Can anyone explain a thing or 2 about Western Union? Why is EBay so against it, is it as risky as they seem to say, if that is so, why is it everytime I walk into my PO, it's trying to promote Western Union as a means of payment.
Is Western Union Bad or Good?
Lmomov3 on 19/10/2014 - 18:10
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aah… will have to investigate in terms of fees etc. I think EBay hates it because they want to promote Paypal which they own and get a big double dip cut, but Western Union does not offer buyer/seller protection I guess and Ebay's carrot is that if you use PayPal, you get protection.
Can anyone explain a thing or 2 about Western Union? Why is EBay so against it, is it as risky as they seem to say, if that is so, why is it everytime I walk into my PO, it's trying to promote Western Union as a means of payment?
Same as eBay discouraging bank transfers as a means of payment. Same reason.
Aust Post is promoting aggressively because they charge a crazy amount of fees on any transfer, I think it is $50 for a $200 payment to an Indonesian friend that need money urgently. Once it is registered in Western Union, the beneficiary can walk into any Western Union branch or other shops that offer WU service and draw the $$ out by showing ID, so basically u can send someone $$ within the hour. Never paid anyone with WU if you buys anything from EBAY, the seller will come out with a lot of excuse why you have to pay by WU but don't believe it at all because I got scam once.
Basically Western Union is the backbone of so-called Nigerian/419 scams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/419_scams#Western_Union.2FMoney…). It's a lifesaver when you lose your credit cards on holiday (so that at least family or a good bank can still send you money) but its insecure nature makes it the number one choice for scammers.
A lot of people selling cars, boats and other expensive items have experienced the "shipping scam" on eBay and Gumtree, including myself. This link was almost exactly details my experience (http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/new-419-scam-involves-pa…).
On a side note, you may have heard a few years ago how a Microsoft researcher deduced that some Nigerian scams are so badly written and unbelievable with the intention of pre-filtering for gullible people (http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/WhyFromNigeria.pdf).
EDIT: Forgot to mention that I messed around with my scammer and had a good laugh. You can often create tens of fake replies to items that were never even posted on eBay and mess with their minds.
Its fine if you send it to people you trust, i.e. family etc.