How would you go about paying for something online? For example, people are selling vouchers here in the classifieds - how do those transactions work and how do you minimise the risk of getting scammed?
When Kogan Mobile was selling 2 recharges for the price of one I bought a recharge off someone here. I paid via Paypal (friends and family), he sent the number, I recharged, and everything was fine. But it got me thinking, what if it hadn't worked?
look at the post history of the user. safer (not 100%) with regular user
This, also try to only deal with users who have been registered for a minimum of a year & active on the site. At the end of the day, it's all about trust, so assume the worst, think realistically & hope for the best.
And limit it to what you can grimace at and walk away from. Eg $50 for me.
I’m playing a long con.
Yeah honestly I don't trust any of you buggers on here. If I'm buying a gift-card, I'm going to do it at the shop in cash.
^^^ This - Hopefully something like Credo360, a portable online reputation system with privacy - but for the Australian market starts up. Credo360 is used on reddit but doesn't support identity verification or payments in the Australian market.
Further discussion - Item Not Received on OzBargain Classifieds - Do We Need a Rating System?
But it got me thinking, what if it hadn't worked?
Yeah, no protection with Paypal F&F.
So… there really isn't any safe way to do it online, but just grit your teeth, hope for the best, and if you get burned come back here and cry about it so you can get burned some more, right? :P
I find the people here are generally more trustworthy than the general gumtree crowd.