Re: Apple 2 ebay 3rd party checkout, security risk?

[a2fan@hotmail.com]

On May 14, 3:54 pm, John <zzzj...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Some ebay vendors direct Apple 2 users only to Paypal through 3rd
> party checkouts pages (you go to their sites, fill out a bunch of
> market_junk, and eventually they direct you back to Paypal).

I work with a company that uses such a system. For small operators,
mom and pop hobby sellers... the site tools eBay and PayPal provide
are ok. But if you have any significant volume, they quickly become
inefficient and expensive to use, not to mention overwhelming. All
that leads to slow shipments, bad feedback, no sales.

These checkout systems do things that are beneficial to the seller,
mainly lowering costs on the entry and processing of auction data,
importing the financials into whatever accounting app they use,
automating e-mailed invoices and courtesy confirmations and printing
the shipping labels. It also transfers a lot of the work of entering
the correct shipping info and responsibility for verifying it's
correct to you, the buyer.

I wouldn't worry too much about being scammed or cross-scripted. eBay
is very stringent with 3rd-party developers. When you click the "Pay
Now" button and are redirected to the processing site, it's because
that vendor has ponied up the bucks to be a eBay developer, and it's
eBay redirecting you, not the seller - so eBay knows why they are.
Besides, if you use Firefox or IE 7, you can see if it's a Verisign
certified site.

I'd also point out, if someone is out to scam you ... they are more
likely to pursue an easier method. It's just as easy to get scammed by
a seller you've paid directly via PayPal, or mailed of a payment to.
Case in point - coworker bought a laptop from an eBay power seller
with 98% positive feedback, verified PayPal etc... except my coworker
never got her laptop. The power seller (that had thousands of
feedbacks) had run into trouble, closed shop and ran off with hundreds
of peoples money. It took 8 months of eBay, police investigations etc
before they were caught, and my coworker only got a portion of her
money back that was covered under eBays fraud protection.