Yesterday I was contacted by a person interested in a striped male BCI I have for sale in the KS ads. After discussion he agreed to place a down payment and make payments for the next couple of months. Not an expensive snake, only a few hundred bucks. I had him e-mail me so we could start the paper trail and more readily communicate things like addresses etc. The plan was for him to paypal the deposit then send future payments by mail. Couldn't ship the snake for a couple of months since he's in Minnesota.

He tells me he does not have a paypal account but if I send him a paypal request for payment he can pay that way. Was new to me but there is a tab on paypal to request payment. After I requested payment a reply comes in that I have received the payment but from a different e-mail address than the one I sent the request to. I was thinking that's odd but the subject and note areas were definitely about the request I had sent.

Late last night I received a call from a nice lady who's e-mail address was used. She was very polite and asked me if I knew "-----" which was the person I had been dealing with. Seems they were roommates in the past and somehow my buyer had gotten hold of her account info and had charged it to her account.

Pretty lame since it was only a down payment and of course paypal always sends a note to the e-mail address about each and every transaction.

By the time I logged into my paypal account there was a disputed hold on that transaction. I was able to click through there investigation process and refund her money. Police are involved and everything. I've volunteered to help the investigation in any way. As I understand it, charges are being pressed and this idiot is in trouble....all for $30.

So, beware of any paypal transactions that are not from the same e-mail address your dealing with.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
13.24 BRB
12.14 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

[ Hide Replies ]

• Dumb criminal......... - rainbowsrus, Wed Jan 31 12:17:07 2007
• RE: Dumb criminal......... - drimes, Wed Jan 31 13:00:39 2007
• Does this person... - Djinn, Wed Jan 31 15:01:07 2007
• Might be just a dumb PC user... ; - 0 - rainbowsrus, Wed Jan 31 15:24:25 2007
• RE: Might be just a dumb PC user... ; - 0 - Jeff Clark, Wed Jan 31 21:38:07 2007
• RE: Might be just a dumb PC user... ; - 0 - rainbowsrus, Wed Jan 31 21:55:53 2007
• RE: Dumb criminal......... - kareo, Wed Jan 31 18:55:30 2007