Showing posts with label scam alert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scam alert. Show all posts

3/21/2013

Show & Sell Site Important Membership Notice

Copyright © 2013 by TheDollPage.com
This notice went out to all registered users of the Doll Page Show & Sell site today. Please read it.

Effective March 8, 2013, the "Show & Sell" site suspended automatic registrations and is no longer accepting new member registrations from strangers.

Anyone wishing to become a new member of the site will have to be recommended by a current member in good standing. A member who has been with the "Show & Sell" for one year and has 20 positive reviews/feedbacks will be considered a member in good standing for the new nomination process.


We realize that this new nomination process will reduce the number of new members which were joining up at the rate of about 100 per month. This new process is being instituted due to the damage done by scammers that have, up until recently, had unbarred access to our members.


As a result of this new registration process, those of you who do not publish your private email address in your listings may want to be aware that strangers who used to register just to send you a private message will no longer be able to do so. Of course, if you do publish your email address in your listings which allows non-members to contact you, you'’re taking the chance of getting approached by a scammer, but it’s your choice.


We are hoping that with the cooperation of our current members we can build a safe doll trading community where you can feel reasonably assured that your customer is a legitimate member.


Members who have been signed up with the Show & Sell for one year and have current positive reviews/feedback are eligible to nominate new members. If you would like to nominate a new member at this time, you can email me with the nominee's name and email address and we’ll send them a short application to fill out and return to us. In the near future, we will provide a “nominate a new member” area on the member control panel of every member eligible to make nominations. This new feature will replace the interim method of contacting us to nominate a new member.


We hope you will approve of our new membership registration plan. We wish that everyone could play fair and be nice, but unfortunately a free site with an open membership just attracts trouble and I think we all have enough trouble in our lives without publicly asking for more.

If you’d care to comment we ask that you please do so on the Show & Sell Forum.

Best,
Steve and Rae
Admin
 I think this is a great idea as there have been many instances of scamming recently.

Steve and Rae do a tremendous service to the doll community by offering the Show & Sell pages for free to us. Let me not forget to also mention the Doll Pages where collectors can post their images for use on boards, eBay or anywhere. They don't ask for a penny from collectors!


9/27/2011

How to Avoid Being Scammed


 The infamous scammer from one of the islands southeast of Florida surfaced again on the Show & Sell pages last week. He almost got away with his game. This person posts very desirable dolls and very fair prices which is, in itself, a giveaway. There are always those who will jump on great deals even when they scream "too good to be true." Luckily the gal who sent him money was warned - almost too late - and got a refund from Paypal. Whew! Close one. I'm sure he's not finished. Neither are the others. They're out there. They change names, lie about references and keep coming back!

If you are the buyer:
1. Ask for at least 3 recent, checkable references and then contact the references and ask them for information about the transaction to make sure that the seller isn't making it all up.

2. If the seller won't answer you or gets pissy, RUN and tell the rest of us what happened.

3. Ask the seller to take a picture (or pictures) of the item with a piece of paper that has his/her name printed clearly with the date. Scammers will not hesitate to sell stuff they don't have and will also steal pictures of merchandise that doesn't belong to them. (They do that even when they have the stuff to sell because they are too lazy to take their own photos.)

4. Do not pay with a money order, cash, personal check or non-credit Paypal unless you are absolutely positive you know with whom you are dealing. You have no recourse at all if the transaction goes wrong when paying thus.

5. Post questions asking for references on the doll boards. Contact those who respond. 

6. If the seller balks at any question, that is your red flag. If the transaction makes you uncomfortable, you can live without the doll and you can certainly live without losing your money.


If you are the seller you can be scammed, too, if you're not careful.
1. Insure everything you ship if you don't know the buyer well.

2. It's not a bad idea to get eBay references for buyers. Look at the feedback they leave. Some are never happy with anything.

3. Don't ship overseas without tracking and insurance unless you know the buyer and they are willing to pay you via the Personal tab on Paypal. (I do not endorse this method as it is illegal to circumvent Paypal fees. That's my public opinion.)

4. Do not accept any type of payment that makes you uncomfortable.

5. If you list Buy it Now items, make sure you require immediate payment. Otherwise, those without money to pay will just be stopping your auction by bidding.

6. NEVER ship before you have cash in hand.

7. If you are asked to ship to an address other than that of the person paying, you may be scammed. They finagle getting dolls by having sellers send a doll to someone who sends them money and then they claim they didn't get the doll and on and on. An exception to this is if you won't ship overseas and the buyer asks you to ship to their shipping buddy. Get that person's email address and confirm in writing who they are and what they intend to do. You have to hope they are not in cahoots. You can avoid this by learning how to ship overseas.

If you can think of anything to add to this list, feel free to post it in the comments section. I will put this post in the sidebar in a few days for reference in the future.