BUYERS:WATCH OUT FOR SCAMS ON E-BAY!!
We recently encountered a scam on E-Bay! A lady, who had only sold clothing up to this point, was advertising a Kubota L2600Dt, 2002, with 149 hours, for a Buy It Now price of $3450! She also had another Kubota,GST L4310 with 87.3 hrs, for $3750! Of course we jumped on it! The location said Illinois, and there was free shipping! But we had to be approved first. So we e-mailed her, desperately wanting to be "choosen". We were (as I am sure many people were). She said she was in the Netherlands (strange, I thought she was in Ill.!), and the tractor had to be shipped by boat, taking about 2 weeks. She asked that we send our money Western Union, but to have someone elses name as the reciever. She would then know that we mean business, and hold it as a deposit, until we recieved the tractor. Then we would have 3 days to make sure we wanted it. If so, we would then change the recievers name to hers, and the deal would be done. If we did not want it, she would arrange for the shipping back!
It sounded pretty shakey to me. I discovered the SAFEST way to do these kinds of transaction, for anything of great value, is to use an ONLINE ESCROW SERVICE, for a small fee based on the amount you need to escrow (it was going to cost us $1o6.95 for the cheaper one), they will hold the money until you recieve your item and approve of it, then they release it to the seller. Very nice! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
So I e-mailed this lady back and told her that we prefered to do it this way,(and we would assume the escrow cost). But she wouldn't do it, saying that she is experiencing someone not letting go of the money right now on another transaction where she used this service. She kept trying to convince us that she was a serious E-Bayer, that all her feedack was positive. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
But strangely enough, she SUDDENLY was not a member anymore! We could not view the tractors either, disappeared! Someone else must have caught onto her and reported her and she was removed. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
I contacted Western Union and told them what this person wanted to do with this transaction, they laughed and said they run into this scam thousands of times each year..DON"T DO IT!! The person can find out who the recievers name is you put on there, (she suggested my fathers name, who was also trying to communicate with her trying to figure this out), and have a fake ID made up and get the money, and split! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
Ok, settled, we bluntly cut her off, telling her that either Escrow- or NO GO! We have not heard from her since (yesterday). So I just wanted to share this story with you, incase you run up on any "too good to be true deals". I know probably most of yall are veterans at buying tractors and could see through this instantly, but there are some of us out there that are ready to pounce on any good deal, and could get taken, /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif so please just keep this in mind, and BE AWARE!!
Again, a really safe method of payment is escrow. E-Bay has a few they recommend, I would go with those, because they are "proven". There may be some other methods, like using your credit card, if they will cover you. Just be safe! ..and Happy Buying! JH /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
We recently encountered a scam on E-Bay! A lady, who had only sold clothing up to this point, was advertising a Kubota L2600Dt, 2002, with 149 hours, for a Buy It Now price of $3450! She also had another Kubota,GST L4310 with 87.3 hrs, for $3750! Of course we jumped on it! The location said Illinois, and there was free shipping! But we had to be approved first. So we e-mailed her, desperately wanting to be "choosen". We were (as I am sure many people were). She said she was in the Netherlands (strange, I thought she was in Ill.!), and the tractor had to be shipped by boat, taking about 2 weeks. She asked that we send our money Western Union, but to have someone elses name as the reciever. She would then know that we mean business, and hold it as a deposit, until we recieved the tractor. Then we would have 3 days to make sure we wanted it. If so, we would then change the recievers name to hers, and the deal would be done. If we did not want it, she would arrange for the shipping back!
It sounded pretty shakey to me. I discovered the SAFEST way to do these kinds of transaction, for anything of great value, is to use an ONLINE ESCROW SERVICE, for a small fee based on the amount you need to escrow (it was going to cost us $1o6.95 for the cheaper one), they will hold the money until you recieve your item and approve of it, then they release it to the seller. Very nice! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
So I e-mailed this lady back and told her that we prefered to do it this way,(and we would assume the escrow cost). But she wouldn't do it, saying that she is experiencing someone not letting go of the money right now on another transaction where she used this service. She kept trying to convince us that she was a serious E-Bayer, that all her feedack was positive. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
But strangely enough, she SUDDENLY was not a member anymore! We could not view the tractors either, disappeared! Someone else must have caught onto her and reported her and she was removed. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
I contacted Western Union and told them what this person wanted to do with this transaction, they laughed and said they run into this scam thousands of times each year..DON"T DO IT!! The person can find out who the recievers name is you put on there, (she suggested my fathers name, who was also trying to communicate with her trying to figure this out), and have a fake ID made up and get the money, and split! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
Ok, settled, we bluntly cut her off, telling her that either Escrow- or NO GO! We have not heard from her since (yesterday). So I just wanted to share this story with you, incase you run up on any "too good to be true deals". I know probably most of yall are veterans at buying tractors and could see through this instantly, but there are some of us out there that are ready to pounce on any good deal, and could get taken, /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif so please just keep this in mind, and BE AWARE!!
Again, a really safe method of payment is escrow. E-Bay has a few they recommend, I would go with those, because they are "proven". There may be some other methods, like using your credit card, if they will cover you. Just be safe! ..and Happy Buying! JH /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
