E-trade plagued by scams

I don’t like Facebook. I may have mentioned it 100 times before, but I use it because certain information I need is only posted there.

Something I have used it for is to sell a mobility scooter that I purchased and no longer want.  It works perfectly well by the way if anybody wants it. Anyway, I put it on Facebook at least €200 cheaper than any other; and nothing.

All I got was people asking questions, me answering them and then nothing. Then I tried to sell it to the people that were obviously professional retailers – but nobody was interested.

I had the same problem with eBay. I have friends in the UK who actually get a living selling stuff on there, and I’m talking about second-hand clothes, bags, baby stuff etc. I, on the other hand, was told that it was very hard to sell anything on Spanish eBay because all the punters thought everything was a scam.

When I did try and sell something, I got the reverse. I had a couple of decent watches I wanted to get rid of. They had boxes and papers and were brand new; never been worn. Well as soon as I put them on, the scammers started. I had one person tell me that the money would be sent as soon as they received the watch and, as it was a gift, could I send it to somewhere in Nigeria.

He gave me his UK address to be safe which I googled and found never existed. I had another who wanted to send me a cheque because he didn’t have PayPal. The cheque would be for £500 more than the watch and could I send him the difference by Western Union. Generously, I could keep £100 of it for helping him.

Of course, what these people do is send you worthless payments hoping you will send the product which, of course, I didn’t but I have to say these scammers are a persistent bunch. I know someone that sold an item and the buyer then demanded payment for a good review and, if they didn’t pay, they would start making sure they got bad reviews. This, of course, was just another trick to try and get money for nothing.

After refusing, the item was returned as ‘not as advertised’. Shame these people don’t spend as much time setting up legit businesses!