Anti-scam for Internet sales

Another insight from this year’s National Pawnbrokers Association convention. This one came during the roundtable on Police Confiscations, but the speaker did not identify himself, so I don’t know whose good advice this is.

When selling electronics, like a laptop, over the Internet, he said he puts an identifier somewhere hidden on the item. He uses Whiteout or a scratch tool.

He also photographs — not just writes down — the serial number.

That way, if a “buyer” has a broken laptop, then buys a good one from you, then “returns” the broken one for credit, you are in a strong position to defend yourself when Paypal or eBay starts a dispute.

This won’t protect you from someone sophisticated enough to swap the good memory module in your machine for the bad one in  his, then return a “broken” machine to you, but it will screen out the less akamai scamsters, and that’s most of them.

Good to know.

#mauipawn #mauiretail