Western Union money transfer query

J-blk

I was wondering if anyone could help with this as I've never used Western Union for money transfers before... I purchased an item off E-bay and the seller (based in the UK) wants to be paid via Western Union money transfer.

I was just wondering if I would be able to use my Visa card at the agent location or would I have to pay cash for the transfer?

Beyond that, does anyone have any idea what the WU surcharges for money transfers are like? Any help on this would be great. Thanks.

dahamsta

Whatever about the rest of it, make sure you get the item off the eBay user /before/ you send the money. Western Union is non-refundable and non-traceable!

adam

parsi

I recently wanted to buy an item online from a US store.Entered my card details etc etc and a day later got an email saying that they didn't trust Iirsh cards and to use WU - I said that I didn't trust WU and they replied that if I had said that I would use WU they would have accepted my card ! Strange thinking...

J-blk

Thanks for the reply guys - since I posted this, I did some reasearch... surprise, surprise, look what popped up:

http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/mrkt_safety.html

E-bay AND Western Union advise again using the WU service on E-bay auctions at any time as it is almost 100% used by scammers - legit sellers would accept other forms of payment.

I took a look at forums, etc and a lot of people seem to have beem scammed in this way....

I've challenged the seller via e-mail on this but I doubt he'll dare reply...

I got some details back from him though and turns out the guy is in Romania (Hmmm) and accepts WU transfers while he advertised on the listing that he was in the UK (and was using a woman's name...) and accepted credit cards.

I don't think I'm been paranoid here right? This has to be a scam? I'll wait and see if I get any reply from this clown but I'm definitely reporting him to E-bay and posting feedback on him for others.... Who knows? Next time the poor sap that wins the bid may even pay him.

Thank you guys for posting replies and sharing your experiences, much appreciated.

dahamsta

It doesn't have to be a scam, but on balance it's quite likely that it is. It's never good to jump to conclusions though, and it's always good to give people the benefit of the doubt -- there have to be some poor feckers in Romania trying to use eBay like. It's too late now, but in future I'd simply ask the seller to ship the goods first or use a reputable escrow service -- if they refuse, it's no loss to you, and then it might be an idea to give eBay a friendly nudge.

adam

spongebob

Too much scum on WU , I would almost say its its a 419 operation.

Stay away from it !

M

J-blk

dahamsta - I do agree that there have to be legit Romanian users on E-bay using the service and I am not really making a conclusion based on that.

What does have me worried is that the amount is fairly high for E-bay and all these discrepancies between the original auction and the information I am getting now. If you were a legit user, why would you lie about the country the item is based in and your name, gender and everything? I did get an "explanation" from the seller but it is weak at best.... I have asked for an alternative method of payment and really wonder what the reaction to that will be.

In any case, I haven't parted with any cash thankfully and if I receive bad feedback on E-bay, I couldn't care less. If nothing else, this has all taught me that E-bay is more bad than good at the end of the day.

I've also looked into what you suggest and will offer the alternatives of either using Escrow (pretty cool idea when it comes to online auctions) or sending the goods first (though, to be fair to the seller, I don't trust him so I see no reason why he should trust me...).

Ah, well, in the meantime it's back to going through the Boards FS forum again... no bad experiences there so far!

dahamsta

J-blk wrote:

this has all taught me that E-bay is more bad than good at the end of the day

See, this is jumping to conclusions again. I'm not a fan of eBay myself, but thousands upon thousands of people trade on the site every day with absolutely no problems at all. To some people it's an absolute blessing because they're able to fine rarities for their collections there; to others it's a way of life because it's their sole source of income. Yes, there are scammers there, but that's just a mirror image of other communities.

Dealing with the nasty element on eBay is much akin to dealing with the nasty element in meatspace: Use a bit of common sense. In this example, paying via Western Union is the meatspace equivalent of handing a dodgy looking character in the pub a hundred euro note for a watch he's going to collect from his car. Luckily you came in here and asked for change...

adam

daveirl

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