Suspicious activity in classifieds ?

[raid]

I am working with RFF members for buying/selling. It is far better for the soul and for the wallet. If I sell an item for less that what it could be sold on ebay, I make someone at RFF happy. If I buy an item for less that it could be sold on ebay, the seller made me happy. It is a win-win situation.

Long live RFF.

 

[coelacanth]

I am working with RFF members for buying/selling. It is far better for the soul and for the wallet. If I sell an item for less that what it could be sold on ebay, I make someone at RFF happy. If I buy an item for less that it could be sold on ebay, the seller made me happy. It is a win-win situation.

Long live RFF.

Ditto. I've had my share of bad experiences on both ebay and RFF, but I find myself avoiding ebay as much as possible, and coming to RFF for both selling and buying. A few bucks that will "lose" by bringing my goods here instead of ebay is well well worth sacrificing.

I love RFF.

 

[CameraQuest]

I placed an ad in the classifieds. A buyer in Europe committed to the deal. He paid via Paypal. The amount sent was in Euros, though my asking price was in US Dollars. I then received a message claiming a "mistake" was made, asking me to refund the difference (approx 200 usd).

This is classic scam behavior, so I denied the Paypal transaction and will not sell the item to this person.

This would-be buyer has just joined RFF and does not have any posting history.

What is your advice: should I post this RFF member's name/identity to prevent further problems?

If you made a mistake and overpaid by Paypal, wouldn't you want the overpayment returned to you ?

It is all too easy for a Paypal newbie to screw up a Paypal payment by paying in the wrong currency. I have been paid in foreign currencies too many times.

IF they asked for the money returned to their paypal account, not some sort of account outside paypal, that is not scam bahavior.

Due to Paypal's charges for changing currencies, the best thing to do in such instances is to cancel the entire incorrect payment and then get payment for the correct amount in the correct currency, rather than refunding part of it and then being charged extra currency exchange fees by Paypal.

Likewise there is nothing wrong with international buyers asking for delivery by USPS. As seller you will have tracking internationally by USPS Express Mail. USPS saves the buyer by not charging customs brokerage fees on top of the customs fees -- like UPS and Fed Ex.

Unless I am missing something here, I see no reason to suspect that the buyer did anything more than make an easy newbie Paypal mistake by paying in the wrong currency.

Stephen

 

[thomasw_]

Sounds like a scam. It may not be but you did the right thing in cancelling the transaction and requesting that the correct curreny be submitted. It would be to long of a story to go in to but should something happen, don't expect any help from eBay or PayPal. You would be on your own and out the funds. It's wise to be cautious. Everyone offers advise but if the transaction goes South nobody on this forum is going to make good on it. So I say you did the right thing.

As I read the OP, he was not asking whether or not he did the right thing canceling business with the buyer who sent the wrong currency; he was asking whether he should publicly state on RFF who it was so others can be warned.

So given the evidence provided....yea or nay?

 

[pakeha]

QOTE
A guy cannot be claimed to be a crook until it‘s proven. Of course it’s always your choice to deal or not to deal with a stranger from whatever murky country in particular when he pays the wrong currency 😀

Being from the heartland of Mother Russia, I know from my personal experience on eBay (4 years+, over 50 purchases, 100% positive) and here on rangefinderforum (2 years, over 10 purchases) that some fellows in America consider Russians as potential swindlers and reject upfront any bidders from the FSU (Russia, Ukraine, you name it…). Perhaps it’s some sort of paranoia provoked by mass media that likes to make fun of us. Just don’t be quick to jump to conclusions. Frankly, I should be thankful to many others who don't care much abouth the country origin of the buyer and thanks to them I bought my Leica M camera and a few precious lenses like Noctilux and Summicron 35mm ASPH.

My personal experience dealing with different business cultures says that crooks are rather evenly distributed across societies in all countries and continents (although any fraud is rather rare in Scandinavian countries). Funny enough the only one time when I was tricked out on eBay was done by a guy with a nickname Bombaygoose who is living in SF Bay area. Here was the trick: I was the second winner on a bid for Kobalux 28mm LTM lens. Soon after the auction ended he sent me a second chance offer for the reason that the first guy decided not to pay. I didn’t realize that any second chance offer is considered as the outside of eBay transaction and is not covered by eBay rules. Also he wrote he cannot trust my paypal account (although I had over 40 positive references by that time) and finally said he will accept only a bank-to bank wire from Russia. Fine, I wanted the lens and transferred $300+ and… he disappeared. He didn’t report the shipment details and stopped answering e-mails. Later I realized I cannot report this fraud to eBay; although my friends in the US suggested initiating fraud investigation I decided the time and the junky Bombaygoose were not worth it. From time to time we have to pay for knowledge of the crooks like him, but sooner or later a guy like him gets what he deserves.
Perhaps he saved me from even worse crooks. 🙂


I quess it was only a matter of time untill a reply like this came out of Russia, considering the way some here go on and on and on about FSU scams, let it go, its over. :bang:
Bernie Madoff,Enron, the Macs etc,etc are not Russians.😉

Regarding the OP, we are all still looking for the perfect world where things don`t go wrong, people don`t make mistakes, but hey, lets just make sure we got some proof before condemnation, oh , thats real proof ,not the Fox news type🙄
Thats about 4 cents worth

 

[colyn]

You're extreamly lucky just to get someone on the phone and no need to bother writing you'll never hear back.

Quiet the opposite for me. I've never has communication problems with paypal. Every time I have called and/or emailed I received both friendly and fast response. I am however cautious with who I deal with when making paypal transactions.

On the other hand I do feel their buyer protection is too biased and doesn't give enough protection to the seller..

To the OP...a simple fix would have been to refund all of the money and ask the buyer to make payment in US funds if he is still interested. Also just because he does not have a paypal confirmed address does not make him a scammer. I've sold to a number of overseas buyer who were un-confirmed with no problems whatsoever..

 

[ryan26]

This post leads me to believe that the person that one might want to avoid doing transactions with is the original poster, regardless of how many RFF posts they have. Make one mistake with paypal's (not always easy) system and you could be branded as suspicious, reported to the admin's of the forum, and not even get what you're trying to buy.

 

[lewis44]

This post leads me to believe that the person that one might want to avoid doing transactions with is the original poster, regardless of how many RFF posts they have. Make one mistake with paypal's (not always easy) system and you could be branded as suspicious, reported to the admin's of the forum, and not even get what you're trying to buy.

Not to take sides, but I can understand the OP's problem. If the buyer had been a member for some time, was in the same country or had some dealings with someone else on the forum, it might be different. Most European countries don't have confirmed addresses with Paypal, and as you know, it's a tough go trying to get Paypal to cover a loss if you have one.

I would have had my doubt's as well. I would have refunded the payment and gone from there, depending how the buyer responded.

 

[Bob Michaels]

Amidst all the suspicion and negativity, I just had another trusting experience. I just hung up on the phone with Susan Bank, a photographer, as I wanted to buy a book of her Cuban photos. Now this is a person with her phone number and home address on her website. http://www.susansbank.com

She asked that I send her an e-mail with my address and she would send the book and an invoice for the $40 price and whatever the shipping came to. She asked that I not send the money right away until she knew the actual shipping costs.

Similarly, I bought 4 wind chimes at $150 several yars ago each from a craftsman in TX. They were holiday gifts so he sent them to four addresses, none mine. He mailed the invoice to me. He told me that he had never had anyone not pay in many years.

So let us never forget that while there is an occasional bad apple in the barrel, the overwhelming majority of people are reliable and honest.

 

[parsec1]

'Socialist scammers in Europe'. ?
Whats the biggest capitalist scammer in world history, Bernie Maddoff doing now? About 150 years in pokey I believe ! He hehe.
You may be a down a few hundred bucks,in fact it seems you may even be better off, Maddoff created a world economic disaster where millions of people all over the world lost thier homes, children or even commited suicide.

 

[parsec1]

BTW I love my M9s

 

[George S.]

Not singling anyone out personally, but all this posting about what "I" do with regard to paypal, ebay, money orders, etc has nothing to do with the original question.

Something made the OP's hair on his neck stand up besides the sending of the wrong currency. We do not know what those things were because he did not tell us. So just because the buyer is new to RFF and he sent the wrong currency, then no, that doesn't automatically make him a thief and his details should not be posted publicly.

Having said that, then do what is right for you. If that is cancelling the sale and moving on, then that's a solution for you. You may have missed out on a sale, but in your mind, you may have evaded a loss. I don't know if you'll ever be secure in your own mind doing international sales, so maybe you should just limit buyers to your home country and accept a postal money order and require a buyer to speak to you personally via telephone before committing to a sale. Again, whatevr works for you, not what works for me or the next ten guys.