[Leica] eBay scam?

[Douglas Barry]

To be fair to eBay, I've never had a problem with it and I've even sold to 
the US. You must stipulate PayPal, and do the transaction through eBay. As 
mentioned by someone else, make sure that the buyer is responsible for 
return costs.

Douglas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard Ritter" <hlritter at bex.net>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2015 2:25 PM
Subject: [Leica] eBay scam?


> Hello all—
>
> Sorry for being a bit OT, but I'm hoping to make use of the group’s 
> experiences.
>
> I have an item (not photographic) listed on eBay. I just received an 
> inquiry from a person in Moscow claiming that he wants to buy the item at 
> the Buy It Now price, which I would be very happy to get, and wants to 
> know how much it would cost to ship it to Moscow. And no, he did not offer 
> to go outside of eBay and send me a bank check for more than the purchase 
> price and ask for the remainder in cash! There was no mention of anything 
> irregular, just the inquiry about shipping costs.
>
> I have no prior experience with selling on eBay. I do realize there are 
> all sorts of scams run through the site, but I believe the situation has 
> improved since they began requiring all payments to be made thru PayPal. 
> My question is: It seems to me that if a seller ships only after receiving 
> payment thru PayPal, he is insulated from being defrauded—but can PayPal 
> claw back a payment to an eBay seller if the buyer’s payment turns out to 
> be fraudulent? Does PayPal, which presumably vets the buyer’s form of 
> payment and has his money securely in hand before paying the seller, 
> assume the loss if later turns out that the buyer somehow defaulted or 
> scammed PayPal? PayPay presumably is pretty sophisticated and exercises 
> due diligence—is it even possible to scam them?
>
> Are there any other dangers involved in this type of transaction? For 
> example, what would happen if Russian Customs refuses to allow entry of an 
> item, or the buyer backs out when he finds the import duty excessive?
>
> Thanks for your advice,
>
> —howard
>
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