posted on June 7, 2002 12:00:24 AM
Ok I sold shall we say a widget on E-bay. This widget went for more than I expected to. The high bidder had a rating of 0 which I allow. This bidder has been registered with E-bay for four and half months with no history positive or negative. After the auction ended buyer e-mailed me a question about the widget. The E-mail came from an address ending in .ru I answered the questions and received mail back that the buyer has complete checkout and is sending a money order/certified check. The address I am supposed to send the item to is in the US and my terms state items paid for with a money order or certified check will ship out two days after I receive payment.
My concern is that the money order or certifed check is going to be bogus and I won't find out until after I send the widget. What can I do to protect myself against this happening?
posted on June 7, 2002 12:18:22 AM
How do you know it will be bogus? and if you think so hold your widget longer even if you said you would mail in two days. What does .ru stand for as I haven't seen that before.
posted on June 7, 2002 12:20:15 AM
The only thing I'd be concerned about is receiving payment at all, but the buyer doesn't sound implusive since he waited for a few months to find something to bid on (or at least bid enough to win) so I think this transaction will proceed smoothly.
[ edited by quickdraw29 on Jun 7, 2002 12:23 AM ]
posted on June 7, 2002 12:47:38 AM
Libra63, I do not know it will be bogus, but doing a whois search at samspade.org shows me thar mail.ru (the site his original mail to me came from) is physically registered to an address in Moscow, Russia so I'm assumin g .RU is Russian domain. The E-mail address he has on file with E-bay is in .by which is Minsk, Belarus part of the former Soviet Union. I know in the past there has been fraudlant money orders/certified checks/credit cards from that part of the world and If I am a victim it will be harder for me to do anything, so I'm asking how can I try to protect myself from any problems.
quickdraw29-I don't think there will be anything to worry about myself, but again I'm new to selling and want to avoid the scams and problems that others have before me.
posted on June 7, 2002 02:15:12 AM
dear, there are no guarantees in this life, so pick your battles(worries)carefully.
this buyer has sat patiently until the item they wanted came up for sale, so it is probably just fine.
i don't understand why you would even look up where the email originates from? as long as i get payment i am happy. a certified check or money order are good as cash to me.
i think i got up too early, i am rambling
as long as the address is in the US and it is not a credit card, everything should be okay.
