Advice With Buying Something Please.

[BartonBKing]

On a Facebook group page a chap was offering a complete exhaust for my bike for £500. I agreed to this but I’m concerned about it being a scam. I’ve seen pictures of the exhaust and fixtures but that doesn’t mean anything. This bloke lives in Londonderry, so there’s no chance of going to see it. I asked his preferred method of payment and he said direct bank transfer or PayPal. With PayPal he advised to send with the friends or family so he doesn’t pay any fees or to workout the extra fees for the business or services option. Any advice as to this as I don’t want to get scammed without having any buyer protection.

[weeksy]

Tell him you'll pay the fees, it'll be about £10.

Tell him it's so you can claim it back etc. then see his reaction from there

[Yorick]

Ask him to take a photo including something you suggest. To confirm the item exists.

[KungFooBob]

Ask him to take a photo including something you suggest. To confirm the item exists.

Yeah, a bit of paper with his name and date on it.

It's compulsory on some of the FB groups I'm on because scammers are so rife.

[Buckaroo]

Sounds potentially dodgy. Ways to get money with little security. As Weeksy says, £10 fee to see his response and definitely a picture with some date/time stamp. Newspaper or similar.

[BartonBKing]

Thanks for the replies. Will try all suggestions.

[KungFooBob]

Beware if he sends you screen shot of booking the parcel on line, I got done by that one once.

Google image search is your friend too, search for the pics and see if they've been used before.

[Mr. Dazzle]

CBA with all this shit TBH, just don't buy stuff on eBay unless its a low enough value to not care IMO. Choose for yourself what that value is

[Yorick]

It might sound obvious, but check his rating?

[Skub]

If you do the friends and family thing,you have no comeback,so as weeksy said,just pay the fees and keep yourself right.

[BartonBKing]

All sorted. It wasn't through Ebay. He was a nice bloke and fully understood that I needed proof. He video called me through
whatsapp and showed me the exhaust and I've got his name, address and he'll show me a picture once it's packed up. I paid the fees for Paypal so at least I've got some comeback if it vanishes. Reverse image results showed no other on the internet and corresponded with the same date as the advert was placed. So I'll see how it goes.... Thanks all.