I enquired about a group of cards on eBay. Spoke to the seller and was referred to their Instagram page to continue chatting about other cards they had for sale. During the process of the chat… a deal was arranged for a group of cards. Seller is in America. I am in Australia. Seller has asked the payment to be made via friends and family only to allow them to do a better price as they don’t get charged fees, custom charges etc, meaning the seller could do me a better deal.
I have sent the money with buyer protein meaning the seller was charged a fee. The seller contacted me. I advised I’d pay the difference. The seller essentially implied they wouldn’t be able to do the same deal and therefore arranged for a refund. Stating once the refund comes through, make payment again via friends and family.
The card value totalled around less than $700 AUD.
Does this transaction sound legit? I have never purchased cards for this price before.
Please help. Thank you.
My thinking was. I’ll wait to get the refund… and advise the seller I will make the same payment, with the buyer protection again (to safe guard me) and that I could just pay the additional fees if any actually get charged.
Goods & Services
This is what real businesses use. Intended for buying an item or paying for a service. PayPal takes something like 3% of the transaction from the seller. The buyer is protected under PayPal’s buyer protection policy.
Friends & Family
Basically a donation. Meant for sending money to friends and family members (as the name implies). Since it is not intended to be used for buying an item, there is zero protection. There is also no seller fees but the buyer has to pay something like a $3 fee for international transfers. The seller has no obligation to send you anything if you take this route so it should only be used with individuals you trust.
I would NOT recommend doing a $700 F&F transfer to some rando on Instagram. I know Australia has a new customs law in place where the customs fee is collected at the time of purchase which might be why the seller says it will cost more via G&S? If the only additional fee the seller is worried about is the 3% goods & services fee I would recommend either trying to get the seller to eat that cost or just offering to pay it yourself
One funny (?) thing to note is that when the seller returns the money you sent, PayPal will keep a portion of the seller’s fee so the seller will have lost some money just for doing the return
Pfm pretty much hit the nail on the head with his post. I dont think any people here will tell you sending that much through f&f to someone you have never done a transaction with is a good idea.
I can advice you just about as much as stated above… But never send money of that magnitude via “friends and family.” That’s $700 you’re sending to someone you have never met before or know hardly anything about… And you have no way to protect yourself. You’re basically handing over $700 to this person and there’s absolutely NO guarantee you’re getting anything in return. For that matter of fact right there you should know this deal sounds super shady. He doesn’t HAVE to send you anything at that point… because you have absolutely no protection. So either bite the bullet (on his end) and have him send it to you via paypal protection… or find it somewhere else bud. And I know that’s a tough thing to swallow… but. Think about it. What guarantee do you have. As for when you send the money via F&F you can basically kiss your money goodbye, because you have no protection for yourself.
In short. ALWAYS… ALWAYS protect yourself my friend… Never just give into what the seller wants if it’s something like this where you’re putting your faith on the sellers hands. And you have no protection for yourself. You have got to protect yourself.
yeah never do paypal f&f, no matter how good the deal is or how many followers a guy has on IG.
A better option to paypal f&f is a bank wire, 0 to little fees, much better exchange rates over paypal and a minimal form of protection as you atleast know how is going to get the money.
I believe PayPal’s charges 2.4% for G&S. Usually if someone is adamant that they will only accept F&F I’ll just tell them that I’ll include the 2.4% charge for a G&S invoice instead. I’d just get back to them and say you’re not happy with F&F and will instead pay 716.80 AUD to cover PayPal’s fees. Ask them to send you an invoice for that amount. If they refuse, then great, you’ve dodged a scam.
Obviously this approach only works if you’re willing to pay slightly more.
How long have you know this individual ? Would you give a random stranger on the street $700 to buy you a phone and tell him your address to drop it off at ? Never do F&F unless you can trust them with free money. Ask him to either do the deal via G&S or walk away.
With strangers I’d also agree with all the above. I’d only add, for what it’s worth, I rarely accept g/s because it gets taxed prohibitively as part of my overall tax situation. Plus, I can only earn so much until it affects my retirement income. Probably nobody else has to worry about that here…yet;)