I am selling laptop on FB Marketplace. Someone willing to pay $200 over asking price if i ship to them. They said they will zelle before I ship out. I have no experience in shipping online to randoms. Is this safe? Is there a better method?

Fireman said:

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Likely using someone else's account. When someone else disputes the charge - they will reverse the credit from your account. How did they offer $200 over your asking price?

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This. You will get nothing and lose the laptop

Just like the old joke - Do you want real money or will you take a check?

Ask for his phone number, start a payment to that number and see what pops up. Or tell him to Zelle you $10 as a test.
But he's paying too much, it's a scam.

Zelle specifically tells people to not use it if they don't 100% trust the person receiving the money. It would not be the preferred method of anyone buying. It is a straight up transfer of money not a transaction. Any buyer that would be demanding to use it, without the normal protections of other platforms, is going to be a scammer.

Does Venmo/PayPal offer any additional protection or are they all the same?

reedsterg said:

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Does Venmo/PayPal offer any additional protection or are they all the same?

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Yes it can be handled at as business transaction which helps the buyer. Again, a normal buyer wouldn't want to use Zelle.

Tell them you dropped the laptop and the screen cracked. So you had to spend $150 to fix the screen. Then tell them the price of the laptop went up $150 because it has a new screen.

They'll say, no problem, thanks!

It's a scam.

aggie_wes said:

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I'll say this for everyone.

IF SOMEONE OFFERS TO PAY YOU SIGNIFICANTLY MORE THAN YOU ARE ASKING FOR ANYTHING, ITS A SCAM

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This.

Nobody is going to offer over asking for something that they can get for asking. If they're doing anything to make you think you have to act fast, it's a scam. Time limit (i.e. I need this fast, so if you can do it today, we're good - otherwise, I'll find another one)? Scam. Over asking for no reason? Scam.

If the buyer pays first, with zelle, what's the scam? This isn't a CC than can be disputed.

OP, do you have a PO Box? I never ship things sold on the Internet using my home as the return address.

Aggiemike96 said:

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If the buyer pays first, with zelle, what's the scam? This isn't a CC than can be disputed.

OP, do you have a PO Box? I never ship things sold on the Internet using my home as the return address.

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It isn't their account and their bank reverses it. This isn't a money scam but a scam to get him to send the laptop.

I didn't read the comments but Paypal only.

I've used Venmo for 2 selling transactions. One took me a month to get my money back and the other about 2 weeks. Paypal has the best protections. If you send as friends you have zero protection on Venmo.

Zelle has zero.

This might help:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/credit-card-payment-app-fraud-security-3188221b?st=tpci7grxdkjb8pa&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Happened to my wife. They sent a "payment" which was just a fake "Zelle" email for some large amount of $$, then asked for repayment of the difference.