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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by krump I have chosen to only make Ebay purchases when I can pay via personal cheque... the above discussions are even more convincing. Some sellers may not accept a cheque, and that is fine, but I won't buy from them. Some sellers will ultimately accept a cheque (if you ask nicely) even if if is not a stated payment option... the Nigerian phone scam of the past several years is another example of the "verification" process - a seemingly, toll free number that when called, locks on long distance billing for an hr or longer, charging an incredible amount of money (hundreds per minute). as far as Ebay.ca (Cdn) goes, we've had no trouble after some 30 purchases. as always buyer BEWARE. [/quote] Just an FYI... A personal check is one of the easiest ways to get scammed. If a person is holding your check, they have your routing info, name, address, and checking account number. These items are all that are needed to order electronic transfers from your bank without much other verification info needed. Pick up your checkbook and look at the info. Imagine calling a "check by phone" to your power company. Thousands of places allow this type of activity. Someone could buy goods, or recieve cash from many of these places that will take a "check by phone." Heck, some people even have their phone number or social security number printed on their checks. With all of this, you are basically holding a persons financial life in your hands with their check. (These are the reasons that there are few insurances / gaurantees / limits for a checking account, but there are for debit cards and credit cards.) Some dangerous scammers are the check kiters. People who Kite checks often order a book of their own with your account info... most banks will give them a "credit" of $100.00 to $250.00 for starting an account with a deposited check PRIOR to the check going back to your bank for rejection. They immediately withdraw all but $50.00 and skip town. Because it is often less than $250.00 it is not followed up on as diligently by law enforcement until they can make a connection of multiple transactions. (Just a quick thought, I use Paypal for these precise reasons as a seller and a buyer. If another ebay user also uses PayPal, they are only forwarded your specific amount of money assigned with the auction information, not your personal or financial information. Anything else short of a money order gives them access to YOU. If you look carefully, some of the Ebay people are PayPall VERIFIED... This means that their addresses and accounts have all been tracked and verified for security. They are less likely to be part of a rip off or scam.) Not preaching... just wanting some of those not in the day to day financial stuff to be aware. I own a business and handle a significant amount of transactions through our bank. We are constantly being updated about situations like this that are occuring here locally, so that we don't "accept" bad checks, or get our information stolen.
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