Here's one way the scammers use paypal for a Craigslist sale. They reply to your craigslist ad and say they want to buy your "item" and will pay with paypal as that is a safe way to pay. If you say OK, they send you a fake Paypal email that says they have paid. Immediately after you get that email, they send another fake email that looks like it is from paypal, saying that the payment you have gotten is considerably larger than you have ever received, and they need you to confirm your paypal user ID and p***word before they can transfer the funds into your paypal acccount. If you are stupid enough the send them that info, they steal all they can from your paypal account.
Bad idea. Because it is a "gift" payment there is no Paypal protection if there is a problem and they won't get involved because it is a personal payment not a transaction over goods. You are setting yourself up to get screwed doing it that way. So far you have been lucky.
We typically use a US Postal Money Order because if it is a scam, fraud, a US Federal Law Enforcement Agency will follow up....I use PayPal but hate it, hate their fees and know that it is run by Ebay..which I also avoid as they **** with their fees...
I despise PP myself and absolutely hate their fees, but for the small stuff what is the best route? Doing a wire transfer doesn't make sense for that stuff because the fees are generally more than what I'm buying. I have a website that is set to use paypal for payment but I made it that way thinking I was protecting the customer. With all the scams going on these days there are so few options. My wife and I just sold a car out of state and the person drove up on a Saturday with a certified check. A person at my bank had told me to get the name of the branch where they were getting the loan and to have the buyer call me and let me know that they were there and to tell me the name of the person processing their loan. I then needed to look up the number for the bank on the internet and ask for that person while he was sitting there to verify. Although a pain in the *** I wanted to sell this car so I did it. The buyer drove up on that Saturday to pick up the car and met me at the bank. The manager working that day said that she would advise that I not give them the car because they could have gotten the loan and went home to make a fake check. She had said that it happened to her weeks before and the person that it happened to was out of a car plus she still owed the bank for the loan amount. So in my case, I sent these people driving back home (6 hours) without my car until the check cleared my bank. I then had the car delivered at no charge to them the following week. It just ****s that you can't trust anyone these days!
There are zero fees for buyers. Sellers are charged a fee to receive. If your seller forced those fees on you, it is a violation of both Paypal and ebay terms of service and should have been reported. As for the OP, there is NO WAY I would use Paypal to sell such a large puchase. Paypal "seller protection" rules are a joke, and you could lose your shirt over any tiny complaint ( legitimate or not) from buyer. I once ate $100 because seller said item "looked used." it was sold as new, and still had factory seal on the package in the ebay auction pictures, and when I shipped it. On another scam, I lost $50 because Paypal said I wasn't eligible for seller protection because I didn't ship to "confirmed" address. Confirmed address on Paypal said xyz "stret" instead of "street" on the buyer address. Paypal's postage printing tool wouldn't let me ship because it was an "invalid" address (yet it was "verified" by them). So my adding a single "e" to correct the spelling allowed me to print postage on Paypal, but then meant I had sent to unverified address... buyer claimed he never received (even though USPS Delivery Confirmation) showed it delivered. So Paypal reversed the payment. I was out goods AND payment. A little research showed that this buyer had done the same thing to at least 20 others. Ebay finally shut down his account, but nobody got reimbursed for the ripoffs from ebay-owned Paypal. /2 cents
There's two methods of receiving your money that are both verifiable and non-reversible. One is a wire transfer between banks and the other is a USPS money order. Any post office can scan a postal money order and tell you immediately if its good or fake. I've heard WalMart can do the same with money orders they issue, but don't know that for sure. Any other money order can be a fake someone printed at home and you won't know it until it comes back to your bank a couple weeks later. Holding a personal check until it clears is no protection against a scammer, because most banks now allow stop orders on checks up to 90 days after they're written. That they had money in their account at the time the check p***ed thru their bank is no help at all when their bank can **** the money right back out of your account a couple months later. And, accepting any sort of "certified" check today is about as safe as accepting a homemade check written on notebook paper.
Regarding email scams... Before you click on a link, no matter what it says, mouseover it wih your cursor (don't click!) then look at the bottom left of your screen. It will tell you where the link goes. If it does not go to "www.paypal.com" without anything after the .com or anything between the www and paypal or between www.paypal and the .com either. it must be EXACTLY "www.paypal.com" or you may be going to a scamsite www.paypal.com.jp (Japan) or www.scam.paypal.com without realizing it. Look for poor spelling or grammar, that is a tip off. Professionals will never allow either to happen. ABSOLUTELY no financial ins***ution will ever email you to confirm personal information like p***words or the like so be wary. Mouseover ea. one and see what I mean... www.paypal.com or www.paypal.com
Remember ,you are selling the car. You tell the buyer the only way you will accept payment. Pay-pal is owned by E-bay and they are in the business to make money and don't give a **** if you are being scammed by the fake site. Bank transfer is the best way to go and and as far as the statement--Pay-Pal is safe,bull.
Good general advice. Note that https is also a valid protocol for URL to paypal. Some more general advice on staying safe... if in doubt, take the base domain name (ie www.whatever.com) and run it past a whois database (like www.internic.net). So, if you get some URL like www.superdupercarstuff.com, you can look behind the curtains to see who registered it (sometimes). If it's been online for a few weeks, you may want to be a bit wary. If it's registered offshore, ditto. And so on. There's no magic bullet, but there are lots of tools you can use to increase your protection just a little bit if you take the time to learn some of them. BTW, I am a computer nerd, so I realize some of this is gibberish. But you can (and should) learn a little of it if you're going to be out here in the scary Internet world... 'cuz it's not going to get any prettier, and we don't want to invoke to many governmental rules to "protect" us. /another 2 cents
Lot of good info here, also a lot of misinformation... As some have said: -- A properly delivered wire transfer cannot be reversed. (And for this reason there is no reason for a special account, or to take it our of your account.) -- Paypal does not charge buyers a fee, only the seller. -- There is no buyer protection from paypal for items that are picked up. Ever. Get cash or a wire transfer. -- bank, cashiers checks or money orders can be and have been forged. Don't take them.
A bank or credit union money order is safe...IF you take the following precautions: 1) Provide the vehicle seller a phone number (w/extension) of someone at the bank/CU that can verify the MO or bank check. Seller calls, the bank or CU verifies the check or MO number and the amount, plus the name on the doc as the buyer. Those funds are already out of that account, so that can not be revoked by the buyer later. 2) Wire transfer is best. I've bought and sold both ways, and both worked great for me. 3) NO WAY in Hell would I ever, ever utilize paypal for a large transaction of ANY kind, and certainly not a vehicle!!! The reasons are stated above by others. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! (to quote Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"!)
Well what do ya know? I just got an email asking to update my PP account. Here is the email addy they provided. "service@ntl.noreplay.com" Notice that it says "noreplay" rather than the more common "noreply?" Not to mention it doesn't have a PP addy it has an addy to a noreplay dot com. The link that said "CLICK HERE TO UPDATE YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT" actually goes to; http:// www . dfbv.de/ logs/ sys/ update/ infosy/ confirmation/ newupdate2012/ info/ account/ update/ index.html Not only was it not a secure site (HTTPS) it isn't related to PP at all. It's a German site (.de) I added spaces to break the link. Just some of the shenanigans they play hoping you only glance at the addy and don't notice the signs there is a problem. Be aware, be wary, educate yourself.
https://www.escrow.com/index.asp, You might want to try this,I've used it before,works great,there is a fee but the buyer and seller can split the difference. It's worth it for the peace of mind.
I've taken paypal for payment when selling a car on ebay before. The buyer requested paypal and i agreed under the condition that he added the 2% fee to the selling price, went smooth.
I'm with BowTie. I sold nearly a thousand items on eBay years ago. But I found that PayPal (owned by eBay) fees, on TOP of eBay's cut on the sale amounted to another 10-15%. In recent years, I've barely used eBay, as I don't like that they REQUIRE sellers to use PayPal (and sellers have told me THEY don't like that either). Some sellers will still work with you the old ways. If a seller insists on PayPal, I just don't pursue a deal. There are other ways to get 'er done, and posters have done a good job of covering the alternatives to PayPal.
I won't buy from a seller not using paypal since I would never give out my credit card #. I got a 51 merc tailgate all wrapped and ready for shipping ..Some douchebag in Delta B.C said he was sending me a money order for it and could I ship now, the fact he did not want to use paypal was a headsup!...that was 3 months ago and he does not reply to emails...So paypal is secure,,don't like the fee jack up your price to cover,,no different from any other retailer who p***es increased costs along to the consumer
I've had notification from PayPal of new Terms & Conditions: reading through them they are putting a stop to the "gift" get-out, and if you get caught it could cause loss of the account. There are also options for "money owed" and "other", neither of which incurr fees (unless between different currencies), but they wouldn't give any seller protection either. I don't like the fees for PayPal on top of the 10% eBay take so I don't sell much on there, but I have to say that without PayPal I wouldn't have been able to get half the stuff I've needed for my projects.
I only use paypal for a NON-fundable deposit..10 grand car. 500.00 bones deposit, I have the buyer wire the total amount of cars selling price/money to my bank account, once the funds are clear and I have in hand... I refund/decline his paypal deposit..I then send ***le fed-ex to him, and allow car to be picked up.. sold, many cars, rods, cl***ic etc..all around the world..never a problem yet(knock on steel)
Paypal is a scam! Thieves know it,Buy with Paypal ,wait a month,File chargeback with credit card,Seller is screwed out of item and $$$$$.Ebay supports theft with forced Paypal. Screw Ebay & Paypal. Cash is KING!
FYI - A gift comes out of your checking account only, no credit cards with a gift. Just make sure you have enough funds in your checking if you use this way.
FYI re paypal payment, anything the seller picks up personally the seller can get screwed... since there is no online tracking. Here's an answer to a question I posed to paypal some time ago: Thank you for contacting PayPal Customer Support. My name is Sheila and I am happy to ***ist you with the PayPal Seller Protection Policy. That is correct. Items that are picked up are not covered by PayPal Seller Protection. Sincerely, Sheila PayPal Customer Solutions PayPal, an eBay Company
Last car I bought on eBay, I sent a small deposit through PayPal and then he wanted cash for the balance. I can't remember a time I was more nervous, then when I was driving across 3 or 4 states to pick up the car with 16,000 in cash, in my wife's purse!!! My guess is, he didn't want a paper trail to pay taxes on.
When I bought mine from overseas, I paid deposit thru paypal and rest thru wire. I've had no probs with paypal, though their fees and charges these days are becoming a little too hard to justify dealing with them.
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