I just wanted to post a little personal experience my company just recently encountered. We have all been reading in CE Pro and Resi Systems about how the auction channel is a great way to unload trade ins and boost business and so far so good (at least for us) but, we were moving our old Infocus 5700 to make room for the 5705 (side note, Infocus, thanks for making the throw length longer I had to rewire and reinstall the new proj) anyway back on track, we sold it, and the buyer sent us a "cashiers check" and it looked a little funny, so we called the issuing bank and it turned out to be bogus, so as you would expect the unit did not get shipped. Our new company policy on auctions may help some of you out as well, and that is if it is paid by Paypal, the address must be confirmed, if it is a check of anykind, the issuing bank is called and funds are verified, as well as checking to make sure the check and account are not bogus, and we do not ship until the check has cleared the ISSUERS bank, not ours, as we found out it may clear our bank, but end up getting kicked back for fraud or NSF. I know this is a pain in the A** but in our case it is better than having to eat the loss on a projector worth a couple of grand. So with all this being said......seller beware, but keep on selling. I would love to hear anyone elses experiences with the auction channel good and bad.

With that being said, I should warn everyone to be on the look out for ficticious emails claiming to be from Paypal asking for personal information regarding your account. Some of these spoofs have pretty realistic looking websites setup all ready to take your SS#, PIN numbers, card numbers, etc.

I've usually had good luck with Ebay, but like everything else on the net (spammers, hackers, etc.) the con artists are getting smarter and smarter.

I've been Selling and Buying on Ebay for a long time... Had nothing but good luck....

I dont except anything except for Paypal on Ebay.... Its just not worth the hassle..... ANd if Its not Ebay and its a forum member on stuff, I'll Take a US Postal Money order if need be.... Being in Retail for as long as I have, I;ve seen plenty of Bogus Checks.... Personal... Business... Cashiers... Even Certified.... All Bogus.........

Its the 21st Century. There is no good reason for using checks of any kind anymore.

As for the Email fraud..... I've had 3 friends and associates get caught up in that BS. I cant believe anyone would start providing ANY information from an Email solisitation.... I usually enter some extremely rude comments in the boxes they want me to put my CC info in, and then Track the Email back.....

I did track the webpage that the mail was linked to (after sending a complaint to the mail server).

As it turns out, the page links back to a single computer in South Korea, and to the untrained eye, it looks pretty darned similar to an actual Paypal menu.

This isn't a slap against Ebay, but rather a warning to anyone who may read this to be on the lookout for fraudulent mails claiming to be from Ebay or Paypal.

We had a similar experince with an Infocus 777. The guy refused to pay buy credit card. He wanted to bring us a cashier's check and we would give him the projector. We told him his check would have to be deposited and cleared first. He tried telling us it was as good as cash. We said then bring cash or wait several days for it to clear. The transaction never happened.

Bob

The problem with this is that there are plenty of sellers that have been completely screwed by paypal. With paypal you have no rights or recourse at all. If there is a problem and they don't want to deal with you, then they simply don't, and your out the money.

I haveent found that to be the case..... I have a Premier account on Paypal (With a Support Phone Number) and the one time I had a issue with a CPU I bought that was DOA they helped me out with Contacting the seller and eventually I was refunded.

Isn't it nice to deal with projects where you are installing the items into a HOME?? Where you can go see the homeowners if there is a problem with payment??

Bad checks, fraudulent cashier's checks & money orders, stolen credit cards.

3-5% service charges for telecheck and credit card "authorizations" that still ultimately mean very little in terms of guaranteed payment...

I don't miss retail one bit.

-Edit: Deleted

The problems are out there. Your contract waves all rights. Paypal is attempting to become an official bank. When that happens things will have to change but until then you are playing with fire. Just make sure that the account you have linked to your paypal has limited funds available and transfer all paypal money out immediately after a transaction.

I've been buying and selling on ebay for years and have only had a couple of problems out of the hundreds of transactions I've done. Most of the payments are by PayPal or cashier's checks. I haven't had a problem with paypal, but check out www.paypalsucks.com for other viewpoints.

As far as the spoofed emails, any email from paypal or ebay will address you by name. I haven't seen a spoofed one yet that doesn't say something like Dear PayPal User... If you get an email you think isn't legit, you can forward it to [email protected] or [email protected] and they will let you know if it's legit or not.

CJ

Another fraud being carried out is a client calling thru an operator, reportedly relaying a call for a deaf person. Thru many relays you find out they want 5 HTIB or 10 DVDs, something in quantity. The tipoff is that they will pay by credit card (bogus) and will have FEDEX pick up from you.

Since they pickup, you don't have an address to track.

I followed one a little further than just blowing them off and said I needed to know the name, address of the cardholder, and where it would be shipped to. The address was one guy's name, 123 main st. Fredricksburg 12345 (no state specified) and the delivery would be to Nigeria.

It's laughable because it is so stupid, but at a trade meeting one of my friends told me he bit and lost $2500.

Don't get greedy, y'all!

RE: PayPal and ebay - I've done well there but after reading paypalsucks.com I opened a separate bank account strictly for PayPal and clean it out except for $50 in funny money.....

Impaqt,
Don't Answer those Emails in any way. You will give them your IP address and more ammunition to F*(k with you.

I dont answer the ones I get onmy Primary account.... Dont ever remeber getting one onmy Primary now that I think about it.... Only Gmail and Yahoo.... ANd my IP is Masked.

How?!