Moan about some Ebay sellers...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Bought a couple of things off Ebay recently where the seller wanted a cheque and didn't have his address with Ebay. Fine - apart from being a bore doing the paperwork and slow. But what got me was both of them sent their addresses by e-mail in this format:-

joe bloggs 15 smith street bloggsvillage east bloggsville ab1 cd2

which means I can't just cut and paste onto the envelope.

And would that be bloggsvillage east, or east bloggsville?

And why would someone want a cheque but not give details for an electronic transfer?

[Cicero]

================================== If your cheques are the same as mine then both now have a cheque bearing your Account number, Sort code and your signature. That's quite enough to enable identity theft. Keep an eye on your account.

Cic.

[no$spam!delete&abuse%dave]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

I would never ever post a cheque to (or deliver an item to) an address other than that registered with Ebay - the registered address is the only bit of security you've got

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Unless I'm missing something they always have had this information. And as regards being used for identity theft - last time I phoned my bank they wanted all sorts of personal information before dealing with just a simple query.

[Staffbull]

they have probably been suspended from ebay and are using different details to get around the security system, quite common, and beleive me LOTS get suspended for not much at all, its easy to get someone suspended from ebay if theyre selling the same stuff as you, just knock out the competition. Do a google search on ebay suspension and you'll be amazed at some of the forums and why people have been suspended !!

[Cicero]

================================== How would those two sellers have your banking details before you sent them your cheques?

Cic.

[Stuart B]

Cheques have always had that info on them .

[Stuart B]

Eh !!! ?

[Lurch]

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:54:04 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)" mused:

That annoys me as well, mainly when I'm selling something. I've had a couple of items returned by RM due to there being no such address. I charge for postage again before sending it back out to the correct address, it's not that hard to actually write down your own address using the correct punctuation and grammar.

Some people will have been shafted by PayPal with their random refund policies so avoid any electronic transfers involving eBay\PayPal as you can't actually get them to see sense most of the time.

[Cicero]

=================================== I'm well aware of that fact, but identity theft is a recent phenomenon and and the fastest growing crime in Britain. Sending a cheque bearing those details to a complete stranger on Ebay isn't the safest way to complete a transaction.

Determined criminals can make use of the flimsiest bits of information.

Cic.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:19:44 GMT, Cicero mused:

Lots of things we do every day aren't the safest way of completing transactions.

Determined criminals won't ask you to post your information to them.

[Cicero]

================================== I seem to get rather a lot of requests to update my banking / building society details and I doubt if I'm alone in that respect. I even get very authentic looking requests to update my PayPal details. Criminals are quite capable of using temporary postal addresses for their nefarious purposes.

I'm not suggesting that every Ebay seller is a rogue but after one bad experience I certainly wouldn't use a cheque for payment on Ebay.

Cic.

[The Medway Handyman]

I'd be very careful here. A friend of mine buys lots of stuff from e bay and in her words "the only times I've been shafted is when I've sent cheques".

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've not been shafted in some 500 transactions many of which involved cheques. Both the ones in question have reasonable feedback and length of membership and the amounts involved are small. Nor are the items the sort likely to be used for fraud.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Err, you obviously weren't before it was pointed out. I've had a current account for over 40 years and personalised cheques with those details printed on them for about 30 of those years.

When you send a cheque to near anyone it is handled by a stranger. Unless you happen to know everyone at the DVLC, say - the last place I used to use cheques to pay.

Anyone stupid enough to give them credit etc on the basis of those details deserves to be shafted.

[Bob Martin]

How could a cheque work without account details?

[Mike Clarke]

If they provide the post code you can feed it into and get a short list of addresses. Hopefully one of them will match the badly formatted one, click on it and you'll get it nicely formatted for copy and paste.

[Cicero]

================================== You post your trivial grievances about Ebay to an un-related NG and in the process you reveal your careless attitude towards personal identity theft.

I offered a little bit of friendly and well-intentioned advice to which you took exception for no apparent reason. You also wilfully made an issue of a perfectly commonplace English expression in my post.

You showed the same kind of prickly attitude towards a similar bit of advice from another poster.

Today's news is carrying an item about identity theft using information and signatures provided by the Land Registry. Identity theft is big business and it's people with your complacent attitude who feel the sting.

Cic.

[Tony Bryer]

Yes, but not for long. John Redwood wants to scrap all data protection laws so once it's not illegal it won't be theft.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not a grievance about Ebay but about probably youngsters standards of writing.

On the contrary. You have shown you don't know much about identity theft, or are more likely scaremongering.

Eh? You suggested it was a new thing I should be aware of - having bank sort code and account number on a cheque. I simply pointed out it wasn't.

Prickly? You mean disagreeing with a view?

If you can't send a personal cheque to *anyone* with safety the business world would collapse. I'm all for being careful but there are limits.

BTW it could well be the people I'm complaining about have not given their addresses to Ebay for your sort of fears.