I bought something off ebay and a popup started out with win a free Ipad. They said I won, but wanted a $ 2 shipping fee.
What kind of place would give out free multi hundred dollar items and want $ 2 for shipping ?
Sounded like a big scam of some sort to me, so I clicked off that page.
I bought something on Ebay this morning but spent only $15. No popup.
What troubles me is that you even had to question whether it was a scam or not.
I buy stuff on eBay all the time , never get any popups .
I thought it was a scam when I got to the place where they wanted the $
I have bought many items off ebay and that is the first time I got anything like it. It started off as a survey for Walmart. Then they asked for the $ 2 for mailing. Just thought it was funny and a scam asking for $ 2 on a 'free' device worth a few hundred dollars.
One other thing about ebay, seems that they are charging tax on used items now. I did not think states charged tax on selling used items, but maybe some do and some charge tax on places that make a business of selling used items.
I wonder how exactly this popped up? Given that it started as a Walmart survey would suggest that it may not have anything to do with you Ebay purchase, more likely something that got into your browser via another route.
AFAIK states collect sales tax on everything sold to an end user, whether new or used, at least when it's being done as a business. At least that's how it works here in NJ. Like cars. Take a $75K car, figure out how much the state collects on that each time it changes hands, which could be many times.
Was there any reason for eBay to be presenting a survey for Walmart? Was Walmart involved in your eBay transaction?
If not, that would have been my very first clue that something nefarious was afoot.
No, Walmart was not involved with the ebay transaction. However I did go to Walmart the day before for what ever that is worth ( probably nothing).
While I do a lot of transactions on the computer, I never send my credit card or other info to places that just seem to popup even if it looks like a place I do business with. Gets lots of mail on Yahoo about Amazone having a package for me that I know I did not order. First time or two I closed the mail and went direct to Amazona and did not see anything.
Got a message on Facebook shortly before Christmas from what is a known friend asking me if I had an account with a company and as they did not could I order something for them. Called my friend and he had gotten several calls from his other friends saying the same thing and he surely did not put out anything like that.
I'm not taking the time to do any research into recent changes, but it used to be that websites only added sales tax if the company you were ordering from was a registered business (e.g. had a brick and mortar store, corporate office, etc.) in the state from which the order originated - or maybe it was to where it was being shipped.
I know for sure that the tax on an Amazon order changes based on which state it is being shipped to. (I just tested 5 different states)
If you were buying something from a company with no connection to your state, you might be responsible to a pay a Use Tax when you file. It's sort of an honor system because the taxing authority has no way of knowing if you paid cash for something in e.g. OH and brought it into e.g. NY.
"Use tax applies to purchases made outside the taxing jurisdiction but used within the state. "
Recently, I've been getting texts, supposedly from Verizon, that are obvious scams. They always include a weird link.
One of them said that I had won a "Surprised Gift" - not a "Surprise Gift", a "Surprised Gift".
All I could picture was a gift with big wide eyes saying "Wow!" ;-)
I am in NC and it used to be that if the store did not have a brick and mortar store tax was not charged on 'mail order' items. You were suppose to report it on your state income tax form . A few years back that rule was changed by (I guess) the feds where any business was suppose to charge tax and send it to the state the item was sent to.
Many software classes at community colleges offer free IPads.
I'm in DE where there is no sales tax and we got one of the first Amazon warehouses. Now they are putting up another huge one at our defunct GM plant. Obviously they were concerned about possible taxes coming and going.
As for scams I note the faked emails generally do not give the faked company email address and are usually some unknown gmail address.
Nutin' is free:
"The average cost per credit hour at any 4-year institution is $636. The average cost per credit hour at a public, 4-year institution is $312. For out-of-state students, public universities charge $879 per credit hour. $1,092 is the average cost per credit hour at any private, 4-year institution."
Sure they are free. The cost of them is just added onto the price of the class you take. Probably a way so the student loan pays for them.
There may be an Apple discount too. Everyone plays that game. Back when DEC was king of the hill many Boston area colleges were gifted PDP-11's. Before the free 'Community Edition' of visual Studio, college bookstores had a heavily discounted academic edition. I doubt RPI paid full sticker price for the System 360/30 I cut my teeth on. I forget the details but UM started using Java as a didactic language after some prompting.
There is money to be made grabbing the hearts and minds of fledgling programmers early.
It wasn't exactly that they needed a store in your state to be subject to sales tax, just a presence, which could be headquarters, a warehouse, too. SC changed that a few years ago, ruling that states could require sellers in other states to collect sales tax on purchases going to their state. Following that states that have sales tax passed laws requiring exactly that.
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