I have Genesis cdf on gumtree at the moment , I got a e mail through my phone asking was It still for sale ? . I replied yes and then received a reply saying he would buy the bike for his Dad but was currently off shore . He stated he was a marine engineer and would pay by paypal and arrange shipping , he stated that once the paypal payment was cleared he would send a courier.
My question is can a paypal payment be reversed ?. The guy could be totally genuine but I’m a glass half empty kind of guy.
Your thoughts please. ??

If you have to ask if it’s a scam, then it’s a scam.

Ask him for his address and see what you get

Also, once the payment comes in call paypal to verify it

this is a well known scam

If you do go with it, make sure the payment clears before you send anything. The usual trick is to pay with a non verified account. PayPal hold the payment until it clears which never happens. In the meantime the buyer will try and blag you to send it before it clears/bounces.

As above. If it seems dodgy it probably is. You could suggest you ship it for him. May scare him off

I thought the scam here is that he pays PAYPAL and then collects the bike from you in some way. I’m guesing he says “the Courier can’t make it, can my mate pop round and collect”

As you have the money in your account you relaxed and happy to see it go

Any way the key to the scam is you let the bike with no paper work

So when the bike is safely in his possession the buyer claim that you have not sent the bike and escalates a dispute. You can’t proove that the buyer has the bike, you just gave it to a random bloke. So PAYPAL take the money back out of your account

Accept the money, delete the advert, when the courier arrives, give him a photograph of the bike.

Tell them that’s what was advertised.

What size is the CDF and how much? My
Mate is looking for one.

Ask him which rig he’s based on, because you might be able to drop the bike with him on your jetpack commute to the international superhero superbase at the North Pole and take the cash.

@Willstaffs , It’s a 54cm here’s the Ad.

I think I’ll just ignore the the guy as I have reading about Paypal payment reversal that means they can claim the money back a month after payment. Some other joker from Birmingham wanted me to ship the bike for his inspection then If he liked It he would send the money. 🙂

Total Scam.

I’ve had two mates advertise cars in the last week, and they have the exact same story told to them – offshore working, buying for his dad etc etc…

Dont go along, its a scam. I listed a car for sale and got it all. Same scenario about paypal with courier to collect ( a courier to collect a car….) oil rig workers, out of county, birthday gift for my son etc etc

I’m a bit confused on this. How do they manage to reverse the PayPal payment once the money has been transferred over?

stanfree – Member
gumtree

Scammers paradise.

My question is can a paypal payment be reversed

Very much so. PayPay is terrible for sellers. You have zero protection from reversed payments and are stung with huge fees.

imnotverygood – Member
I’m a bit confused on this. How do they manage to reverse the PayPal payment once the money has been transferred over?

File a dispute and PayPal will take the side of the buyer automatically and reverse the transaction. Takes forever to undo it and the buyer has then disappeared.

I thought this was gonna be a 650b thread

a reply saying he would buy the bike for his Dad but was currently off shore . He stated he was a marine engineer and would pay by paypal and arrange shipping

Read this exact scenario before, I’m sure among other places on a previous thread here (sorry, too lazy to search for it). As others have said, total scam, avoid.

Accept payment then don’t send goods

Withdraw money. Close PayPal account. Relist bike 🙂

Ask for paypal gift..then deny all knowledge in true stw scammer stylee

Absolute scam Stan… potential for a bit of fun with questions etc but its all laid out in the above comments… maybe Tazzy is on to something. Paypal gift …

PayPal must be aware of this, why don’t they or the police do something. If advised in advance, about what is going to happen, why can’t they let the deal go through but then when the scam triggers refuse to immediately side with the buyer. And then involve the police for fraud, having had proof by being involved since the start that the goods were as described and shipped.

If the police are told that a crime is about to be committed, and PayPal aware their system is going to be abused, surely they have to take action?

The scam relies on you releasing the goods with no knowledge of who they went to or even evidence that someone took them

So what then do the Police investigate. Its just you claiming that you gave the bike to a random bloke

But of course the Police should do a some stings to catch people out. But I bet even that would be hard as you’d have to identify the collector and then pounce once a dispute is raised. You then have to prove the guy with the bike and the guy with the PAYPAL account are working together

I love the way that criminals can’t invent a variation of the off shore story. They should have worked harder at school

If the “buyer” uses the expression “I will not want you to worry” or some other slightly dodgy use of “will”, it’s a Nigerian; they can’t help themselves.

The scam relies on you releasing the goods with no knowledge of who they went to or even evidence that someone took them

That’s where Paypal have to be involved. If you get them involved up front that a scam is afoot, they must have details of who the buyer is, you can prove to them that the item was collected (whether by a courier, or a ‘mate’ or whoever, does it matter?); then when the scam is triggered and the buyer raises the dispute and asks for the refund from PP, surely the police can then work out from account details of IP addresses or whatever who the scammer is.

This is what grips my turds over these kind of online thefts / frauds; seems that no-one seems to bother about it, it’s up to ‘the community’ to self police and watch out for each other to make sure that we aren’t caught out. If you saw a group of masked men with baseball bats about to enter a jewellers on the high street, you’d expect the police to be there is minutes. Why’s it so different?

From another point of view when I’m not wheel building which is half the year I work offshore in various technical roles, and I buy stuff from eBay, gumtree and get it shipped to my parents house. Only had one guy refuse calling me a scammer but after pointing him to my website and here and retrobike and my Facebook page he was then cool to sell and ship to me, the thing is it was only some brazing gear I was buying off him lol and then a profile cutter about week after that lol.

There are some genuine offshore workers trying too but stuff mainly out of bordom while sitting on the internet while floating around. It’s a shame these ruin it for us.

This is how I bought my current ride.

Well, I don’t work in an off shore oil rig.

But I was buying from a dude up the country – I sent money Via PayPal (NOT as a gift) and then instructed Parcel Force to pick the bike up – after talking to the seller of course and him agreeing to box it up etc.

Couldn’t of gone smoother. I paid for a 2nd hand bike from the classifieds here and it turned up 4 days later.

I guess how you would protect yourself here is for YOU to sort the shipping, get it all signed off video yourself boxing it up etc.

When I bought my bike I forwarded all the shipping information from Parcel Force to the seller to show mainly the times but also that I was shipping reputable.

Tough one.

if your not comfortable with the buyer then don’t sell. for paypal “seller protection” to work (if it does as spelled out above) YOU NEED to show proof of delivery at the minimum. If the buyer offers to collect then will you get this? even from a courier service they will give all detail to the buyer only or to the customer who bought the service. At best you may get a ticket with a number on it, but as to what happened after that????? thus YOU MUST SORT the delivery out yourself. However from other peoples experience it wouldn’t make much difference if it was delivered by the queen with armed guard… the buyer can just say it wasn’t as described (presumably I thought it was a bike when I got a frying pan?). an alternative to paypal (gift or otherwise) is to use the new UK banking systems PAYM system. if you have online banking simply register your mobile number with it. you can then use this to pay and receive goods FREE of any charges. and as the money is in your account it can’t go anywhere else – even if the transaction was later to be proved fraud (the bank would stump the cost not you)

theotherjonv – Member
PayPal must be aware of this, why don’t they or the police do something

As far as PayPal is involved, they don’t care, so long as they get the fees and make interest off any funds you have with them. That’s their business.

Worse is there are tonnes of reasons PayPal can suspend your account, and a scammer making a complaint to reverse a transaction is one of them. Then you have to fight hard with PayPal to open the account again. Personally I wouldn’t leave any money in PayPal. Always withdraw ASAP.

ps Here’s the so called seller protection policy – https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US#11

Reality is they seem to ignore it and go with what they buyer says and then it’s up to you to prove it all. But if you comply with their requirements up front then you stand more of a chance of sorting it out eventually.

There are some genuine offshore workers trying too but stuff… It’s a shame these ruin it for us.

but surely most of you are just saying “yeah I’ll have it send it to X address” rather than the “my mate/courier will pick it up” If the seller does that then they have proof of delivery so no chance of a scam. that right?

and if you want a mate to pick it up then he can just bring along cash.

cash is king at the end of the day…so long as it’s not Tunisia dinars

Ygm bud 😉