Before You Buy Anything On This Forum...
 

Due to several incidents and/or complaints where our own members were being scammed by new users, we have now instituted two requirements before any posting can be commenced within the entire Private For Sale Forum.

Requirements:
1. Must be a member for longer than 7 days.
2. Must have a minimum of 50 posts.

If you meet the above requirements, you are eligible to post within this forum.

If you are caught selling and/or advertising in other forums outside of the For Sale section, your account WILL be suspended and/or terminated upon our discretion.

Here are a few helpful hints to help you guys determine whether it's a good idea to make a private deal with another member of this board. These are just clues, and in no way prove anything. It's just more likely to be a scam if the following conditions are met. Buyer beware is the final line of defense.



1) Look at the member's posts. If they have 50 to 60 posts and the content is just filler to get to 50 then be very careful. Follow the suggestions below closely concerning information about the seller and the stuff for sale.

2) Look at the trader rating. It's there for a reason ya know.

3) Ask questions. A genuine seller will answer questions as clearly and promptly as possible. Don't badger the seller, but acceptable questions would include how much shipping would cost to your zip code, fitment/compatibility for the product, why the seller doesn't want the product anymore, and especially payment information. If the person is local but does not allow pickup (even if you still pay the shipping fee), that might be because they don't want you to know where to look when you're after them for making a bad deal.

4.) Ask for pictures and be suspicious if they look like an ad.

5) If the price is way waaaaaaay low and tooooooo good of a deal to be true, it probably is. If you find yourself wanting to IM a friend saying "I found the uber best deal for this..." you might want to look further into the listing. Check for duplicate listings, I mean the guy can only sell the same item once, unless they're a vendor selling new products.

Once again, these are just guidelines, I'm sure there are newbies that registered on this site so they could sell some parts they don't need, some people make duplicate posts to get more exposure, and some of the prices are cheap because they really need the money. I'm just saying that's a higher risk than buying from something that looks like a more normal deal. Use your head and don't just send someone money because you think it's a good deal.

get somebody to sticky this... these are good!

I IMed another mod to sticky it. Waiting for him to wake up. Thanks for the compliment though!

A few more good pointers:

Use Paypal when you can and REMEMBER when your 30 days is up. That way you can file a complaint if necessary.

Use a credit card when you can also. That's just more protection for the buyer in the event of a dispute.

This is a great post that should've been made ages ago!

Alright it's stuck.

also, i know not everyone gets to check their email everyday, but if a seller wants to sell something, they'll try to constantly check their mail and should be pretty quick to respond to your questions

Great helpful hints. I wish I had this information before I got ripped off. Paypal was able to recover most of it, but not all. Buyers beware. I will certainly be much more cautious.

Are there any consequences to those ripping members off?

There's the trader rating system, which should encourage normal members to stay straight, but wouldn't really matter to scammers. Other than that nothing that is administered by this site itself. Since the site has no real records of the transaction, it can't take any legal action against either party. Even if they tried, it would be "I sent the money... no you didn't. I sent the product... no you didn't" back and fourth kind of thing.

That's why I wrote this, because I keep seeing people upset because they say they sent their hard earned money to someone, then never got anything. I fear the day someone comes onto this forum and posts an add for something like RRM turbo kit for $1000, what a deal! Then 1 month later see all the people who got scammed. Nothing we can do but educate the public {thumbup}

You guys trying to show me up while I'm out getting engaged? All joking aside, these are rules to LIVE BY in this forum. Don't forget also when in doubt, use Paypal and a credit card so you have MULTIPLE methods to recoup your monies should the deal go south. Feel free to contact the mods if you encounter any serious issue. Happy selling!

As a seller with a good deal available I was surprised to get responses from a couple nigerian scammers!!!

.......

I now have had about a dozen scammers responding to an ad for shocks listed in other forums and only one legitimate inquiry from someone sceptical about the deal. These items not available on this site because I bought them with the intention of reselling, trading them.
These guys rarely use spell check and want to get the deal done quickly. Payment intructions should always be the lead in responding. I respond with only accepting M/O, Paypal, non C.C. funds (not able to rec. them), Personal, all cheques to clear before the items sent and them nonrefundable. No irregular payment methods with cashiers, third party cheques and my item being a big ticket one offer to use Escrow. As well as only sending to a confirmable address among other things pertaining to legitimacy of real interest in them. They never get back to me with further interest. It seems these guys have nothing better to do than surf for big ticket items and send out interest in them. For once it would be nice to get an inquiry about the item even if not a sale, just gab abouts our cars.

That's a good point. I always use paypal to buy things, and as a seller, almost always require US Postal Money Order (avoids people sending you MO from unknown bank names like "2nd General Bank of Lower Oklahoma"), paypal, or waiting until a check clears. And I don't usually give my buyers an option, all items over $20 automatically get confirmed and insured shipping. Almost always try to use something with a tracking number.

As a private seller I like to be as accommodating as possible, The logistics of dealing internationally and proliferation of scammers makes it difficult, They don't even inquire about the legitimacy of the deal or details of the product, some of them are so stupid. it's good that systems such as Paypal, Bidpay and escrow services are available to weed them out, but it also surprising in this day and age with electronic banking that some people can't or don't want to use them. The next hurdle being to get someone to believe I'm not a scammer! and find someone that wants to buy my items so I can upgrade my Paypal account to accept CC's for my other junk I'd like to try and flog on the net. As said there are enough payment options out there that don't give scammers the ability to even attempt to try and do a deal. Paypal and escrow services for big ticket items the best option. For M/O's if the deal gets that far, a number of options can be provided as they can re specified to be drawn from international sources, Amex, Western Union etc. Scammers likely won't want to go that far and drop out when having to pay from reputable sources.
Thanks for the reply and keep them cones upright!

what can i do if i paypal someone and never recieve the goods? is there anything i can do?or am i just out luck