OT: ebay/paypal situation...did I do the right thing?

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Posted By: cmoking

I sold an item on ebay. The buyer had a feedback of 1. The item the guy bought was around $160.

I received a paypal payment from a fellow in Texas. Then I received an email from the fellow saying he is the financial intermediary and to send the item to Latvia (address was provided). Then I received an email from the person in Latvia giving me the same address to mail the item to.

It sounded fishy and phishy to me. What would you do?

I refunded the paypal payment on the grounds that I needed to send the item to the same address as the Paypal account he sent me money from because otherwise I would not be under Paypal's seller's protection. I told them to Paypal me with the Latvia addres (don't know if that is possible) or to send me a check. I'm guessing I won't get a response or at least won't see payment. Did I do the right thing?

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Posted By: JudgeDred (Fred)

Send it to the address for the paypal acct. Let them mail it to Latvia. As with all paypal mailings spend the extra few dollars to ensure it has some type of tracking on it else you might get raked over the coals.

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Posted By: cmoking

The paypal payment says the buyer is "unverified buyer". so that doesn't make me comfortable at all about shipping to the Paypal address either (in Texas).

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Posted By: Charlie O'Neal

Sound to me like they are using stolen funds to pay for the auction.

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Posted By: JudgeDred (Fred)

From the paypal website:

What does it mean to be Verified?

Verification increases the security of the PayPal network. Verified members have successfully completed PayPal's verification system to establish their identity with us. The verification process varies by country or region. For example, in the U.S., a Verified member has confirmed a bank account with PayPal. In Germany, a Verified member has completed a bank transfer or the Expanded Use Process. In most countries and regions where PayPal is available, a Verified member has added a credit card and completed the Expanded Use process.

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Posted By: cmoking

Thanks Fred, and others who emailed me. I appreciate the advice and help. I won't be sending this item.

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Posted By: Elliot

FWIW, i think you did the right thing. PayPal allows you to set your account up to have several different shipping addresses, all of which would still be verified. There's no need for them to ask you to ship to a different address than what is on the PayPal payment. Some sort of scam, I'm sure.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

haven't heard about specific scams with Latvia, but Nigeria, Ghana and Chad are HUGE hotbeds of scams. Not just the emails about needing to get rid of $20MM but also for web sellers like Amazon and many others. These people somehow befriend people in the US, get them to order a bunch of stuff for them, consolidate it and then ship it to them. Ultimately, what happens is that the CC's all come up stolen or bad or something (but not immediately) and the goods are long gone. Typically, the shipping is done at a UPS Store, Office Depot or other retail shipping outlet and they too are out of $$ when the transaction fails as well.

This is happening to the extent that UPS, FedEx and others routinely hold shipments to some of these countries until the contents can be verified. Mostly heard of it with tech stuff like Ipods, Laptops, Cameras and Nike shoes, but not baseball cards.

I think you did the right thing. Plus a $160 sale isn't going to kill you either way. Not sure there are a huge amount of sports collectors in Latvia........