Fake Paypal Scam

They can try to take my cash and see what happens... I've been on the bad business end of a knife or gun a few times before. Not saying I'm invincible, but let's just say it didn't turn out well for the perps. I have zero issues walking through the rough parts of town. I also have a respectful relationship with law enforcement. Cash is still king. Gold it even better, but you can't use it for groceries. Lol

Canada and other countries may have some benefits if they're a socialist place, but I'd rather live where I can still can readily defend myself and drive a high HP vehicle without paying a fortune in taxes. I can also pick the Dr I want to see and not wait years if i need a critical medical procedure done. That's about the only few things that make this country a somewhat decent place to live.
 
ebay often annoys me - global shipping policy? - but they've had my back on 2 occasions, both with Nikon film scanners. On the first case the scanner arrived in pieces. The result? Full refund, and keep the pieces. The second time the scanner arrived but didn't work. The seller claimed I was only trying for a partial refund. I said I wished to return it, which would have been at his expense. He refused and ebay refunded me, and said keep the scanner.
(Yes, I know digital has mostly replaced film, and I do own a couple of very fine DSLRs. But I also own several good film cameras, and have negatives I've shot. If you want to move a negative into the digital world for editing, a Nikon scanner is the way to do it.)
 
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You have to be careful using checks because your bank account info ie routing and account number is all there for someone to use. Online auto pay is safer, easier and efficient. Just make sure you check your CC statement regularly and deal with a reputable CC company owned through a major banking institution. They will usually report suspicious activity almost immediately and stop the charge.
What I meant is that checks disappeared here in my part of Europe around 15+ years ago. I'm early forties and I can remember getting checks from my paper-round in the late 1990s and checks for tax refunds (and occasionally from my parents) until maybe 18-20 years ago. However, if you are under 35 here I don't think you'll have ever received a check yourself, and if you are under 30 I'm not even sure you'd really know what a check is and how it works.
 
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What I meant is that checks disappeared here in my part of Europe around 15+ years ago. I'm early forties and I can remember getting checks from my paper-round in the late 1990s and checks for tax refunds (and occasionally from my parents) until maybe 18-20 years ago. However, if you are under 35 here I don't think you'll have ever received a check yourself, and if you are under 30 I'm not even sure you'd really know what a check is and how it works.
I had no idea anyone outside of the USA refered to them as "checks" 🙂
The only place I see cheques in a normal occurance is either payroll from a small company, rebates, and social assistance but even that had been transitioning to a payment card.
My father gets a cheque for two odd dollars every month for a stock maturity... It costs more to print, mail, and negotiate the cheque than it's worth by a margin!
A cheque can be handy if you run out of cash. Make out a cheque to cash, deposit it, withdraw cash, and deposit cash the next day before the cheque clears - free one day loan. If you don't time it right, they will call it "kiting funds" and call you in for a meeting.
They say "it's like paying one credit card off with another card" I said they don't mind at all if you do a cash transfer and pay the extra 3% in interest though... (this was 20 years ago when I was young and inexperienced) Money talks apparently.
 
I started buying and selling on eBay before PayPal existed. Back in those dark ages we sent a check or money order to pay for the goods. The money order was faster, as normally the seller would wait for the check to clear before shipping.
The very first thing I sold on eBay, my bank lost the check! 😡 The buyer was kind enough to send another check, minus the $20 cancellation fee.
The bad old days.
 
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These scams have been around for a very long time.
I remember the Nigerian scam show up in the regular mail many times at my job back in the late 80's. Same story with the lure of getting big $ by helping some guy get his dead uncles secret stash of millions out of the country. The internet just makes it easier now.
Back then I was living in New York City which had many bait-and-switch scammers on the busy streets selling electronics, etc.
A co-worker got a "New $1000 Sony VCR - sealed in box" for only $200, and then only found a plastic bag full of wet newspaper in the "sealed box".
 
I started buying and selling on eBay before PayPal existed.
I started buying and selling in the Usenet newsgroups before Ebay existed.
Same style, send the money order and wait. Made dozens of transactions without a problem. Everything took 2-3 weeks to complete.
Then joined Ebay a few months after it started. To this day I've never had a problem there either.
 
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I started buying and selling on eBay before PayPal existed. Back in those dark ages we sent a check or money order to pay for the goods. The money order was faster, as normally the seller would wait for the check to clear before shipping.
The very first thing I sold on eBay, my bank lost the check! 😡 The buyer was kind enough to send another check, minus the $20 cancellation fee.
The bad old days.
My God, I had almost forgotten that. I once bought a pair of German licence plates from a guy in Germany. I sent the payment as a 20 US dollar bill in an antistatic bag and envelope through the mail and received the plates about a month later!
I think it was around 20 years ago. Online payments weren't a thing yet - especially for a 20 something with no credit card.
 
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I didn’t buy much on Usenet. Maybe I wasn’t much of a shopper back then. But I do remember my first on purchase on Usenet - a faster modem! 🙂 Likely a post office money order and several weeks for delivery.

Tell that to kids today, they won’t believe you.
 
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Paypal is great until you realize that depending on what it is, it's cheaper to buy crypto and use that.
I bought something recently and did the math. The seller offered several payment methods. It cost 9$ is I paid with crypto, but it would cost almost 16$ if I used Paypal so I paid with Ethereum instead. It was the first time I used crypto.
Market volatility isn't an issue when you buy the crypto you need as you need it, either 😛
Bonus: I didn't pay fees to convert CAD into USD, either.
No taxes on those non-existent fees is also a plus lol
 
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In the late 90's my daughter and her friends would gather around the IBM PC and use AOL instant messenger. My daughter would even use two or three different screen names at the same time.

I worked at Motorola in the early days of the Gen 1 digital cell phone morphed into Gen 2 and Gen 2.5 I made a suggestion to some upper management that we (Motorola) should put the AOL IM into a phone. The few who even knew what IM was laughed and said that it was just a stupid kid's toy, and a passing fad. Today we call that texting.
 
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Since you worked there, I guess you're a good person to ask...
My first cell phone was a Mot i600. Which gen would that have been and what ever happened to the iDEN stuff? That TDMA shi..stuff was interesting... Being to be able to know when you were gonna get a call from the interference on the TV or the radio.
Also, recently, I found out mot.com doesn't redirect anymore.
 
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