. No question there are scammers trying to steal your money, but there are many more regular folks just buying and selling, it doesn't take too much diligence to figure out which you are dealing with. Lastly, Paypal offers some protection and and has saved me a few times from sellers who shipped crap and didn't want to refund. I usually suggest paypal in either direction but then offer splitting the fee's so the seller isn't stuck with that cost. It's about 3 percent, so 1.5% to each party isn't as tough to swallow for some protection and ease of transaction.

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

Agree with Demitri. I have been burned a few times over many years and a little bit of research goes a long ways. A lot of legitimate sellers may also have an ebay account and give you their handle and you can check the score and feedback. Send a message through ebay for a response to make sure its the right account. Check the address and phone number match the name. No question there are scammers trying to steal your money, but there are many more regular folks just buying and selling, it doesn't take too much diligence to figure out which you are dealing with. Lastly, Paypal offers some protection and and has saved me a few times from sellers who shipped crap and didn't want to refund. I usually suggest paypal in either direction but then offer splitting the fee's so the seller isn't stuck with that cost. It's about 3 percent, so 1.5% to each party isn't as tough to swallow for some protection and ease of transaction.

+1 Yup