Sorry to hear about more scum scamming this community. A lot of old-timers on the Yellow still prefer money orders...please correct me if I am wrong...but always worry about sending postal money order as payment because there is not much recourse afterwards besides reporting it to the Postal Inspector and then standing in line with 10,000 other scammed victims....waiting for an investigation with questionable urgency and outcome.
Some prefer to use Paypal because (again, please correct me if I am wrong) because you can use my credit card (yes, 3% more) and can always reverse charges, and also there is an electronic trail. Also, my understanding is that even as the person receives my money, it's on temporarily hold by Paypal for a few days even as Paypal immediately upfronts them the money. So the risk of going after the other party is on Paypal. Now, if you pay with Paypal "family and friends" to save that 3%, then you may take on some risks where the money back guarantee does not count.
What I hear others advising is to always call the seller/buyer on the phone (beware of Google Voice numbers or TrackPhone numbers), talk and ask questions to establish if they are who they say they are...do they know the hobby, etc, do they know anyone in the hobby....and verify their physical address (Google is your friend here). If they claim to be on the Yellow, or Ebay, or else,...make them post something specific under their alias making sure that their alias and log-in matches (this is for folks on the Yellow) or on Ebay an item for one cent or something.
I am sure there are some other and better things too...would be great to share some tips on how to prevent these things from happening, because after the fact it's almost always too late and too little..
