Hi everybody, just wanted to let everyone know my recent experience. I placed a Want to Buy (WTB) ad on this forum and another forum. I found my airgun, but I was also contacted by three different scammers trying to steal my money. You really have to be careful. I told a shooting friend about my experience with the scammers and he said that he had been scammed about a month ago, but was able to get his money back because he paid the Paypal fee and didn't do Friends and Family. I have another friend who lost $1300 in USPS money orders to a scammer. That's my story. I hope it helps someone avoid being scammed.
Warning!!! Scammers are still out there. Alive and Well!
- Thread starter Notimeman
- Start date
Paypal goods and services is not guaranteed because the scammer can cash the money out and close his Paypal before you even realize you were scammed. Then they just set up another new Paypal account to scam the next victim. They keep on doing it because it is too easy for them.
Safest way is to use a Credit Card with your Paypal account so you can have your CC take the loss if you get scammed.
Surprising no victim went to a scammers home to meet introduce BUBBA.
That is the only way they will be taught a good lesson.
CA
Safest way is to use a Credit Card with your Paypal account so you can have your CC take the loss if you get scammed.
Surprising no victim went to a scammers home to meet introduce BUBBA.
That is the only way they will be taught a good lesson.
CA
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Just so you're aware, when you file a credit card chargeback, the credit card doesn't eat that loss. That goes back to the payee, whoever they are. So if someone steals your credit card and buys a whole bunch of stuff for example, the losers are the vendors who sold that stuff as ultimately they're the ones who are out the money. In this case, it is possible paypal might take the hit, however that is pretty rare. Usually in order to get that money out of your paypal they need enough information on you that they can come after you. If you transfer the money to a bank account for example to cash out, even if you were to close your PP account and your bank account, the chargeback would ultimately still come back to the bank who have your ID and credit score and will come after you. That isn't to say people haven't successfully scammed people, far from it, but it isn't as easy as you might expect if you just do your due diligence on your part.
That said, I strongly encourage everyone to pay via paypal goods and services, NEVER friends and family. I actively avoid sellers who request FF payments or charge you an additional percent. This is for two reasons 1) It is a much higher probability that they're a scammer if they're requesting it, at the very least they're an inexperienced seller because paypal WILL come after you for using FF for payments 2) It is a direct violation of paypal policy. Just my view on it anyway. *shrug*
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STO put it perfectly. I understand wanting to save money by using Friends and Family but the irony especially in the context of this thread is that PayPal is being scammed. They're not a charity plus the likely outcome of loss should something go wrong. I typically split the cost of Goods and Services with the buyer.
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G
Guest
Guest
You should never send Friends and Family. 3% is a small price to pay for piece of mind. I have filed 2 PP claims in the past. Always got my money back within a week.
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Im a big fan of PayPal. Actually been using them for a very long time. I actually prefer to use them for transactions over the net. In fact all to often if someone or a web store/seller is not offering it as a payment method I will move on.
As far as the scamming. Ill keep it shot.
I purchased a controller for a radio controlled drone that I finished building and when I got the package it was rocks. Funny thing is that the box was correct and it even had all of the paperwork inside. I would of never thought that this would of happened beyond reading about it. But yeah, I got scammed. I had bought it off ebay but received it via amazon prime. I was not surprised because of all the shady drop shipping going on. I did get my money back rather fast. The seller even told me that they were drop shippers. They apologized and sent me a reviver for free.
As far as the scamming. Ill keep it shot.
I purchased a controller for a radio controlled drone that I finished building and when I got the package it was rocks. Funny thing is that the box was correct and it even had all of the paperwork inside. I would of never thought that this would of happened beyond reading about it. But yeah, I got scammed. I had bought it off ebay but received it via amazon prime. I was not surprised because of all the shady drop shipping going on. I did get my money back rather fast. The seller even told me that they were drop shippers. They apologized and sent me a reviver for free.
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the scammers are just as bad, if not worse on car/truck/atv forums and groups. literally every hobby or shared interest forum/group is scammer prey. it's about as pathetic as the fake IRS/sheriffs warrant phone calls.
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This has not been my experience. I have been a member of two Mopar specific forums for many years and have only had one bad experience, and it was an item that wasn't as described. Also I have been a member of a Honda SXS fourm for seeral years and have never seen anyone post on there about scammers. The gun forums I'm on I don't recall but seeing a couple post about scammers over the years.
Having been into airguns for less than two years I can say there are tons of scammers looking to take advantage of airgunners.
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More and more sellers are dropping paypal, I can speak from personal experience on this one. Having worked with them from the seller side for over 10 years (saying something given how young PP is as a company) I don't know what is going on over there, but I had to drop them. The paypal being the safest way to pay thing is a lie, laws in the US mean credit cards are WAY safer and surer ways to get your money back from paypal. You file a paypal dispute, if paypal rules in your favor and if the person hasn't emptied their paypal account (or lost enough other disputes to have no money left) you'll probably get your money back. You file a credit card chargeback, you're getting your money back with almost absolute certainty. Just something to be aware of.
As far as why sellers are dropping paypal, there are two primary reasons in my view. The first is that paypal came along at a time when you couldn't easily get a credit card processor as a small vendor. This is now far from the case, and these CC processors give better rates and services than paypal. The preference for better rates is obvious, but services like being able to block accounts which you know are fraudulent or problematic from making payments, getting real time fraud-risk assessments on payments, and managing your own fraud risk rules/tools to stop scammers are all HUGE advantages which paypal just doesn't have. The second reason why I stopped working with paypal is that there is something catastrophically wrong over there. They messed up multiple tax forms in MAJOR ways (including sending tax documents to the wrong state), and after a month and multiple emails they just sent me a useless form letter response. Multiple phone calls with long wait times on hold were required. And once you get a person on the phone, they have to apologize profusely because their databases take minutes to load which wastes everyones time. There was also an instance of fraud on an account (okay these things happen) and paypal smartly locked out the account.... the problem was getting it unlocked. The requested information to secure the account was provided immediately, and their system said they'd get back to us in two days. The problem with locking out an account is that, as a seller, the account still accepts payments but now you can't do business with the account meaning transfer money out or more importantly refund payments. (as a seller, just part of doing business is some percentage of orders will be messed up, canceled, etc and you MUST be able to send prompt refunds otherwise people become really really upset and rightly so) Again it took them over a month and multiple emails and a long time on hold on the phone to get everything sorted out.
Because I absolutely flat out refuse to screw my customers like that, I just can't serve them on the timeline of months things need to be done in hours or a day or two worst case, I had to stop accepting paypal. Talking with a few of my other friends who do a lot of business with paypal, they're having similar issues. *shrug* I don't mean to go on an anti-paypal tirade here, just have some sympathy for vendors who simply won't put up with it anymore and have moved on to better options. You're exceptionally well protected via credit card, much more so than with paypal, and so if a vendor has or is exclusive with that as a payment option you can feel very safe using it.
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Before I imported Edguns, I used to buy and sell a lot of airguns (kind of an addiction ). There is no foolproof way to avoid scammers. Paypal won't help, the bank is not your friend, and people can be very creative with their scams. As a business owner, I have had my fair share of scams attempted on me. Some have worked others not. Over the years I have found the most foolproof method of avoiding a thief is to make a phone call. Talk to the seller, ask educated airguns questions and spend a little bit of time on the phone with the seller. Funny thing about our hobby is we have our language, and we are a relatively small group. The odds are in your favor that a scammer will not know all the airgun terms, nor specifics about the product he/she is claiming to have for sale. When you get that "feeling" in your gut, walk away, another gun is just around the corner.
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I am not a scammer, but I know very well how they work, and let me tell you, it is not hard work. Anyhow.
I once sold a nice Nikon DSLR on eBay. The buyer broke it and then asked me to lie for him so he can file a claim with UPS. Not sure what exactly his plan was, but of course, I said NO. He then called his Credit Company and filed a charge-back. BAM, PayPal took the money back and I was left with no camera and no money. Of course he never send the "broken" camera back.
PayPal sucks. Period.
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I bought a thousand millions things from R/C forums and never got ripped off. Just buy from people that have a good reputation. Ask question. Do not buy something that is too good to be true. If you really want to use PayPal, pay the extra 3.5% (or whatever it is) fee. Do not do Friends and Family unless you know the seller. AND have them take
UNIQUE
Photos. Have them take photos of whatever it is they are selling, and have them put their user ID, or something else, next to the item they are selling. If you ask them to write on a piece of paper 45DGHRT36545 (or whatever dumb sh*t you come up with, ha ha), and they put that next to the item, the odds are pretty damn high that he really has the item. Remember, scammer do not have the item on hand.
Kmd
UNIQUE
Photos. Have them take photos of whatever it is they are selling, and have them put their user ID, or something else, next to the item they are selling. If you ask them to write on a piece of paper 45DGHRT36545 (or whatever dumb sh*t you come up with, ha ha), and they put that next to the item, the odds are pretty damn high that he really has the item. Remember, scammer do not have the item on hand.
Kmd
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I know this is an older post but this morning I was checking different sites and on one of the prominent air gun classified sites was a very nice FWB 80. When I saw the price I figured it was a scam but thought I'd send the seller an e mail, hey you never know. The gun was listed with the barrel weights but none were in the photos in the ad, so I asked for photos of the weights, asked the sellers location and if the seller was a member of any airgun forums.
About 45 minutes later I get a reply with photos. This is the reply, "Good morning sir Kindly send me you address and phone number for proper delivery,payment with PayPal only..". The only communication was my e mail, no discussion and no commitment to buy. He did send some photos of a 80 with the barrel weights on. The only problem was the gun in the for sale ad had RH grips, the gun in the e mal had LH grips, three sets actually and the gun in the ad has some small marks under the trigger guard, the one in the e mail doesn't.
Be very careful folks!
BTW, he didn't give me his location and didn't answer if he was a member of any airgun forums.
About 45 minutes later I get a reply with photos. This is the reply, "Good morning sir Kindly send me you address and phone number for proper delivery,payment with PayPal only..". The only communication was my e mail, no discussion and no commitment to buy. He did send some photos of a 80 with the barrel weights on. The only problem was the gun in the for sale ad had RH grips, the gun in the e mal had LH grips, three sets actually and the gun in the ad has some small marks under the trigger guard, the one in the e mail doesn't.
Be very careful folks!
BTW, he didn't give me his location and didn't answer if he was a member of any airgun forums.
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That is what USPS would like you to think but I lost $1200 some years ago that proves otherwise. There are other Money Order Scams as well including counterfeit M/O's.
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