How is PayPal not secure

liddle · Senior Member

How is PayPal not secure

Happywanderer · The Master

Paypal is absolutely safe with all purchases except vehicles and suchlike, meaning campervans, boats, coasters etc.

If you look through the instructions as rules in ebay you will see warnings of using paypal for vehicles because of all the scammers around. What they do is get a photo of a vehicle that they don't own, put it up on ebay, when you win the bidding they expect you to make a payment before you can see or go get the vehicle. you make that payment, deposit only to find there is no vehicle at the other end and the scammers are not where they said they will be either. They may not even be in Australia.

I personally know of some who have lost many thousands of dollars by doing this.

Paypal in itself is not the problem, it is the scammers who are after your money.

For some reason you are not covered in a refund from paypal when these scammers have ripped you off, I don't know why.

liddle · Senior Member

Hi there

Thanks for the reply and I appreciate the time you have taken to answer.

I can see a problem with Ebay certainly seems to be with someone paying a large amount of money via PayPal for goods that do not exist. I did not think anyone would pay for a car without seeing it.

I believe that is a problem with Ebay and not PayPal.

PayPal is used for many things besides Ebay purchases and I feel that it is secure. If anyone has had problems due to PayPal I would be interested to hear

Thanks again for your reply

El Gringo · Senior Member

There is a loophole with Paypal that I fell victim too some time ago.
I sold a near new laptop on ebay as a buy it now, with the proviso that it be sent to the Philippines.
I saw no problem with this, so when the money cleared through Paypal and I transferred it into my bank I duly sent the laptop as agreed.
I tracked the item and the same day it was delivered I received a email from Paypal saying that the transaction had been done via a stolen credit card and that they were going to refund the money.
They therefore billed my Paypal account for the total amount.
Now, of course, there was no money in my Paypal account.
I therefore emailed them back to say that this was obviously a scam and that i was not going to repay Paypal.
They continued to send me threatening emails, even some from a legal agency, to which I remained completely unresponsive.
After about 18 months I was finally able to close my Paypal account, they had blocked that ability for the entire time.

They never got a cent from me, and I have now got a new Paypal account that I use for ebay purchases.

However, my advice is, never accept payment through Paypal if it comes via a credit card.
If they don't do it by bank transfer, then I won't accept it.

Also, never agree to a sale that requires you to send an item overseas.

I do now however use a credit card to pay through Paypal as it obviously give me an extra level of protection.

Cheers,

liddle · Senior Member

Wow !! Thanks for that. I will accept defeat on that one as there is no way I can follow up on statements such as

so when the money cleared through Paypal and I transferred it into my bank I duly sent the laptop as agreed.I tracked the item and the same day it was delivered I received a email from Paypal saying that the transaction had been done via a stolen credit card and that they were going to refund the money.

Thanks to you for your time in replying

Looks like there can be problems with PayPal if a bank will take your money out of your bank and give it to PayPal if PayPal can prove that a stolen Credit Card was used to pay for goods that you sold via PayPal.

Thanks

herbie · Guru

There is a warning up on the consumer affairs web page ( WA ) asking people to be very mindful of E Bay in relation to the reviews

being posted regarding how good/prompt delivery/ of certain sellers goods are.

As a lot of these reviews are being posted by bogus people who these scum bags are paying to write up a good review .

Also they found out a lot are even wrote up from their own relations.

So be wary of who you buy from and don't take a sellers GOOD review as gospel .

Oxley · Veteran Member

I think what also has to be said is PayPal is not a bank, and therefore does not have to comply with any banking regulation, at least in Australia.

And being a American registered company, your legal rights and ability to bring any legal action, not being a American citizen/resident, are pretty much null and void.

there is a company registered in Australia, but I don't believe it is registered as a banking or financial institution (so again no regulations that I'm aware of) finding any contact details on the website without an account seem to be impossible.

We have had several customers that want to pay via Paypal (and some staff who salaries paid into Paypal,I think to avoid child support payments etc) but our parent company based in Japan has said a firm no.

Personally,before I buy anything online (and I only use a prepaid credit card) I look for the contact details and an ABN/ACN, and if I can only find a PO BOX or limited details, I shop elsewhere.

liddle · Senior Member

Hi to all

I hope I am not harping on too much ( the subject line explains the topic so if you are not interested in reading about PayPal you had better stop now <G>.

I feel sorry for people who may not use PayPal because of adverse comments when I believe that it is the quickest /safest way to pay for goods and services via the internet or email.

PayPal acts as the middleman .You, the buyer, give them your Bank or Credit /Debit card details. The buyer pays no charges to PayPal

The Seller also gives PayPal their details. The seller pays the charges.

At no time are the details of the accounts of the buyer or seller interchanged.

You , the buyer, tell PayPal to pay $1000 to Mr Xs account. If Mr x is a cheat that is not the fault of PayPal. It is up to you to decide who you tell PayPal to give your money to.

How could PayPal know who is honest or not?

It is 100% safe that PayPal will only transfer your funds to the account that you tell them to. If you choose to send your funds unwisely to shonky dealers then it is not the fault of PayPal.

I use PayPal for a lot of things and no problems.

VKPORTABLE · Senior Member

The bottom line is PayPal is secure.
PayPal are a registered company in Australia, and as such conform to Australian banking standards.

I am going to respond to some comments made in various posts -

- Purchases of vehicles etc: Agreed 100%, anyone would have to be off their rockers to purchase a vehicle or any large item and pay via PayPal. The exception here would be in you are buying from a reputable business, such as the many who sell camper trailers on eBay - but from a private seller you are taking one hell of a risk.

- The credit card scam.
This isn't really a 'loophole' in PayPal, or a PayPal issue, it's an honesty issue. In this case PayPal have, or attempted to do the right thing. The card was stolen, and I am sure if your credit card was stolen and used to buy goods you would appreciate the money being refunded. The unfortunate part is for the seller, they loose out twice - they have lost the goods and the money. In my mind it should ideally be the credit card company doing the refunding.

But it's just something to be aware of. In all the years I have been using PayPal, well over 10 years now, I've never had any such problems.

- Ebay reviews: I assume the writer here means feedback. The higher the positive feedback the safer (as safe as can be online trading) you are.

Once you deal outside of Australia then you are at the mercy of the sellers honesty in effect. I have found the chinese/hong kong sellers to be usually very good, along with sellers from France, Italy, Poland and USA. As a seller on eBay.

I am aware that many negative feedback ratings (although I have none) can be left by buyers who are simply arrogant and expect the impossible. I weigh everything and calculate postage prior to listing items, yet it astounds me how many will message me asking how much postage is, simply because they feel it is to expensive - postage is expensive!

- Liddle has probably summed it up in one.
PayPal are simply a conduit for monetary transactions, it is not their place or position to determine the honesty level of it's subscribers. They simply provide a means of global payment, and it works well and is exceptionally secure transaction wise. Much more secure then direct deposit. Actually when selling or buying via eBay I never use direct deposit, I always use PayPal. I have never had a problem in over 1000 transactions via eBay - with the exception of one where I didn't read the description correctly and received an item that wasn't what I needed, was this the sellers or PayPal's fault? Nope - mine I should have read the description better. Once I did read it properly I realised my stuff-up!

The dog lady · Guru

I've bought all sorts of stuff on-line over many years, and I endorse VKPORTABLE's view that paypal is about as secure as any payment system can be. I've purchased goods from a number of overseas suppliers, most often China or HK. and the only time I didn't get the goods it was a $4 item and I got a refund smile . I'd prefer to buy local, but lets face it, when a Chinese made item sells in tricky dicky's for $15 but I can buy it on ebay direct from china for $1 then I'm prepared to wait for the post (which incidentally was included in said $1). And yes, after receiving the usb/cig lighter adaptor I compared it to the one from local shop and it was identical. I made a written complaint to the shop about the amount of their mark-up too, but I expect they'll just ignore me.