When I was much younger I used to trade Magic: The Gathering cards online. The site employed a sort of database so that after a trade had been completed the people involved rated the trade. Pretty similar system to ebay, which the mods monitered to make sure people didn't create accounts and boost their ratings. Not sure how realistic it would be to employ here, but you would have a number in your profile which shows the average rating you have obtained and how many trades/sales you have done. Seems like it would be an easy way to attempt to prevent this from happening. If the mods are at all interested I could probably dig up the link to the site and they could check it out.

How come I haven't heard of this until this thread. An e-mail to me would be nice!

If anyone has contact info (name, address, etc.), please send it to me.

vballyboy51 - i agree, i am relatively new here and am on my 3rd trade, but never received any feedback on the GTL for my first two trades. luckly, i traded with gold traders, so it wasn't a problem, but i haven't sold anything yet either.

Just like eBay, you can't force someone to leave feedback. Sometimes people don't ship when they should, the packaging is bad, etc. Being involved in a trade isn't an automatic +1.

i'm not disagreeing with that, but everyone makes a very big deal about the numbers, and they are quite important, but it needs to be a mutual thing. i've left positive feedback for each of my trades the day i get the product (and i have usually shipped first) usually i email the person back with a link to the post and ask them to do the same and still never see it. courtesy is all i really ask for

had anyone had any updates with this? either *laughs* received their product or received a refund from paypal?

also, whats the deal with the new fourm name / random post with the person who started this? yet another reason to be concerned or just trying to bait our friend jerry hill?

I had my brother send a claim, so I'll let you guys know if anything comes of it. Hopefully we'll get a refund. I highly doubt anything's going to arrive in the mail. Good luck to everyone.

I have two claims filed with Paypal for my $17 but I doubt I will see any product or refund.

Like I said in the other thread, if he can't provide proof of mailing the item (i.e. a delivery confirmation number), you should be able to get your funds back.

PayPal found in my favor in a different trade a year or so (I paid and no DVD was sent). However, I received a messge from them saying, "sorry - we were unable to recover your funds."

So good luck...

As I expected I was informed today that Paypal found in my favor but of course could not get me my money back. What a sham - that is enough reason for me to dtop using Paypal - why have a dispute system if it does not accomplish anything.

Doesn't paypal require a credit card in order to do practically anything? I don't understand why they can't take the money from the guy.

PayPal requires the credit card only to have a "confirmed address " on the Business/Premier accounts..No CC required on Personal Accounts..
DG

I fucking hate PayPal. I got screwed out of over $300 US, even though I had tracking to prove that the item I send was received, as well as having the guy leave me positive feedback. Basically I ended giving the ipod that I was selling to the scammer thanks to PayPal.

I hope that when Google knocks PayPal into obscurity, and hopefully, bankruptcy.

just a tip, when paying through paypal, always fund it with CREDIT CARD payment. paypal is not really reliable when it comes to dispute. i got screwed for over $500 one time from seller on ebay. i filed a dispute through paypal against the seller. they did recover only $175. what i did after that, i filed a chargeback through my credit card and was able to recover the remaining balance. i think if my payment was funded by cash or savings/checking account, i guess i wouldn't have recovered the remaining balance.

i suggest having an extra account solely for paying of goods coz you can't use your credit card when there's a balance/cash on your account. hope this one helps.

I received my response from paypal today:

No such luck here, either. Pretty lame, but I guess it is what I was expecting. I'm only out $12, and at least I have learned my lesson. It just bothers me that although I guess we were all pretty naive that this guy gets away with it--no repercussions. It just seems so ridiculously easy to scam these days. I've been keeping my eye out on just about every thread being posted for suspicious activity and have been reporting the ones mostly where new traders refuse to ship first, in fact ask that they receive the money first, but have zero trading history. Stuff like that, I guess, should be an instant red flag. I didn't think I was actually getting a FANTASTIC deal from FG90, so that's why I thought it might be legit. It was pretty much me paying the same price on Amazon.co.uk minus the cost of shipping, which is a fairly standard kind of trade for used goods, otherwise there's not really any incentive. Anyway, sorry to all who got burned from this guy. It's a shame, but hopefully we'll all be a little more cautious in the future. Luckily, I have only had positive experiences with traders outside this one.

I've been screwed over only once here, it was last year, but I was able to get a refund from the actual cheat:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=423482

Good luck to everyone in this thread. Here is my quick advice for the future:

-First off, like everyone knows, never ever send payment first to a newbie no matter how great the deal sounds.

-If, for some reason, you do decide to send payment first using PayPal only do so when the other person has an established PayPal account so that you can purchase the PayPal's Money Back Guarantee. If you want, tell the other person that they must go down from their asking point to make up for your having to do this.

I'm definitely going to be doing this for all future PayPal purchases. I recently filed a claim for an unsent item, and while PayPal found in my favor they managed to retrieve <40% of the cost of the item. What a crock of shit paypal is. I had huge faith in the regarding matters like this, but it seems they are virtally useless.

i received the same "nothing we can do" email from paypal. pretty shitty. lesson learned

I still think something like this would be a good idea:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=423766

Do you have the address for this person as I live in the UK ?

LMK what it is if so - I doubt he gave it out though right ?