ok. i want to add that the people who have replied saying "scam" b/c the buyer is offering to pay for shipping, regardless of what type or how fast is, is irresponsible to say that without justification.
I just completed a transaction where the buyer upfront offered to pay for shipping. you need to keep in mind (depending on what you are selling) that many people make ebay businesses or have storefronts that get their products from others. buy low sell high. they will look through craigslist or whatever to find these products. they offer to pay for shipping b/c they are more than likely offering to buy your items for a lower ammount than what they will obviously sell it for. they have also already figured in shipping costs into their profit margins and it is worth it to them to pay for the item b/c they will be making that money back anyway on their end.
with my transaction the buyer already had a fed-ex account set up and all i have to do to give the fed ex shipment center his account number and he is billed for the shipping cost. I HAVE NO OUT OF POCKET EXPENSE FOR SHIPPING.
now if the buyer does not have something set up like that and you agree to say 20 dollars extra for example on top of you asking price for shipping, then this in no way automatically means it is a scam.
- what you want to be aware of in this situation is the buyer paying you for your item and asking you to ship, and then saying they will then send you actual shipping costs. once its in the mail and you paid for it upfront, well then you are the one that can end up losing the cost of shipping.
example : requesting overnight shipping that will cost you say 40 dollars upfront with a promise to pay later after they get a tracking number. you need to have worked out in advance what you want / need for shipping costs.
this now leads us to paypal.
if someone is willing to use paypal i take this as a very good sign this is not a scam. when using paypay you the seller, as well as the buyer, are protected from fraud. you can view terms of seller and buyer protection here.
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&fli=true&content_ID=ua/SellerProt...
i am a registered and verified member of paypal, and i suggest if you plan on using paypal you go through the steps to become verified. i make it a point to mention in any transaction that i am VERIFIED.
- if you give someone your email linked to your paypal account, as mentioned above, they can not see your bank accounts, CCs saved on file, banks names.... anything. all it is to them is the account to which they are sending the money to.
- once they send funds and the transaction is listed as completed, its your money. they can not come into your paypal account and take it back. there is no trip to the bank to cash anything and then find out later on it was fraud and you be liable for it. paypal takes the money directly from they account, bank account, credit card, whatever... and sends it directly to you. paypal does take a small fee for incoming funds, but the point of paypal is that they are basically making sure the money is good. if something is wrong on the buyers end, you dont get the money to begin with.
- once you have the money in your paypal account you can right away send it to your personal bank account or spend it on something else vi paying with your current paypal balance.
on craigslist scam alert page it directly says do not give out paypal account information, but i directly understand this to mean if someone is trying toget you to give them your personal log in information password etc.
AGAIN I WANT TO STATE THAT IF YOU GIVE SOMEONE YOUR PAYPAL EMAIL ADDRESS THEY CAN NO WAY FIND OUT ANY BANKING OR PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION YOU HAVE LISTED AND SAVED IN YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT.
unless your password is something like password 🙂 always use secure passwords.
i have used paypal for countless transactions both for making and receiving payments and never have i been scammed or been a victim of fraud with paypal.
always pay attention for obvious other signs of fraud, but paypal from all of my experiences is not one of them.
