Is Paypal safe?
Paypal accounts are meant to be safe and most of the time they are. I have just nearly been caught out by scammers operating from the Ivory Coast. But something did not ring true so I thought I would investigate further before proceeding.
I put an item up for sale on ebay. It was a piece of recording equipment. Very quickly I had an inquiry from someone who seemed very interested. I must admit that I am new to ebay and paypal, which might amaze you but haven't really had much call for it. Anyway, I responded to the request and was answered quickly saying that he would send the money via paypal and I was to send a payment request, which I did.
My suspicions were first aroused when this person did not inquire about the condition and specification of the item concerned, which I thought was odd. Maybe he just really wanted it and had been looking for one for sometime, I thought. I have recently sold another item of musical equipment and the buyer wanted more photos, technical information, a detailed history, how long I'd had it and where and when did I buy it . He must have sent me 10 emails and it was quite apparent that the guy knew exactly what he was talking about. The other buyer didn't ask any questions at all and initially I thought, Lucky me!
Then I got an email from paypal informing me that the money had been deposited into my paypal account and it showed up on my page, and naturally I believed it. Trusting that paypal was a safe medium I thought I had made the sale. The customer then replied saying that the funds had been transfered and could I send him a shipping number. At that point I started to think that I had done something wrong and that I had inadvertently lead him to believe that included in the price was shipping costs. This caused me great concern because to ship an item of that size would cost a small fortune. So I emailed him back saying that no shipping details or costs were included in our communication so would he contact me so he could collect the item himself.
I then received an email from paypal saying that if I did not send the shipping number within twelve hours I would be arrested and charged with fraud. I then looked at his original details for his address and realize
that it was in the Ivory coast. To ship the item there would have cost more than he had paid for it. Then I thought, 'West Africa, wait a minute?"
I then embarked on a process of google searches to contact ebay by phone, relating to my paypal account. This took me about an hour but finally I succeeded and spoke to a very helpful American lady and explained my predicament. After the normal security checks pertaining to my paypal account she informed me that no money had been deposited into my account and had I sent the item. I replied that I hadn't. She said..."Don't!" There was no record of the transaction and that paypal didn't threaten customers with pending court action, especially after just two days. I read out the page to her and she asked me to send it directly to spoof@paypal.com .
Well, luckily I had not sent anything out and was told to ignore any other communications from this person. The most frightening aspect of this all was that it looked so genuine. If anybody uses ebay or paypal beware of any dealings with people from the west coast of Africa because they are up to every scam in the book.
If you have a doubt, believe it. If you think it is too good to be true, then it probably is. But my most important piece of advice is, don't be afraid to check things out, even if you spend an hour searching on the internet and waiting in line on a telephone because it is worth it. Some of these scammers are really good at what they do and to the unsuspecting, honest person you can easily be caught up thinking you are acting with the confines of a safe environment.
