Got scammed on Leboncoin

[Clack]

Hi dear knife lovers,

I don't know if this is the right place to open a topic about it, but I wanted to share my experience with you.

I often surf the web to find collectible knives that are hard to get and when I come across one I get quite excited and want to buy it.

Recently I surfed on a French ebay site (Leboncoin) and came across a nice A.G.A Campolin Black Widow knife.

The seller has been operating since 2020, his ID and phone number have been verified, but as I am not a Frenchman, I cannot use their secure payment system. So another way was a payment via Paypal and he only wanted to receive the money through friends and family. I agreed and transferred €325.

Unfortunately, nothing heard from the seller since then. He ignores all my messages while he is still active on the website. Its now 2 weeks and he refuses to answer my messages. He dont even open the messages so the messages stays on ''unread''.

I have contacted Leboncoin service about this, showed them all the evidence but they said they cannot help me because I closed a deal via another payment. Also i think that Paypal cant do anything about it either.

The guy is active on social media and also participates in groups related to knives on Facebook etc.

Why people doing this?

[ea42]

Clack in the last year I've noticed people being scammed constantly on almost every social media and auction site. It's become an epidemic and it's the age old story of greed and making a quick score. Folks have to be VERY careful when doing a sale. Here in the states Ebay has made it mandatory to pay through their site, and sellers have to link an account where money is held. It seems to have worked quite well as I rarely hear of people being scammed on Ebay anymore. Facebook and other social media sites are another story, it's terrible there. Some groups are policed better than others but it seems that as soon as someone is banned they just return under another name. Lots of them are based in Africa.

Eric

[Paladin]

Why is it that PayPal would not help out?

Ray

[philco]

Why is it that PayPal would not help out?

Ray

Ray he paid using "Friends & Family" which does not charge a fee, but also does not afford any buyer protection in the event of a deal gone bad. For that protection, you must utilize "Goods and Services". There is absolutely no advantage to the buyer to not using Goods and Services since the seller is the one charged a commission and fee by Payal.

[Paladin]

Why is it that PayPal would not help out?

Ray

Ray he paid using "Friends & Family" which does not charge a fee, but also does not afford any buyer protection in the event of a deal gone bad. For that protection, you must utilize "Goods and Services". There is absolutely no advantage to the buyer to not using Goods and Services since the seller is the one charged a commission and fee by Payal.

I see says the blind man. I never thought about that. Thanks, Phil.

Ray

[1967redrider]

Good to know about this PayPal loophole, sorry to hear about this issue.