I have had a few reports of new users popping up on the forums offering parts via PM at prices that are too good to be true, and these parts never arriving once sold, and the user ignoring PMs and emails chasing them up.

This looks at face value like fraud/theft, so I have put together the following online purchase safety message.

When considering purchasing items from a forum member the following are absolutely essential:

1) Check the user's posting history. Have they only just registered and have very few posts to their name? They may have done this simply to get access to the PM system.

2) Get contact details from the seller, phone number (ideally not a mobile/cell phone), address. Simply having an email address at a provider such as Gmail or Hotmail and an account on a forum is not sufficient information to chase up any issues.

3) NEVER EVER pay via PayPal gift. If anything goes wrong you have no way of getting your money back. Reputable sellers will agree to pay the fees if they really want to sell you an item, and you then have PayPal on your side should anything go wrong. A gift payment is exactly that, a payment you can never get back should there be a dispute. A bank transfer is similarly risky as it is generally one-way only.

4) Consider the possibility that something could go wrong, even if the seller is genuine (such as items going missing in the post). What information do you need to be able to sort it out?

Be very, very careful about who you trust. Membership here is free and open and unlike a paid-for club there is no list of member's contact details to fall back on should there be an issue.

I cannot stress enough just how dangerous PayPal Gift payment is. DO NOT SEND MONEY BY PAYPAL GIFT. You have absolutely no comeback at all should anything go wrong. It is against PayPal's terms and conditions to sell goods and use PayPal gift for this very reason and I cannot understand why PayPal continue to offer it, giving it is used so fradulently.

I hope the above helps out and prevents members having money stolen but unscrupulous persons using the forum.

Any information anyone has about members who have been operating similarly to the above would be very welcome - please PM me.

Martin

Martin, an idea would be to have a minimum post count before selling ( if one isn't already in place). I used to frequent a bmw board and you couldn't sell anything with less than 100 posts.

there is a minimum post count of 25 and at least one months membership but all to frequently we see new members posting rubbish to get to the post count.. 100 posts sounds good..

As Stan says, there is a 25 post requirement to list items for sale. What has been happening though is parts being offered via PM by those with just 3 posts, the number required to unlock the PM system.

Perhaps this requires revising or a different way of unlocking the PM function.

Martin

I think the pm system should be open to users quite soon, it is a key element in the forum style.
Increasing the post count will also only encourage more trash. Dishonest people do what they have to to beat the rules.
But if you are carefull even on ebay its not too hard to keep the dodgy deals to a minimum. I think i have been caught out twice, which is a very small percentage of my deals.

Just an opinion for discussion.

I agree - education is better than restriction

All you can reasonably do is help people understand what are reasonable precautions and obvious red flags

Hi thought I would put my two penny worth,I tried to sell a high value watch on fleabay.
The buyer said they would pay the full asking price,( strange ) Said they will pay through Paypal,all I have to do is send the tracking number to prove that I have sent it and they will put the payment into my account at paypal. No money went into the account, checked with Paypal for payments pending you guessed it no money
The idea of paypal is to protect buyer and seller, A third party to hold the money. Anyway I did not send the watch and did not hear any more from them.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck Its a DUCK

Merry Christmas all

Cheers

Recently i sold a door lock for a laguna on ebay.
I had bought in error from a main dealer, when i realised it was the wrong part number i went out and bought the right one.
I decided to sell the wrong one on ebay.

I listed as it by its part number and the side it was for. I had a buyer who told me his was a differant part number, then he bought anyway. He fit in place of a differant part number and surprise it was not the right part.
I offered him a refund if he sent it back but instead he started a dispute.
I told ebay it met all my specs, and he had already said he fit to the wrong door but ebay refunded him anyway. As a result i did a bit of research.

It seems that if a buyer claims it was not as listed they will always get their money back, even if they send a different item back, the old one for instance, or even an empty box.
As such selling expensive items on ebay seems to be risky for the seller, this watch buyer for instance had he sent the money and got the watch he could have complained, sent back a fake or an empty box, and got a refund from ebay.
I think this is now the biggest problem.