SELLING SCAMS: Goods not received

Selling mail order items through any of the online sites, or even through the pages of

Car Mechanics, carries a risk if an item isn’t delivered. Using a tracking service helps to cover the seller, but this still doesn’t prevent the buyer from raising a dispute.

The likes of ebay and Amazon have strict procedures for disputes, to resolve problems and protect everyone from fraud. One way to reduce risks is to take payment via Paypal and only deliver the item to the address listed for the payer using a tracked service. Even if the buyer asks for delivery elsewhere – say, because they want to send the item as a gift – insist that you can only deliver to the address listed with their Paypal account.

The delivery and return of purchased goods is open to a wide range of scams. Paypal recommend that if a buyer asks you to use their account with a particular delivery company (because they get a discount), then this could be a bogus company, so you will lose any money you pay them. Even if the delivery company is legitimate, using someone else’s private account means they can contact the company and reroute the order to another address, then claim it was never received.