Request to buy stuff on behalf of someone else

Tealc

Tealc

Tealc

Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2009
Posts
7,392
Location
Llanelli
So here's a strange one.

A 100 post or so, zero trust, forum member contacts me to make them a PWM converter circuit and we agree a price. He says he can't pay straight via Paypal for some reason and needs a Paypal button made, so I do it and he pays. No problem. Money in my paypal account.

Today he asks if I can buy a £13 fan off OcUK website for him, again stating that he can't use his card and OcUK paypal doesn't work for him. I send him another button and he pays the money into my paypal account.

Very easy, very trusting.

Then it occurs to me that this could be a bit dodgy.

Am I being taken for a ride here? Or am I being too cautious?

I know it's only £20 but it's still £20 that I've had to work for.

All help appreciated.
 
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Could be building trust, hoping you go bigger and bigger, then nails you when you pre-buy a £500 laptop for him and claims back.
 
End it now as like Rex above has said he could be building trust. There's no reason he can't buy directly from OCuK using Paypal so it sounds dodgy.
 
It's from a confirmed paypal address if that makes any difference.

If I'd had this thought about scams and stuff before agreeing to him sending the fan money I would have said no.
 
If his card wont work online why did he not just do a order over the phone , id stop buying for him if i was you
 
Send all money to me as ESCROW ;)

I will wire the monies to my accounts for safe keepings. When requested I will return 4% of the funds.
 
Agreed. I will refund the payment and move on.

I want to trust people, really I do, but there's just too many things wrong with this situation.

Thanks for the confirmation of my thoughts guys.

GD wins.
 
You can create a link that renders as a Pay now button that directs a customer to a screen where they can make a payment to you. I didn't know about them either, it was the guy in question who brought them to my attention.

Me thinks he knows too much about this sort of thing :/
 
as a one off i get it, but anyone would call up ocuk and sort out the problem for a more long term solution, not keep relying on someone else to buy things for them
 
The glorious hackable paypal buttons <3

Nothing like editing their passed vars and changing your paid amounts to £1 :D
 
If he's not able to access the MM I wouldn't go near him. The MM is the only place I buy/sell items online from other people and it's never given me any problems :)
 
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