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

[Archive]

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........