I only buy expensive items in person. I only buy cheap stuff such as eBooks and pizza online. Never had a problem so far.

14 hours ago, Kenny202 said:

All of that sounds lovely, and secure and given I haven't used Ebay or Paypal for 2 years but I wouldn't count on any sort of buyer protection. Have you been through the process? I did back in Australia. Was a cut and dried case of fraud. Paypal again initially almost impossible to contact. Then there was talk of filing police reports etc. Try negotiating with the seller. Unless things have changed in a big way I have no faith in Paypal or Ebay. 

I’ve been through it several times before and I always got my money back. In my case the items I’ve ordered never arrived. One was a fake shop advertised on Facebook. I got suspicious after I didn’t get a shipping notice. So I went back to the website to get in touch with the seller only to find out that the website didn’t exist anymore. So I searched for the shop name online and it came up in a list of known fake shops. Following that I got in touch with PayPal through my PayPal account. They got back to me within 3 days and told me they have to get in touch with the seller first to get his side of the story. After he didn’t get in touch with them after 5 days they decided in my favor and transferred my money. I’ve always made good experiences with PayPal. 
 

My recommendation is to always film the delivery and opening of the parcel, that way you can prove it if something is off! 

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by pacovl46

If you made the police report and go to the bank, they'll freeze the account you sent the money to until the seller resolve the issue with you

Just as a follow up, my wife did go and make a police report and had to take the report to the bank. Police said contact them in a week, which she did and they are now saying they are waiting for the bank to send them a report maybe three weeks. I know they froze her account though because the next day she unblocked us and contacted my wife groveling for mercy and asking that we have her account unblocked lol. She promises she will send money back next month lol. Sorry, pity me, I not have choice have sick daughter hospital. I explained to my wife she is sorry she got caught, not sorry she did what she did.  

 

It makes me think she actually does have some funds in the account if she was so worried about having it frozen. The police told us they had contacted her and gave her a week to show up at the station which she hadn't. He said that after the weeks grace she is now on a black list with government departments, can not get a passport, leave the country, do anything at all at a government office (can in fact be detained at a govt office), can not open a bank account etc and it will follow her for ten years. I don't even really care about the money anymore. I only hope she is extremely inconvenienced and living in fear.