Sorry about going off topic here but I'm selling some stuff on ebay and I got a guy in Italy who wants to pay with something called moneygram. Anyone ever use moneygram and have any good/bad experiences? I told the dude, paypal, money order or cashiers check only but he's insisting on using moneygram.

 

I would not take it. The choices you listed should be good enough. Takes very little time to set up a pay pal account. If he can not set up a paypal account over there wait for him to send you the funds. Seems to be a lot of scams on ebay now.

 

He said Italy does not take paypal accounts. I'm still corresponding with him so if the money gram thing seems to be legit then I may do it. Apparently the local wal-marts and albertsons takes these things so who knows.

 

It's a scam, don't do it. I only trust paypal because you need to tie it to a bank account.

 

There is a moneygram web site so it does look legit?? He's paying me so if it goes south, I'll make sure the item I sold him does not ship until I see the funds in my bank!!

I was just wanting to see if anyone has ever used this moneygram thing before. Thanks!!

 

Thats the best thing to do. Wait till it shows up in your account before you ship your items to him then you will know if it is legit or not.

 

I've heard of moneygram before, it's been around for a while. It's a western-union kind of thing. Just wait for the funds to clear then send him the item...

 

Make sure it is him sending you the money and not from somebody here in the states, if it is that way he may be using you as a middle man to cover up his trail on a bogus sale he did and you will get a call from th FBI and you will have to return the money that you accepted and you will be out of the stuff you sold. It is a common scam to get money or goods from us and the crooks are never caught and you are holding the bag. If in doubt of what I have wrote here just contact the FBI, they have agents who do nothing but track these guys and will answer your questions.AlaskaBoy.

 

i read some interesting info on a UK web site regarding ESCROW services, i dont know if moneygram falls itnt that catagory but they were saying there are a lot of fake companies offering escrow services and there working directly with the people who are committing the fraud adds in many cases,

if you dont know, the basic idea is that you make the payment to the escro service who then contact the seller of the item to confirm that there holding the funds, you then send the item to the buyer, when the item is recieved the buyer lets the escro service know and then they pay wou the money,

sounds nice and simple but in addition to what i said above there are companies who have no intension of passing the money on to the seller and just disapear,,


personaly everything i have bought on ebay has come from the USA so from my point of view, the guy could be genuine and just as paranoid hes gona get ripped as you are,


im not familiar with moneygram or the technicalities of operating a paypal account in italy, but it does seem a little suspicious,

if hes insisting on doing a payment thru a service similar to western union make him use western union, it is a massive service and covers the whole World he cant say he doesnt have access to the facility, but may be genuinly concered about using the service,



personal i payed for my zilla by western union a whole $3777 and i must admit MY A$$ was twitching once i had made the payment,
but things went very well,


the first thing i would ask my self is is the value of the item cheap enough to be able to stand the loss and just put it down to a bad experience,

if your actualy selling a Quad or other high value item i would be highly dubious of the whole thing untill the cash is in your hand,


good luck

also you are within your rights to just refuse to sell it to him if your item was listed as "ship to the usa only" especialy if he didnt ask if you were willing to ship outside before he bid,

 

Guys, here is this person's feedback. Notice he doesn't have too good of a feedback but the last couple transactions he's bought and apparently paid OK. I've emailed the last person who sold him something to see if he received one of these money grams, hopefully he'll respond.