Unfortunately, many have fallen for these schemes and lost large sums of money.  Here is an example of a scammer email.  Actually, this is one that my husband received this week.

Hello
I am  interested in immediate purchase of your ITEM .After several consideration over the advert placed on the website, my client has really shown interest in it and would really want to buy the item. I will however like to see the  pictures; showing the parts, full body and most importantly the condition  before finalizing the buying process. I wont be chanced to come down to inspect the ITEM  so kindly provide me with necessary details regarding the said ITEM. I will as well appreciate if you can reduce the price cos I’m highly interested in buying it

Hoping to hear from you
Thanks.

You may notice that Mian Dans didn’t even bother to change the item information in his scammer letter template. 

Have you ever received emails such as this one?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

After several emails, the buyer finally agreed to come and look at the bike.  In a “nice way” he said that he would drive 2 1/2 hours to look at the bike, but if anything was different than described, my husband should be prepared to pay him for his time and that he would receive negative feedback and be reported to ebay for fradulent selling. 

Are you kidding me?  This guy didn’t want to buy the motorcycle, so he was going to do anything in his power not to purchase it.  This is the part that ticks me off – Sellers cannot leave buyers negative feedback!!!!!

Buyers, you can no longer receive negative or neutral Feedback from sellers.
You should leave honest and accurate Feedback without the fear of receiving negative or neutral ratings.
Sellers can no longer leave negative or neutral Feedback for buyers.
Buyers should leave honest Feedback without the fear of receiving negative or neutral ratings.

This is insane!!!  How is this feedback system supposed to work, if they won’t allow you to use it? 

The buyer is even trying to bargain with my husband.  He said if my husband would leave him positive feedback, then he would pay him the ebay listing fees.

My husband has contacted ebay and is trying to get this resolved, but it doesn’t look good.  This makes me so mad!  Have you had problems like this with ebay?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

You just go to Free Shipping On and use the tabs to find which items are available from Amazon or ebay with free shipping.  Another tab takes you to a page that offers free shipping coupons for over 500 stores!  The coupons are even organized by category.

What a time and money saver!

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

I am leary of anything asking me to log-in through a link in an email or anything asking me about my credit card.  Fortunately, I forwarded this email to spoof@paypal.com and they quickly confirmed it was a scam. 

If you are unsure if an email is fake, then call or email the company directly.  Do not click on any links in the email.  You can also check email verification sites such as Truth or Fiction or Hoax Slayer.

Have you received any fradulent emails?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Craigslist has become a very popular classified website.  Several years ago Ebay bought 25% of Craigslist.  For a while, they didn’t do anything with it and just let it sit there as an investment.  But now, Ebay is going into competition with a company they partially own by launching Kijiji.com.

Now we have two free online sources for selling things.  Looks like the two companies will be competiting for our business, which is good for us. 

I confess . . . I have a huge pile of boxes in my house with yard sale stuff in them.  I need to get busy and list this stuff on one of these sites so that I can make some money. 

Source:  Clark Howard

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

When you are looking for a particular item – cell phone, vacuum cleaner, dehumidifier, r/c car, book, digital camera - try ebay.  These things I have listed are all things that my husband and I have purchased from ebay at a fraction of the price.

If you’ll recall, I told you about the great deal I got on my Eureka vacuum cleaner and dehumidifier.  A few weeks ago, my husband purchased another digital camera from ebay and last week he bought me a new razor cell phone (mine locked up). 

Of course, I wouldn’t recommend buying everything from ebay, but there really are some great deals out there that can save you lots of money.  Just be sure to read the complete auction terms and conditions before bidding, know the amount of shipping, and check out the seller’s feedback.  This can save you a lot of hassle.

So, have you found any thrifty deals on ebay?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

I stopped at another sale and got my daughter some clothes for 25 cents each, which was a great deal.  They certainly weren’t ragged or worn out and will be great for preschool or an extra set for the car.

I also picked up some bracelets for 10 cents each.  My DD will be thrilled.  And I bought some Avent bottles for 25 cents each.  What a steal!  I’ll probably give those to a friend.  I couldn’t pass up that deal.

So, I want to ask you . . . how thrifty are you?  Check out the poll to the right and please vote.  Thanks!

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Someone is offering to pay your child’s first year of tuition, room, and board at Oklahoma Wesleyan University on ebay.  Note this is a Christian university in Bartlesville, OK.  Turns out, you can bid for the right to have your child go there for the winning bid amount.  Tuition for the university is over $23,000 for one year and the bid is only at $16,200 right now.  It’s worth a shot.  The bid made the Fox news channel this morning and I thought I would let you know about it.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

After my response, my husband began to do something that he does very well.  He began to research the many different brands and products that are available.  He did some research online and decided that we needed to buy a Eureka Boss Smart Vac.  He went to the Consumer Reports website and found out that they had very good things to say about the Eureka Boss and that it was an inexpensive vacuum cleaner. 

Consumer Reports tested 59 vacuums and rated the Kenmore Progressive 35922 ($300), Eureka Boss ($150), and Kenmore Progressive 25512 ($300) as Best Buys.  The Eureka Boss also ranked #4 among all the vacuums.

Once my hubby decided which vacuum we would purchase, he also searched for the best deal.  He found the best deal on e-bay through ABC Vacuum Warehouse.  Including shipping we only paid $103.68 for our vacuum!  We also got 9 extra bags with the deal.

We’ve only had our new vacuum cleaner for about a month now, but it is definitely the best vacuum cleaner we have ever owned.  I used to think we needed new carpet.  Now I realize we just needed a new vacuum cleaner.  My carpet has never looked better.  Best of all, my husband now likes to vacuum.  He has probably vacuumed more this past month than I have.  That’s enough to make a girl happy.   

The Eureka also has a hose (and attachments) with great suction power and it does floors.  This weekend I put the brush attachment on and started dusting just about everything in my house with it.  I was amazed at the super job it did dusting my tv.

The Eureka Boss Smart Vac Ultra 4870 is definitely a thrifty buy. Now, if only I were a celebrity.  I could get some major kick-backs for saying all these things! 

Photo from Eureka.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy