Am I gonna get ripped off on ebay?!

[jam1e]

Following my earlier post about the bloke asking weird questions about my Cove...

He has now bought (by proxy, and "his friends" account only has a 2 star rating) my bike. However instead of paying by paypal he has paid by echeque which I'd never heard of until now.

From what I gather:

he pays by echeque
7-10 days later money clears into my paypal account
I send him the bike

Why do this instead of paypal?
Can he cancel it after paypal shows it has cleared?
Other than him trying to get me to send the bike early (not gonna happen!) are there any other known frauds associated with this echeque malarky?!


I'm convinced this is going to end badly!

 

[JeRkY]

you may recieve a email saying the money has cleared, DO NOT BELIEVE IT!, make sure that the money is in your account first as the email can be spoofed. Also I'm not to sure about an echeque any way.

If it were me I would refuse the sale and complain to ebay. It just sounds a little iffy, buying by proxy/ paying by an unusual & unaccepted method.

Is it a sale to some one in the UK?

Could the "friends" account be a hacked account ?

If you do decide to go ahead, make sure you take enough time to be 100% sure you have the payment, perhaps contact your bank and ask if theres any way it can go tits up and at what point the payment is truly safe.

If he offers to pay into an escrow service, be very careful as there are many fake sites out there.

 

[MAXTHEROTTI]

e cheques are ok (go into paypal faq,s)
i THINK they are sent if the buyer uses a non verified bank account ??
have recived them a few time and like said actually check funds are in you account BEFORE posting goods


rob

 

[daj]

Yep echeques are for real, A couple of times I have sent them ...Its normally I think when its from a non-vertified account like Rob says. Just like what it says its a cheque that takes longer to clear as its got to be cleared from the senders account too not a direct transfer.

But as everyone has said just check the money is in your account

 

[thekingofming]

Also make sure the address that you end it to is either the one registered with paypal or ebay. Actually, do the addresses tie up? If you are really worried, cancel his echeque and make him send a real one, that way will prove as to the genuineness (is that a word??) and if it all does turn out to be a scam you wont have paypal taking the money back off you and leaving you with no money and no item.

 

[neilll]

e-cheques are pukka, the buyer most likely does not have a credit card on file so its a method where they take from his bank, send to PayPal, then to you.

It takes ages so don't panic.

all the usual PayPal caveats apply.

I've never been ripped by one yet and I've had 429 Verified Transactions on PayPal and 2000+ feedback on eBay.

Just don't send it till its cleared !!!!

 

[jam1e]

So there's no way the echeque can be "recalled" after the funds are showing cleared in my paypal account?

TBH this guy has been a pain in the tits from day 1. Bizarrely I think it may be someone I used to work with as well!

Thanks for the reassurances guys!

 

[Huntso]

In answer to your thread title

Definitely