B is for BUSTED!!!
so I have done quite a bit of research on money orders and drafts due to some recent drama over some ebay items I sold. First off, the buyer was very persistent with wanting to use Western Union. I am aware that many sellers use this form of payment but I am not one of them. When I sell online I only take paypal and Money Orders, No personal checks either. The MO Has to clear before I send the item/items out.
So anyway, back to my point. After I filed an UPI dispute that was when the buyer persisted to bug me about how to pay me. They claimed that paypal was not available in Doha,Qatar so they wanted to use Western Union, I said no and refused to bend on it.So then they tell me that they are going to send me a money order over night BUT they want the items sent to a New York Addy the same day I get the MO. Again, I thought this was odd. I often have people buy items from me as gift to send to other people but usually they tell me that it is a present and often want a note included, for example "hi happy birthday, love you, john".It's always put in the note if they paypal me so I have it there for my records as well. All the buyer told me was that they did not want to pay the over seas shipping fee. So they tell me that they have sent the MO overnight but it take 5 days to get to me. Finally it does, I open it up and I'm surprised, shocked actually because I have never seen an MO like this before. I go to my bank and ask a teller about it, they call over a manager and then the manager calls over someone else.They ask me if I know the person who sent this to me. I say no because I did not. They also ask if I have ever spoken with them, again I tell them no because I never did. I tell them I want to deposit it, NOT CASH it because I have no idea if it will actually clear. this was on the 17th of December. The manager tells me to hold off on cashing it. I agree to do so. I get home and email the buyer that the MO has been received and I made the deposit, but I have to wait for it to clear before the items are sent out. They start emailing me that the MO has cleared before I even made the deposit that the funds are there and I need to send the items out. again, I say no. So some time passes and they keep emailing me. I go to the bank and low and behold the MO has bounced and was returned on the 27th because the funds were not available and I am told by the banker that this was more than likely fraud. Later on I contact the buyer and inform them that the MO has bounced start to get crazy with emails and then start calling me on the phone. The matter is turned over to ebay and I report it to the police.
So today I get two money orders in from two other buyers. One who is a repeat customer and always sends them so I am not worried about them. The other is from London, England. I take the MO to the bank and ask a teller if these are real or not and explain my current situation. Turns out they are A o.k. and all is well. BUT she shows me a tiny pink circle on the lower right part of the MO. She breathes on it and shows me how disappears then re appears in a matter on about 3-5 seconds. Also, you can do this by rubbing your finger on it. There is usually a small note next to it as well, it says, "to authenticate rub circle". The buyer who sent the MO that was no good did not have this on it. Heck, lots of stuff was missing on it, and honestly it looked as though it was printed on a crappy printer. Not all money orders have this little circle on it, but usually they do, 99% of the time I was told.
Well, basically that is it. Just wanted to let other sellers know about this little trick I learned today. Luckily, I was not out any money or fees for the bounced MO.Shit, January is generally very slow andnot very entertaining, not this year!!! This has got to be one of the most STOOPID person I have ever dealt with, a few have come close but this moron take the cake.I sure hope they like orange jumpers because they just may be wearing one.
so I have done quite a bit of research on money orders and drafts due to some recent drama over some ebay items I sold. First off, the buyer was very persistent with wanting to use Western Union. I am aware that many sellers use this form of payment but I am not one of them. When I sell online I only take paypal and Money Orders, No personal checks either. The MO Has to clear before I send the item/items out.
So anyway, back to my point. After I filed an UPI dispute that was when the buyer persisted to bug me about how to pay me. They claimed that paypal was not available in Doha,Qatar so they wanted to use Western Union, I said no and refused to bend on it.So then they tell me that they are going to send me a money order over night BUT they want the items sent to a New York Addy the same day I get the MO. Again, I thought this was odd. I often have people buy items from me as gift to send to other people but usually they tell me that it is a present and often want a note included, for example "hi happy birthday, love you, john".It's always put in the note if they paypal me so I have it there for my records as well. All the buyer told me was that they did not want to pay the over seas shipping fee. So they tell me that they have sent the MO overnight but it take 5 days to get to me. Finally it does, I open it up and I'm surprised, shocked actually because I have never seen an MO like this before. I go to my bank and ask a teller about it, they call over a manager and then the manager calls over someone else.They ask me if I know the person who sent this to me. I say no because I did not. They also ask if I have ever spoken with them, again I tell them no because I never did. I tell them I want to deposit it, NOT CASH it because I have no idea if it will actually clear. this was on the 17th of December. The manager tells me to hold off on cashing it. I agree to do so. I get home and email the buyer that the MO has been received and I made the deposit, but I have to wait for it to clear before the items are sent out. They start emailing me that the MO has cleared before I even made the deposit that the funds are there and I need to send the items out. again, I say no. So some time passes and they keep emailing me. I go to the bank and low and behold the MO has bounced and was returned on the 27th because the funds were not available and I am told by the banker that this was more than likely fraud. Later on I contact the buyer and inform them that the MO has bounced start to get crazy with emails and then start calling me on the phone. The matter is turned over to ebay and I report it to the police.
So today I get two money orders in from two other buyers. One who is a repeat customer and always sends them so I am not worried about them. The other is from London, England. I take the MO to the bank and ask a teller if these are real or not and explain my current situation. Turns out they are A o.k. and all is well. BUT she shows me a tiny pink circle on the lower right part of the MO. She breathes on it and shows me how disappears then re appears in a matter on about 3-5 seconds. Also, you can do this by rubbing your finger on it. There is usually a small note next to it as well, it says, "to authenticate rub circle". The buyer who sent the MO that was no good did not have this on it. Heck, lots of stuff was missing on it, and honestly it looked as though it was printed on a crappy printer. Not all money orders have this little circle on it, but usually they do, 99% of the time I was told.
Well, basically that is it. Just wanted to let other sellers know about this little trick I learned today. Luckily, I was not out any money or fees for the bounced MO.Shit, January is generally very slow andnot very entertaining, not this year!!! This has got to be one of the most STOOPID person I have ever dealt with, a few have come close but this moron take the cake.I sure hope they like orange jumpers because they just may be wearing one.
And as far as my Margaret Cho videos- they were there the whole time!