Buying Phone From Reddit User?

Scam. If you want security you'd use Paypal as payment for a product.

Sounds like red flag to me. Both methods he wants is non-reversible. I would avoid this at all costs if you care about your money.

"His wife wants it out of the house"? That makes no sense to me. It isn't like a piece of furniture.

I don't know. Sounds like a scam.

I think Paypal has some sort guarantee for the buyer, as long as you follow certain rules. What I used to do was run it through an eBay auction, purposely built for this sale. You'd probably have to pick up the fees, but I don't think they will be that high.

Why would you trust Reddit? Buy from eBay or something, where you have an option to file a dispute.

Also, if the buyer sends pics, run them through google image search. If they aren't his pics, then it is definitely a scam.

If the price is too sweet, you are basically asking to get scammed.
They can literally go on Craigslist and Facebook and sell it for more money probably within 1 day. Why the hassle of INTERNATIONAL shipping to you?
"His wife wants it out of the house" ? An expensive phone that can literally be hidden in a drawer and takes no space.. but they will immediately give you a deal to get rid of it. Sounds like a scam lol.

Scam, and I stopped reading at reddit cold message...

engineered wrote: ↑Scam. If you want security you'd use Paypal as payment for a product.

Not sure what you mean, as he said paypal was fine but friend to friend transfer so that stuck out to me as I know paypal has some sort of protection but not sure how it works, highly doubt it covers friend to friend transations.

daniyo27 wrote: ↑Sounds like red flag to me. Both methods he wants is non-reversible. I would avoid this at all costs if you care about your money.

well that is why I am asking as both sound non reversible and hence a no go for me.

e-man wrote: ↑"His wife wants it out of the house"? That makes no sense to me. It isn't like a piece of furniture.

I don't know. Sounds like a scam.

I think Paypal has some sort guarantee for the buyer, as long as you follow certain rules. What I used to do was run it through an eBay auction, purposely built for this sale. You'd probably have to pick up the fees, but I don't think they will be that high.

Yeah it was so strange he said that. I know paypal has some protections but I am not sure if has to be a legit store setup with paypal to get that protection I am sure it is not extended to the average transaction.

I was thinking the same thing, ask him to put it on ebay or from my research swappa to give an added layer of protection, though I don't know how ebay protection is if the user is a new account (no clue if he has account or not)

I would have no problem cover the selling fees for actual protection.

kramer1 wrote: ↑Why would you trust Reddit? Buy from eBay or something, where you have an option to file a dispute.

e-man wrote: ↑Also, if the buyer sends pics, run them through google image search. If they aren't his pics, then it is definitely a scam.

I don't trust it hence why I was asking if anyone had experience of making something that could be a scam to making it legitimate.

Seems only way would be to get him to sell it via ebay.

Anyways won't be doing this deal as the only way to make this legit seems to be alot of work for the seller who could sell it easier in person other ways.

One more thing that is kinda weird. I did not even ask about the note 10 phone (I only asked about s10, s20 FE and 52). So you would think that he would have said he is selling one of those phones and not a phone I never even talked about.

When you use PayPal, you can transfer funds as a payment for a product or service, or as a friends and family transfer. The friends and family transfer is not reversible but the product and service, is. The guy wants you to use friends and family so he can take your money and ghost.

Absolute scam.

xiaobao wrote: ↑
Not sure what you mean, as he said paypal was fine but friend to friend transfer so that stuck out to me as I know paypal has some sort of protection but not sure how it works, highly doubt it covers friend to friend transations..

Keith1411 wrote: ↑ When you use PayPal, you can transfer funds as a payment for a product or service, or as a friends and family transfer. The friends and family transfer is not reversible but the product and service, is. The guy wants you to use friends and family so he can take your money and ghost.

Keith1411 wrote: ↑When you use PayPal, you can transfer funds as a payment for a product or service, or as a friends and family transfer. The friends and family transfer is not reversible but the product and service, is. The guy wants you to use friends and family so he can take your money and ghost.

Yeah that is what I thought with how it works. He mentioned that he sells lots on amazon so I said, let me know if you put it on amazon or ebay and I will check it out and he wrote back this.

I don't use ebay. Amazon is have a fba shop setup through them so it's bulk product. I've always either sold locally or someone o line. No worries. If you wanted to pay the fee through PayPal and do it under goods and services it doesn't matter to me. I'd raise the price to it took care of my fees as well. That's where I have done 98%of my transactions through when buying bulk product across seas

So now he is saying he would do it with good and services but I don't know he just seems to rushy to sell this thing to me and putting alot of effort into trying to sell, which makes me even more nervous.

He even wanted to like ship it out tonight if I wanted to and I have not even seen the pictures.

So either his wife is beating him hard to get rid of this phone all of sudden or he is a scammer. Maybe if I was more versed in how to set up the transaction right to cover my ass if it is the ladder then I might do it but since I don't know much about doing this I will go the safe route and just buy one ebay or if I decide to get the A52 then probably brand new.

xiaobao wrote: ↑ Yeah that is what I thought with how it works. He mentioned that he sells lots on amazon so I said, let me know if you put it on amazon or ebay and I will check it out and he wrote back this.



So now he is saying he would do it with good and services but I don't know he just seems to rushy to sell this thing to me and putting alot of effort into trying to sell, which makes me even more nervous.

He even wanted to like ship it out tonight if I wanted to and I have not even seen the pictures.

So either his wife is beating him hard to get rid of this phone all of sudden or he is a scammer. Maybe if I was more versed in how to set up the transaction right to cover my ass if it is the ladder then I might do it but since I don't know much about doing this I will go the safe route and just buy one ebay or if I decide to get the A52 then probably brand new.

The guy doesn't even have a wife. Just some scammer kid in a basement.

xiaobao wrote: ↑ If I can't get something that sits right with me then I don't care how cheap it is, I will walk away from it.

Why are you still contemplating? We already told you everything DOESN'T sit right and yet you aren't walking away like you said you would.

You seem like you're trying to reason with his logic and willing to front the money without even seeing the phone if it even exists... and its condition (if he even ships).

Nobody should rush you into buying a phone especially when he cold messaged you.

10000000% scam! REDDIT? LOL

xiaobao wrote: ↑ If I can't get something that sits right with me then I don't care how cheap it is, I will walk away from it.

There's your answer. If you feel apprehensive then simply don't do it.

And don't regret that you didn't do it. That regret is nothing like doing it and getting scammed.

I'm pretty sure adjusting price to cover PayPal fees is against their ToS.

The deal sounds good and it's tempting. But even you know in your heart that this is too good to be true.

daniyo27 wrote: ↑ Why are you still contemplating? We already told you everything DOESN'T sit right and yet you aren't walking away like you said you would.

You seem like you're trying to reason with his logic and willing to front the money without even seeing the phone if it even exists... and its condition (if he even ships).

Nobody should rush you into buying a phone especially when he cold messaged you.

This

bylo wrote: ↑ There's your answer. If you feel apprehensive then simply don't do it.

And don't regret that you didn't do it. That regret is nothing like doing it and getting scammed.

And this ...

You yourself said as you posted this thread

xiaobao wrote: ↑ If I can't get something that sits right with me then I don't care how cheap it is, I will walk away from it.

Bud, gotta learn to trust YOUR GUT INSTINCTS !!!

When you see a skunk walk across your path ... don’t stick around “to see if” it’s gonna spray you
Get to heck outta there!

Best to avoid.

There is a small chance this is actually a deal but its likely smaller than the odds of you winning the lottery. Honestly i wouldn't recommend private buying anything long distance unless you are confident the seller/buyer isn't likely to scam you (i.e. long feedback history). If its someone random, might as well assume its a random "you got payment, please login" text message.