Cyberus wrote:
Its always better to be safe than sorry.
I see so many ebay sellers with a feedback rating of zero selling a Sony Vaio or some other desirable high-priced item.
And because it is 'desirable' people seem to forget themselves, and bid on it. I always wonder if they ever get the item after transferring over a 1000 pounds to a stranger's bank account...
Sure, everyone has to start somewhere. But the first item I sold on ebay was a CD or something...
Sorry, I digress.
That happened to me quite recently.
I bid on a Sony Vaio laptop and won, and transferred £600 to the guy's bank account. He only had 6 feedback, but the auction looked ok, and he gave his bank account number and sortcode in the auction listing and even had a big "HSBC" logo in the listing.
Anyway, after transferring the money I never heard from him again.
The telephone number he had registered on ebay was a taxi company in Manchester, and the address was a student halls of residence in London. The bank wouldn't tell me anything.
I transferred all the details to the police (including the guy's bank account number) and they basically said to put it down to experience and forget about it.
I doubt they even bothered investigating - the officer said this sort of thing happens all the time.
So, be very careful buying expensive items from Ebay, and if you can, collect the goods and pay cash after inspecting them.
