When I was selling stuff on eBay,  I had several incidents like this with Continental European buyers.  Continental Europe seems to have a plethora of ripoff artists in its' ranks.    Interestingly, however, I continued to do business with people in Australia and in England with no problems whatsoever.  Is it because they speak English? I dunno, but that's the facts.   I know a goodly number of Germans, having worked for a German company for the last 15 years before my retirement. I did notice that they were often quite dedicated to "black market" deals, which I still take to be an outgrowth of the crushing weight of regulation and taxation in their country, a condition which is endemic throughout Europe in general.

I don´t want to throw fuel on the flames but as I´m one of the "foreigners" and have been reading about how we steal your guns  , I would like to comment. 

European banks use the IBAN payment standards (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
and it is extremly safe to use. Please read DoubleD excellent comment. The other choice is using credit cards, paypals etc.

Duett wrote on Apr 7^th, 2010 at 2:12am:


Guys,

I get pretty thin skinned when I perceive someone is bashing trashing the U.S.  Started two food fights just this week on other boards on just this topic. I also try to not put the shoe on the other foot.  

It's one thing to use caution in any internet transaction, but don't assume all foreign transactions are fraught with fraud, they aren't. We have plenty of fraudster to go around right in the good ole U.S.A. 

There are additional regulations to export the stuff we sell and if you don't know those regulations there is nothing wrong with saying you won't sell outside the U.S.  There is also nothing wrong with putting the breaks on any transaction when you don't understand whats going on, even in the US.  That doesn't mean it's fraud.

In case you guys didn't catch on, Duett is taking exception to us Americans trashing others!!!!  

Duett you have my apologies.

I was hit on by a US version of the "I sent too much money scam. i'd advertised some parts on a forum, like we have here. Got the typical email of "I want to buy."  The part was quasy bought by person in Virginia, but send the goods to Maine and was paid with a certified check drawn on a company check of a sail company in Hawaii. The company was real. My friendly bank manager called the Hawaii bank who verified the authenticity of the account, but there was no where near enough money in the account. A follow up call to the sail company put them in a mild panic. Point is the scammers go to some intricate means of grabbing our money and it can happen from places we trust. The forum involved had installed some additional screening to try and help prevent this, but it got by it anyway.  By the way, I still have the bogus check, but nobody's tried to collect. GEE!

Dick

If a check comes back to your bank, they will charge it back to you regardless of the elapsed time.  The shoe on the other foot, however, is that if you notice a discrepancy in their favor you only have 30 days (IIRC) to dispute it.  A favorite of the international scam set is to send a check or draft that shows as being good, but then as much as 6 weeks or more later turns out bogus, and you are on the hook for it.  The bad news is that there is no statute of limitations for the banks apparently, and you could only hold a deal so long waiting for the check "to clear."  I don't know the answer, but I sure see the problem!

Froggie

Hi Set-Trigger, 
Mr Froggie has explained it in a nut shell.
Because there are only four + million people living in NZ the last time I counted, I put my flat tracker Triumph onto a a web site to sell over sea's for a better price than I could ever get here and had three of these scams tried out on myself. 
I don't know for sure but maybe an electronic bank transfer might be the way to go.
Perhaps somebody more into this financial business than I am might chip in here.
Regards.

I think all of us have great ideas on how not to get scamed, but it still happens. I put in  my sale or auction add that I will accept USPS Money Order only (other money orders may be fakes, been there , done that). As far as certified checks go I have never had a problem. I will also take an occasional personnel check if it is drawn on a well known bank that I have a branch in my town, then I walk into the branch and cash it right then. If you stick to a few basic rules you are usualy pretty safe. Such as no wire transfers that use your actual account numbers, no personnel checks unless you have a branch of that bank handy to allow you to cash it directly to insure that the check is OK,  like B of A, Wells Fargo or other major banks.
And the reason I say USPS Money Order is that some of the others are or could be fraudulent, when I have deposited an off brand money order I have had problems getting them to clear, like two weeks to clear. Do not send anything until cash is in your hand. If you do ship with out waiting for the check of MO to clear you could be out your item and your payment too. 

I do not think this is fraud, but you SHOULD KNOW of it. I've been trying for a week to order some meds from out of country(i won't say where) Had my credit card decilned twice, i finally called the bank(it's really a CREDIT UN ION).tThey said " We need your permission to buy out of country, lots of fraud out thier".I finally got them to UNBLOCK my card for "one" day, so i could finish my order.Has this ever happened to you? If i didn't have SSI direct deposit, i'd move my account, i'm so steamed up.It's my money, i should be able to do what i wanted with it, it was only a $95.95 transaction.