I listed my road bike on an auction site today and tonight ive had a few emails offering me the full amount via paypal only, without seeing the bike and then sending a agent to come and collect it ???
things just dont seem right when your spending £900, he hasnt asked any questions about the bike ?
can i be shafted by accepting paypal payment ?? , can they scam me if the funds are in my paypal account ?

Yes; ignore it.

100% scam they collect it and tell PayPal they’ve never received the bike, so PayPal refunds them, and they have your bike.

Yep, scam tastic.

There will be a story, I guess…. Off shore working, hospital, doing shifts or something…
I will pay by PayPal up front, the full amount…. Then ask my local friend to collect for me …..

Cool, says you, I have been paid, no problem.

Friend arrives, you see the PayPal amount has transferred, you hand the bike over… Happy days.

The PayPal purchaser claims the bike never arrived, claims a refund. PayPal refund him so in effect, he keeps the money and you have no idea where your bike is.

Only way round this is cash on the day of transaction, or PayPal gift which for the purchaser, has no protection.

As above, tell them to use PayPal gift, or better yet to paypal the money to their agent who can then pay you cash on collection.

Best option would be to avoid altogether though.

The scary thing is that this is such a well known scam yet obviously some people are still not aware of it. I wonder how many people actually get taken in?

Do the scammers use a fresh PayPal account every time and to what extent do paypal consider the transaction history? Or is it just a consequence of the pp protection that such transactions facilitate scamming?

cant believe you’re even asking !

The offer of PayPal is just a confidence thing to get you sucked in – at the last minute it’ll stop working and they will ask for payment by WU or similar.

tonight ive had a few emails offering me the full amount via paypal only, without seeing the bike and then sending a agent to come and collect it ???

can i be shafted

can they scam me

are you being serious???!! Yes, this is a scam.

Tell them to pop round and collect it. The address is:

Mr Scammy McScammington,
5 Scamberwick Green,
Pitt Stake,
Herts.

tell them collection’s fine and they can hand over the cash at the same time.

yep paypal requires a tracking reference, proof of delivery and so if someone pays by paypal and then collects your item, then you have no proof it got delivered, hence take a cash payment on collection.

ebay has always been full of scammers, i sold a jacket last week, that i could have delivered on my regular bike route a few miles away, but i decided it best to post.

you can normally spot honest folk, but even then, folk with 000s of feedbacks can still play the game

you can normally spot honest folk

Top tip, honest folk don’t have “agents.” Seriously, who says that? You might send your mate or brother or something, but agent?

We had one here the other week, claimed to be bedridden and housebound, but couldn’t reply because she was out of the country. O-kaaaay…

I won’t use Paypal after falling for this one a few years ago.

The buyer waits until the very last day it can be disputed(60/90 days?) say it hasn’t been received. You’ve long forgotten about the transaction and thrown away any proof etc

Paypal take the money from your account and theres not a lot you can do about it.