PayPal-Ebay & Yahoo Scam

[Ash!]

Just a few words of warning for anybody who has a yahoo.com email address.

I sell quite a lot of computer equipment through ebay. Over the course of the last few days I have sold a few top Spec PC's, Motherboards Graphics cards and the like. All of the payments came from PayPal pretty much within hours after the auction closed. As I sell worldwide it is not unusuall to send things to Russia, America or some of the old Eastern Bloc countires. So when I was asked to ship a PC there and the customer was willing to pay the airmail costs of nearly £60.00 no alarm bells were ringing. I ordered all the parts from my supplier. The best part of £4k worth at trade price. Luckily they are going to accept it all back and I wont have to shell out for componenets that I may not use.

Last night I gets an email from this guy saying his Yahoo.com email account and PayPal account had been compromised as he had apparently bought things through eBay but he had no knowledge of it. Furthermore a lot of transactions had gone through his PayPal account he had no knowledge of.

Then a few more buyers emailed me with the same. I have emailed PayPal and eBay reporting this potnetial fraud. I say potential as I am going to refund the money back to the people who have sent money to me. I just hope they arent trying to scam me. One thing that was consistent was that all the buyers had yahoo.com email address. After checking the PayPal transaction, all the postal addresses had been deleted.

So a word of warning, if you have an accoutn with any of the above, it maybe worthwhile just giving them a quick check to make sure nothing has gone through on them you were not aware of

 

[Tom]

Hmmm - don't online orders require the 3 digit security code from the back of your cc now? A paypal account would still require this, unless of course your customers are in the habit of storing mucho moneh in their paypal account.

 

[leggy]

Yes Tom but all you need is the users email address and password.

Then you can make as many transactions (directly from the users CC/bank account) as the paypal account allows (basic account doesnt allow that many).

The 3 digit code is only needed at registration if needed at all. I can't remember it has been that long since I registered.

 

[Tom]

thats a major security hole

 

[Tom]

btw ash u dont have to send the money back to them, or accept ur stuff back, cc owners are automatically insured on each transaction.

 

[~YuckFou~]

If you are sure you have their money keep it and send them the goods.

 

[Ash!]

Originally posted by Tom[SHOTTEH]
btw ash u dont have to send the money back to them, or accept ur stuff back, cc owners are automatically insured on each transaction.

Yeah thats true, but I dont want PC FUKNUT coming to the front door asking me to explain where I got X Ammount of money from. Plus I cant account for it in the books. Money coming in but no outgoings against it. I havent checked my email yet as I am at my other job but I am sure that I will get the manadatory email from eBay to say that they will review my email between now and when Satans Nads freeze up. They are usuless beyond contempt

 

[Ash!]

Originally posted by ~YuckFou~
If you are sure you have their money keep it and send them the goods.

Already emailed me to say that he didnt authorise the transaction for me not to send His lluuuuurvelly Athlon XP 2400+ with Radeon 9700 PRO and a huge ammount of corsair RAM and nForce 2 mobo. Moreover he would not accept it or sign for it on delivery

 

[~YuckFou~]

Originally posted by Ash!
Already emailed me to say that he didnt authorise the transaction for me not to send His lluuuuurvelly Athlon XP 2400+ with Radeon 9700 PRO and a huge ammount of corsair RAM and nForce 2 mobo. Moreover he would not accept it or sign for it on delivery

Bummer.

 

[Yaka]

damn i was gona sign up for an ebay acount to sell some of me gear. aint gona now

 

[leggy]

No yaka.

Ebay is fine. It's paypal that's an issue.

I have used ebay hundreds of times to sell gear with only one problem that I can remember.

The only problem you may have is that people may be wary of buying from someone with a 0 feedback rating.

 

[Gumbo]

Surely if you got the money from Paypal, wether he authorised it or not is his problem with paypal, that's the point of using paypal as an intermediary.

If I understand it right, it would be perfectly legitimate for you to say, I've been paid , so I'm sending you the goods, or if you're feeling particularly helpful say, OK, heres your money back less a handling charge of say 15% to cover the fucking about you've experienced.

Reading your initial post again it seems that you'd probably be able to hold onto all the cash, as you've done nothing fraudulent, and as the postal addresses were deleted you can't send out the goods, win/win.

Of course no doubt you have a copy of the postal addresses which if they weren't po boxes should mean you can easily tip off paypal as to the locations of the fraudsters.

ebay own paypal now btw, so a paypal fraud problem is also ebays problem, so I would think they'll get back to you pretty quick. In the meantime hang onto the cash and get the interest on it at least.

And Yaka, ebay is usually great, and very handy so go ahead and use it, just be careful when dealing with people who have little or no feedback.

 

[Ash!]

Good call Gumbo.

Yaka-As Gumbo & Leggy Said is eBay is fine tbh. I have been trading on there for over 3 years now. I have a feedback rating of over 260+. It is pretty safe in the main. Obviously there are a few con artisit out there

 

[Yaka]

but for quik deals many ebayers use pay pal dont they?

 

[PR.]

Whats your shop called Ash?

 

[Ash!]

Its Called E Faction. Its in its very early stages. The ammount of forms you have to fill in is pretty much a pain in the backside. I have been building computers for years now so I thought give it a go. Plus it means in the next 12 months I should be able to jack my day job in. I hate my day job with a passion unrivalled

 

[stu]

Originally posted by Gumbo
If I understand it right, it would be perfectly legitimate for you to say, I've been paid , so I'm sending you the goods, or if you're feeling particularly helpful say, OK, heres your money back less a handling charge of say 15% to cover the fucking about you've experienced.

Reading your initial post again it seems that you'd probably be able to hold onto all the cash, as you've done nothing fraudulent, and as the postal addresses were deleted you can't send out the goods, win/win.

I'm just hazarding a guess here - you're not a lawyer are you.

Hacked Paypal accounts are as oldé as the hills, count yourself lucky you haven't come across them already if you do the sort of business you do over ebay. I just point blank refuse to ship to places like Romania, Nigeria etc now - the risk of getting ripped off isn't worth shifting a couple of extra units.