ok, i think i write about some best practices when trading paypal at garage sales. hopefully, buyers & sellers can contribute to this thread to make trading safer. e-currency trading is especially susceptible to 3rd party scamming and ID hijacking.




Verifying buyer|sellerID ratings & names via paypal;

1. 1st exchange paypal email address (via PM preferrably)
2. buyer send a USD0.10 request, then cancel it
3. buyer can check seller's rating before confirming a request
4. in the request details, both parties can verify each other's name

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Best practices for a paypal seller;

1. as a seller, you should let your prospective buyers your paypal email & ratings. online sellers at lelong.com.my & ebay.com.my can also share their seller's ratings. if possible, describe a little about your online business.

2. as a seller, make sure you are dealing with your own accounts, i.e. your verified paypal name should match your banking account name. if possible, refrain from using your friend's, family's or company's accounts. however, i do find some minor/underage sellers trading using their father's/mother's paypal & maybank2u account. please let your buyers know this in advance.

3. as a seller, do open popular bank accounts (a basic savings account will do) like maybank2u, CIMB (BCB), RHB, etc. to attract more buyers. at the moment, CIMB (BCB) is the most secured way for trading. seller's and buyer's name are verified in any intrabank transfers. when using maybank2u, insist that your buyer fill-in your email when doing intrabank transfers.

avoid IBG: buyers are always looking to save on the RM2 interbanking GIRO charges. in addition, its more difficult to verify bank account names when using interbanking GIRO. some scammers are known to ask/steal your ICNo. on the pretext of IBG. note: all IBG ask for ICNo. but you can just fill-in the bank account number in the ICNo. field. DO NOT SIMPLY SHARE your ICNo./scans with strangers on the net.

avoid ATM/counter cash bank-in: discourage your buyers to pay via ATM cash bank-in. ATM receipts scans can be easily photoshopped & abused. scammers love to take advantage of ATM cash bank-in because it leaves no paper trail.

4. as a seller, you'll are especially vulnerable to ID hijacking & third party scamming. scammers will pretent to be interested buyers to get your details - name, contact and even ICNo. scammer will then abuse such information and convince other victims (at other trading sites) to bank-in money into your bank accounts. always practise risk assesment before all trades. a scammer and a prospective buyer is virtually indistinguisable when dealing online.

5. as a seller, try to avoid emergency sales - trying to sell very cheap compared to market's rates in a hurry. when sellers/buyers are rushing for a deal, scammers rush in for the kill. always take some time to know a little of your buyer. what's his name & contact? do a simple check on buyer's forum profile? sometimes a simple google of your buyer's details can raise a red flag - example. always be wary of traders who are in a rush or rushing you to deal.

6. do be patient when communicating with your buyers and maintain a successful tradelist. i know for busy people, selling paypal in small amounts is a real hassle and might not be worth the time but we have a lot of younger forumers buying small amounts of paypal for online gaming.

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Best practices for a paypal buyer;

1. dont be greedy & dont be naive/careless. a well-prepared & practiced scammer is virtually indistinguisable from a genuine seller when dealing online. practise risk assesment before all trades.

2. buyers buy paypal because its cheaper than funding it via their own credit cards for online shopping. international Malaysian sellers have no easy way to cash out their funds, so they sell it a little cheaper than the credit card foreign exchange rate to their fellow Malaysian shoppers. this is the equlibrium that currently exist - so any super-duper special rates are suspicious. buying paypal from anonymous sellers online is very risky and might not save you alot of shopping money. i usually buy to save money and to help genuine sellers cash out. the day i get conned is most probably the last time i'll buy paypal online

3. always try to get to know your seller. the more you know about his name/contacts/online business the better. double-check & verify his profile, google his info - example. always watch out for signs of ID hijack. you may be communicating with a scammer who is hijacking a genuine seller's identity. don't be lulled into a false sense of security just because the seller seemingly willing to share his name, account, contact & info. the info may not be accurate or may belong to another unwilling victim. at the end of the day, bank officials will not reverse a bank-in transfer nor share their customer personal details even if you bring police reports claiming their customer is a scammer.

4. always remember unauthorized phished paypal funds and stolen credit card funds are only investigated & discovered a few weeks/months after the actual transaction. paypal will freeze & recover all illegal funds.

unauthorized phished paypal funds: scammer stole genuine seller's paypal password. hiajck paypal accounts and sells out the funds on the cheap.

stolen credit card paypal funds: scammer funds a paypal account with stolen credit card info and sells out on the cheap

disputed funds: i have not experience this, but i believe a scammer can try to dispute & reverse the funds with paypal after sending it. note: paypal do not insure or guarantee any "selling/buying" paypal funds. in fact, an active paypal seller might get investigated for active/suspicous flow of funds outwards.

5. always protect and verify your bank-in transactions & receipts. i prefer to deal via email where everything is clearly communicated/documented to seller. attach all necessary transaction screenshots for email/record keeping. always be aware - screenshots/scans can be photoshopped & abused - emails can be spoofed. if you are indeed super-paranoid you can try this;



6. always buy funds in small amount and from sellers with reputable successful tradelist.



7. similar to seller's best practices. avoid IBG. avoid ATM cash-in. always use intrabank transfers or COD in a bank with wifi access.

seller using a different bank from you? avoid it, if possible. IBG is slow and hard to verify seller's name.

seller using a different bank from you and suggest an alternative bank account belonging to his family/friends? risky

banking-in cash via ATM/counter? why would a serious buyer do this unless COD in a bank or really familiar with seller? the flimsy transaction receipt proves nothing and it wont protect the buyer when complications arise. scammers love to take advantage of ATM cash bank-in because it leaves no paper trail. unless banks are going to share their CCTV footage, anybody can be unwillingly fooled/or simply claim to an ATM bank-in.

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This post has been edited by acougan: Dec 23 2006, 05:41 PM

Requesting/Sending paypal funds;

1. Seller & Buyer agreed on price and exchange paypal account address.
2. Seller initiate "Request Money" to Buyer with details of the transaction.
3. Buyer may accept/denied after reading the details if deemed correct/incorrect
4. Done, safe and sound.

p/s: But i think there's a limit of "request money" coz i can only do 5 more transaction with verified account.

credit to WaCKy-Angel
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My best 2 cents:

Only buy from the trusted paypal or egold seller. The rate is always fair if not less.
Ask for recommendations on who to buy paypal from, if he is not conned, you probably won't.

credit to LokGP
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For E-gold, just assume your are doing normal buying and selling because there are no charge backs in E-gold. As long as the money is in your account its yours.

credit to elhh82.
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This post has been edited by acougan: Apr 21 2007, 02:02 PM

disclaimer: actually i'm been reluctant to open this thread for awhile. by opening discussing scammers strategies and ways to protect from them, the risk is that this thread will somehow help those kiddie scammers who read here more than those newbie forumers who are naive/careless or greedy.

but then again, this is a public forum. prey & predators will lurk here. as scammers & conman 'evolve', so must we other honest traders 'evolve' with them. hopefully more people will be aware and learn from their expensive mistakes.


this is the scammer that started it all

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...dpost&p=8250872

20++ victims in a span of a year with amounts estimated in 10~20k. frankly, its almost futile to keep googling and updating the case. most of its victims have moved on but i'm sure alancydic and his type will forever be lurking & prowling. must be karma, neh?


note: i'll bump this thread once awhile cos the thread of paypal fraud is everpresent. if this is not allowed/encouraged, let me know.

This post has been edited by acougan: Apr 13 2007, 02:00 PM

1. Seller & Buyer agreed on price and exchange paypal account address.
2. Seller initiate "Request Money" to Buyer with details of the transaction.
3. Buyer may accept/denied after reading the details if deemed correct/incorrect
4. Done, safe and sound.

p/s: But i think there's a limit of "request money" coz i can only do 5 more transaction with verified account.

For E-gold, just assume your are doing normal buying and selling because there are no charge backs in E-gold. As long as the money is in your account its yours.

My best 2 cents:

Only buy from the trusted paypal or egold seller. The rate is always fair if not less.
Ask for recommendations on who to buy paypal from, if he is not conned, you probably won't.

ya i have e-gold ac too...

If trading currency is vulnerable to the dangers of scamming, why don't you just withdraw the money for yourself?

It is much more beneficial than having another unknown stranger helping you to exchange money for you. Both sides would never want to be scammed anyways.

I know the fact that with a Malaysian credit/debit card you cannot withdraw funds from PayPal, but then I have a solution for it.

I'm selling an e-book titled "How To Withdraw PayPal Money Into Malaysia" for the price of RM15. Anyone who is interested can send me an e-mail to man_sahar@yahoo.co.uk.

Smiles.