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friends and family only?

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2022 11:37 pm
by kevinkk
I just read 2 bad trade posts. When you decide to buy from someone who will only accept "friends and family" for payment, you're flipping a coin. Anyone that wants to send me money, can do so- kevinkoffel@gmail.com, I may or may not send you something, I've got some decent deadstock...
and I only accept friends and family. I'm sorry you got ripped off, but while we are all cordial here in the community, none of you are my family,
the rest are online contacts who I'll probably never meet. One of the reasons Paypal keeps tweaking their platform to charge sellers more money,
is the practice of sellers and buyers circumventing the good faith PayPal gives to people who send money to people they actually know.
Frankly, I don't understand this ripping off a few people for 50 bucks or even a hundred, it's not like you're going to retire on that.
I buy using "friends and family" from people I trust through past business or an unblemished presence on the platform, other than that-
it's goods and services, and if that's a problem, I'll just buy lottery tickets.

Re: friends and family only?

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2022 12:14 pm
by wollastoni
Indeed the Paypal "Friends & Family" option is to be used only with Friends, Family or sellers you know well.
Don't use it with unknown people who are advertising on a public classifieds board.

Re: friends and family only?

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 5:05 am
by coultrain
Another common thing I have seen with these "bad trades" is that the seller asks for screen shots of the payment page. My guess is that they are not giving out their paypal account but their "boss/leaders". The picture is proof and how they get their cut. I have never seen any seller ask for a screenshot because paypal notifies the owner of the account after payment. Just something that stuck out to me from all the posts,

Re: friends and family only?

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 11:25 am
by Chuck
If Americans are buying domestically then they should ask for, and research, a physical address and phone number. Then call.

Re: friends and family only?

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 2:32 pm
by kevinkk
The screenshot thing is weird, I never made the connection, but it's weird, since PayPal does all that for you in the first place.
Call people Chuck? I don't know...the whole point of today's technology is that we don't have to actually speak to anyone,
hence the popularity with texting, it's like in the old days when you made a phone call and hoped you'd get the person's answering machine.

Re: friends and family only?

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 3:01 pm
by Chuck
All due diligence. Real address, real person and proof of life photo eliminates 95% of the risk. The newest scam I’ve seen (but didn’t fall victim, price was too low) is to highjack a well known forum members account. Note that I’ve not seen that on this forum.