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  • This has been doing the rounds the past day: http://codenerdz.com/blog/2012/12/03/think-of-selling-on-ebay-using-paypal-think-again/

    Simply, there is a scam that results in the seller losing the item and money and the "buyer" obtaining the item for free. The scam relies on Seller Protection and PayPal to dupe the seller into a false sense of security, before then using loopholes in those contracts to reverse the payment after the item has been delivered.

    If you sell things on eBay you should take note that Seller Protection is worthless if the buyer reports that the item is not as described (ignoring whether or not it is). There is no obligation for the buyer to return the item, and that the listing is reported opens the door to the chargeback that will return the money to the buyer.

    As of today, there is no known work-around. The scam takes advantage of several loopholes in the rules, and PayPal and eBay do not classify this as a scam, they classify it as the seller mis-selling.

    The end result of this is that eBay turns out to be no safer a place than something like LFGSS for making such sales... in fact it's probably worse given that if you're selling to a person known to the community on here then protecting their reputation can be enough to keep people on the straight and narrow.

    I used to beat the drum about LFGSS being a wild west and buyer and seller beware... and if you wanted protection you could always turn to eBay. It does seem that you should exercise caution wherever you are now, and perhaps use escrow services on eBay if you're going to be selling to people you do not know.

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