First time saddle seller, help please

[jessiesgrrl]

Hello All,
I recently placed an ad on EquineNow selling a saddle. Its nothing fancy (no brand name) but it is great condition, etc, etc

Anyway, I rec’v an email through the site from a seller who is wanting to purchase it. GREAT! but her second email stated she has her own courier company she uses, and she wishes to pay through PayPal.

I have never used paypal, and I am a little worried, as I have heard of horror stories about buyers depositing the money, having the item picked up, then the buyer complains and the money is taken back.

I don’t know if this is just for Ebay users, or anything in Paypal can have this happen

Does it sound like a scam?? She didn’t confirm the price or barter or anything.
First email was “Is the saddle still available?Can you send more pictures and location.”

I emailed back with "Yes it is still available. I am located at XX and would be willing to drive a short distance to make it easier for delivery/pick-up."Then I attached all the pictures I had.

Her response" Thank you for your respond and the photos.good to know the saddle is still available for sale.i want you to know i have a courier company that will come for the pickup. so you don’t have to bother yourself shipping the saddle i will be making payment through PayPal because my bank account is linked to my PayPal account and PayPal is a secured method of payment for both the buyer and seller.kindly email me a PayPal money request invoice direct to my verified PayPal email which is the same as my email address (email) to proceed with the payment.i believe you can set up a PayPal account easily at www.paypal.com if you don’t have one.looking forward to hear back from you soon."

Sound fishy or am I over reacting??

[Macimage]

I would ask for a bank wire transfer.

Scams usually have the buyer arranging for the shipping.

[Jo]

Anything involving a “courier” is usually a scam. Sorry.

[glfprncs]

How could you do a bank wire transfer without having to give your account information directly to someone? How would you know you’re actually talking with a real bank? That scares me more than PayPal.

[jessiesgrrl]

Not sure about everywhere but here in Canada you can do whats called an E-transfer.
All that is required is basic contact info and an email address. The rest is private.

And yes I suspect a scam too

Thanks all

[dacasodivine]

I’ve had that kind of scammer before and wondered how they scam you with PayPal so decided to play along. What you get is an e-mail from “PayPal” that the money has been deposited and is pending until it is confirmed shipped or something like that. Checking my PayPal account, it showed nothing pending so I questioned the seller and got another e-mail from “PayPal” assuring me it was okay to ship because the money was there but in escrow so wouldn’t show up in my account until after it shipped.

I know that’s a little different since they have a courier rather than trying to have you ship it.

I say play with them and find out (but don’t actually ship and give a bogus addy for the courier just in case). It could turn out to be a legitimate buyer or we all learn how the newest scam works.

[pluvinel]

Two words. Cash only.

[sdlbredfan]

Sell on eBay and accept payment through PayPal. That really is safer.

[Sparrowette]

OP, you can request a check, and inform the buyer that they will need to wait until the check clears before you will ship. If you want to use another method, yyou might use an account specificallly for these sorts of things which has a very small balance and if anyone gets access to it, not much will be lost.

I would not do the “courier” the buyer wants to use. If they don’t want to use standard shipping, with tracking numbers, etc. then they don’t have to buy from you. (and that might be a good thing…)

Get your money safe in your pocket before you mail/ship anything. I also have heard the horror stories about PayPal (even/especially with ebay) and I’d not use them if there were any question at all about the buyer, and this one’s reply to you sounds very “canned”. Not like a person typing a note, but like a fishy thing is going to be happening…

Be very careful.

[furlong47]

Totally a scam. The wording and language in the e-mail gives it away.

[Bogie]

[QUOTE=furlong47;7668308]
Totally a scam. The wording and language in the e-mail gives it away.[/QUOTE]

This!

[Macimage]

[QUOTE=glfprncs;7667589]
How could you do a bank wire transfer without having to give your account information directly to someone? How would you know you’re actually talking with a real bank? That scares me more than PayPal.[/QUOTE]

You give the person (not the bank) your account information that is printed on any check you write.

Bank wire transfers (and cash of course) are the safest way to receive money without any risk. Once the funds are deposited into your account they can not be reversed. Paypal and credit cards can always be reversed.

We always require bank wire transfers from overseas customers that we do not know or have not worked with before.

I always reply to those types of emails that I’d be delighted to sell them the item and that we will be happy to accept a bank wire transfer. Funny I never hear back from them. Scammers do not want anything to do with a legitimate bank wire transfer.

[S1969]

I’ve sold a saddle with PayPal and had no trouble. I wouldn’t necessarily be afraid to use PayPal for a transaction in the future. The weird part about this is the “private courier” service…who does that?? No one! Because then you have no shipping address. I’d simply respond that you only ship via UPS or FedEx or whatever so that you have a way to track the shipping progress…or you would be willing to meet for a cash transaction. I suspect that you won’t hear back.

[meupatdoes]

In general, avoid people who explain to you all about how they will be running your interactions. “I will” this and “I will” that, as if you don’t get a say on how your saddle sale is going to go down. Only deal with people who include phrases like, “What do you think about…” or “Would it be ok if…” in their social skills tool kit.

This is a handy trick for avoiding scams, as well as toxic friends and bad dates.

Oh, and give these tools an address that is hard to find and difficult to access. Preferably you live in the next county over at an address which is only accessible by long flights of stairs and at the very tippy tippy top there will be a very well taped and packaged box of roughly the size and weight of a saddle, and then when they have gone alllll the way back down the stairs with this box and taken it home, they will open it to find lots of packing peanuts, a medium size bag of sand, and a note that says “Scam somebody else!”

[UlysMom]

Agreed with everyone above mentioning it’s a scam. I had a saddle listed for a friend who wasn’t computer savvy. Listed on FB tack sites, equine now, horseclicks, tack trader and Craigslist. I received a very similar email. Any time they over explain and state they are out of town or have their own courier service, just ignore and don’t respond back. It’s almost like there’s a script floating around that they all share and just put a slightly different spin on.

Good luck with your saddle sale!

[jessiesgrrl]

Thanks everyone
I emailed back saying I would be more then happy to do a bank transfer, but not paypal.
And asked where they were located for delivery/shipping options.

Odd, I haven’t heard back… :lol:

[horsepoor]

I don’t bother answering those. Anything saying courier is a scam. No questions relevant to saddle fit? Scam. No request for photos? Scam. I’m really disappointed in my latest tacktrader.com listing as that is ALL I have gotten…scammers…one a day since listing. I know lots of folks have moved to selling on Facebook groups, but I refuse to join FB, so I’ll probably just consign this and be done. But if an email even smells scammy at all, I just delete. If you really want to make sure, ask them relevant questions re/fit and suitability, like what type riding, body type of rider, current saddle, stuff like that. They won’t be able to string together enough words to make sense, and you’ll have your answer, if they even try to respond. Scam.

[macmtn]

If you get an email you suspect may NOT be from Paypal, forward it inc attachments to spoof@paypal.com
they will tell you if its real or just a scam.

[horsepoor]

[QUOTE=macmtn;7670134]
If you get an email you suspect may NOT be from Paypal, forward it inc attachments to spoof@paypal.com
they will tell you if its real or just a scam.[/QUOTE]

Yes, but that’s for e-mail that is pretending to be from Paypal – I think at this point, the OP is just getting e-mail inquiries on the saddle, saying they want to use Paypal to pay. Of course, it is quite possible that the next step (when you give them your Paypal info) is for them to send a bogus “Paypal” e-mail phishing for your password, etc., but doesn’t sound like that has happened yet.

Like I said, the bogus ones, I don’t bother answering as I don’t need them confirming my e-mail address is legit.