paypal alternatives

I frequently use paypal for my online purchases, mostly due to lack of alternatives. However after so many years using it, I have to say that I am rather disatisfied with their cutomer service (and service's cost as a seller) and cases handling on one or two occasions that I lost money partly due to negligence but mostly due to seller's fault. So I have been looking for an alternative for quite a bit now, hence once wired.com presents 5 alternatives to paypal I grab the oportunity to repost them here.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/12/5-alternatives-to-paypal/all/1

	ING Direct Person2Person, which comes free with a checking account, transfers money from your account to anyone else’s. It sends the recipient an e-mail with a link to a secure page on ING. They’ll then need to enter their bank account number, which can seem a little scary, but remember checks? Whenever you give someone one of those, you’re also giving them your account number. Check out the demo for more info.
	Amazon Payments allows you to attach a bank account to your Amazon Payments login and, like with PayPal, you can send funds to someone at their e-mail address or phone number. The recipient must create an Amazon Payments account. There’s no charge for the service.
	Serve is a new offering from American Express and is very similar to Amazon Payments. Link your bank account to Serve, and easily send and receive money using a web browser or smartphone app. The payments occur instantly, and you can send to someone at their e-mail address.

the small print?

as far as the article goes, they are all US based. Damn!

http://ahappydeal.com/

UPDATE this is not a scam e-shop.

I received my 1.5$ order just fine. Poor product quality, but didnt expect much for 1.5$ with postage...

http://ahappydeal.com/

this website could be a scam or just have a really crappy/dodgy webpage payment style.

I ordered an item costing about 1.5$ and chose to pay with paypal. I was directed to the as far as I can tell legitimate paypal website using https, and logged in. I was asked my shipping details and immediately afterwards, instead of getting to the confirm page on the ahappydeal.com I was redirected to ahappydeal page requesting to log in or register for the transaction. (other websites do not demand registration) Even though I registered, still on both ahappydeal webpage and on paypal's there was no transaction logged. I immediately changed my paypal password and hope for the best.

Then I repeated the purchase, only instead of choosing to pay with paypal, I chose to pay with the checkout process. After filling my address details on their website, only then I was given a choise for postage costs. And afterwards was given another choise of payment, between of which was again paypal.
Once more I chose paypal, and before logging in paypal, I received an email message thanking me for the purchase I made?!?!? Now I am not sure which one they mean. The inittial one, before changing my paypal password, or the second. And if it was for the second, assuming that the fisrt one was somehow discarted, how did they took money from my account before I log in paypal for the second time and with my new code?

The whole setup although I have to give some reasonable doubts seems very very very dodgy. I would stay away, especially after considering complaints easily found online about the product and service quality but also the frequent name changes of this particular eshop.

UPDATE, actually the status on their website was marked "awaiting payment" and after I logged in paypal with my new password this time, and paid, they changed the status to paid. SOOOOOO, I will update once the item is recieved or not.

Skype scams

Is there anything more natural than people on skype asking financial help coming from your heart?

this one claimed to be a Lybian refugee residing in Ghana, hosted by someone who did not really like him. He claimed ot have no money and stay at home all the time, and claimed he needed money to start working as a nurse. Now I dont know why would someone need money to start work, but lets say I believe it. In my repeated questions on "what do you plan to do in order get money to start work" he kept saying that he has no choice. After pressing a bit more, said that I could offer him money (through western union) from my heart and then only would accept it.
Total bull



NAME:ALIMATU ALI
COUNTRY:GHANA
CITY:OFFINSO
ZIP CODE:00233
BANK:WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER

skype western union scammer

Κινητή απάτη 2.000.000 ευρώ (ENET)

Η Ελευθεροτυπία, δημοσιεύει ένα άρθρο σχετικά με μηνύματα απατεώνων σε κινητά. Το στυλ είναι το κλασσικό της Νιγηριανής απάτης, και το μόνο που αλλάζει είναι το μέσο διάδοσης...


Αν πάρετε αυτό το μήνυμα στο κινητό σας: «YOUR MOBILE NUMBER HAS WON 2,000,000.00 POUNDS IN THE BLACKBERRY UK MOBILE PROMO, FOR CLAIMS SEND EMAIL YOUR NAME, MOBILE NO & COUNTRY TO blackberryyou@europe.com», μην το λάβετε υπόψη σας και μην το απαντήσετε.
Πρόκειται για μήνυμα με παραπλανητικό περιεχόμενο, το οποίο -σύμφωνα με την Αστυνομία- το τελευταίο χρονικό διάστημα
αρκετοί πολίτες λαμβάνουν στα κινητά τους τηλέφωνα. Η ΕΛ.ΑΣ. με ανακοίνωσή της εφιστά την προσοχή όλων και επισημαίνει ότι σκοπός των αποστολέων των συγκεκριμένων μηνυμάτων είναι η συλλογή προσωπικών δεδομένων των παραληπτών και η εξαπάτηση τους.

Τα παραπλανητικά μηνύματα μηνύματα είναι γραμμένα στα αγγλικά και έχουν ως αποστολέα αριθμό κινητού τηλεφώνου από το εξωτερικό. Σύμφωνα με την Αστυνομία, αποτελούν παραλλαγή - εξέλιξη των νιγηριανών απατών, αφού αποστέλλονται μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου και όχι μέσω ηλεκτρονικού ταχυδρομείου ή αλληλογραφίας, όπως συνέβαινε παλιότερα, και πληροφορούν τον κάτοχο του κινητού τηλεφώνου πως έχει δήθεν κερδίσει 2 εκατομμύρια ευρώ.

Οι παραλήπτες των μηνυμάτων καλούνται από τις αρχές -αν το επιθυμούν- να ενημερώνουν τη Δίωξη Ηλεκτρονικού Εγκλήματος.

http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.ellada&id=329332

ΑΠΑΤΗ το δήθεν email από WinBank

winbank
win1@winbank.gr


Αγαπητοί πελατών της Τράπεζας Πειραιώς,

Είμαστε εκτελεί μια πλήρη καθαρισμό βάση δεδομένων των πελατών και ζητάμε από όλους τους πελάτες μας να συνδέεστε και να επιβεβαιώνουν τη δραστηριότητα του λογαριασμού τους. Όλοι οι λογαριασμοί που παραμένουν μη-προσβάσιμες μέχρι τις 20 Νοεμβρίου 2011 θα είναι κλειστό.

https://www.winbank.gr/EL/Pages/default.aspx
©2011 Τράπεζας Πειραιώς

Το παραπάνω λίνκ, ανοίγει την παρακάτω ιστοσελίδα
http://linova.ru/images/razdel/index.php?/ecpage.aspwin?nt=20&id=461630&vedem=3
ρώσοι λοιπόν οι θύτες, ανίδεοι έλληνες τα πιθανά θύματα

Τα Νεα, δημοσιεύουν ένα άρθρο σχετικά με τις απάτες που κυκλοφορούν τελευταία στο Ιντερνετ.

Απατεωνιές με «κουρέματα»

ΚΕΙΜΕΝΑ-ΕΠΙΜΕΛΕΙΑ: ΜΑΡΙΑ ΜΥΣΤΑΚΙΔΟΥ * Για σχόλια, παρατηρήσεις, επισημάνσεις ή απλά για ένα «γεια»: mystamar@enet.gr

Τον τελευταίο καιρό, οι κυβερνοαπατεώνες, εμπνευσμένοι από την παγκόσμια οικονομική κρίση που πλήττει την πλειονότητα των νοικοκυριών, έχουν σκαρφιστεί νέες ιδέες για να «αρπάζουν» από ανυποψίαστους χρήστες του Ιστού χρήματα και ευαίσθητα προσωπικά δεδομένα.

Scam Watch update: the fraudsters you should be aware of

From Yahoo Finance, the following article about scams:

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/Scam-Watch-update-fraudsters-yahoofinanceuk-771836878.html

Although we might pride ourselves on our ability to smell a rat a mile off, swindlers aren't stupid; they make their operations look as plausible as possible so we need to be on our guard.

THE AVIS SCAM

"A company in Seattle rang me around six times trying to persuade me that I had 10 times as many shares in Avis Europe than I actually have. It also said it had a buyer for these shares at 10 times their value. In order to move forward I would have to sign a confidentiality agreement and send it some money. This is clearly proof that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is."

Guest - September 2011

PAYPAL SCAM

"Recently I received a message from PayPal about a transaction but I have never had an account with the company. When I queried it I was informed it was a type of phishing scam. Paypal says it will always address you by name when emailing you so if you ever get an email from Paypal addressing you as 'Dear Member' it is a scam."

Guest - September 2011

MILLIONAIRE FUND SCAM

"Today I received an email from someone supposedly representing Arab millionaires who have had their funds frozen after the 9/11 attack. The email says these millionaires have been investigated by the FBI and found to be clean but now the funds, for some reason, can't be returned to their rightful owners. It then says these funds are available to be claimed by first sending over card details. This is clearly a scam."

Guest - September 2011

WEIGHT TRAINING SCAM

"Having decided to up my weight training I searched the internet for items to help me out. I found a suitable website and then sent off several emails regarding price and asking how long an order would take. A man contacted me and was very efficient so I had no reason to suspect anything. He requested I deposit the payment of £50 into his bank account and sent me the sort code and account number. I was informed my order would take around a week to arrive but after this period had passed I emailed him to ask about my order. I had no further replies from him after this and have lost out on this money."

John Boyd - September 2011

The HMRC SCAM

"A member of staff has just alerted me to the fact that they have recently received a scam email which purports to be from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and appears to be advising them that they are due a tax refund. It offers a link for them to follow where it is likely that they would be asked to confirm their bank details. This is a scam."

June 2011

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE SCAM

"I received a phone call from a lady claming to be from the Ministry of Justice last week. She had a strange accent and although she gave me a number to call back on, this was different to the number she had called me on. I bank with Santander and the lady calling enquired about a payment to my bank account. I've now received another call from the same company and have tried reporting them to Consumer Watch and the Ombudsman but as no fraud as yet been committed neither will help me."

June 2011

The EHIC SCAM

"With the holiday season upon us, people need to watch out for scam websites charging a £10 renewal fee for the EHIC card. Renewal through the NHS website is free, so beware of the top picks on a google search for 'EHIC renewal'."

May 2011

CAMPHIRENOW SCAM

"I was contacted by a company called 'Camphire Now' [supposedly a recruitment firm] and a lady by the name of Julia Marks sent me an e-mail asking me to enter a code and fill out an application pending an interview in London in a few days.

"When I got to the IQ Test section of the website I discovered in order to carry on I would be charged £4.50 per month thereafter. I have e-mailed Julia twice now asking for information on the company as I cannot find it anywhere on the website. The links on the website provide no information at all. It's a scam. I have reported it to the OFT and trust you will warn others."