I am holding 3 checks from these scams. I just played along to see how far they would go. I was selling a carpet stretcher for $100 and they sent me a bank check for $3,000. They said the extra was for shipping (shipping cost would have been around $75). Of course I was supposed to send the extra of $2,900 back to them by western union so they could pay for the shipping:-) After playing this game 3 times I quit. I figured that with with my email address they might be able to do all kinds of things. Anyway, the advice was right. If they offer to send you more money than you are asking for....it's a scam.

SO sorry to hear your problems....It is heartbreaking to choose something, spend the money on it, expecting it to perform and it doesn't...I had all GE profile appliances, brand new, and they all went south, except the range. Good news is that GE is usually pretty fair about their warranties..at least they were with me! They fixed all of my appliances...so good luck, hope you get another unit!

this is no surprise. they are trying to keep whatever money they can find! thanks for the heads up! Here is a link that might be useful: modern design

This was in the business section of our newspaper today. Pitfalls of PayPal can touch off a reversal of fortune for eBay sellers James Derk-Scripps Howard News Service I have been using PayPal, the online payment system, for more than seven years. In the industry you hear all kinds of horror stories about every Web site, but my personal experience with PayPal has been rather calm. Though I am not a terribly active eBay seller, I do use PayPal to sell signed copies of my new book, so I am using the Web site quite a bit to accept payments and print mailing labels. Recently I did sell a Playstation game console that developed some issues; maily I place it on eBay "as is" for someone to use for parts or to repair. Someone with zero feedback on eBay bought it and promptly paid with PayPal. I gave him good feedback on eBay and shipped the device. I forgot about it for a few weeks until I sold a book and had to go into PayPal's site to print the mailing label. I noted on my list of transactions that my account had been debited and the Playstation buyer now had a "reversal" near his name. Turns out he had received my console and reversed the charge, something I didn't even know was possible. So he had the money and the console and positive feedback on eBay. A pretty good scam, I thought. This will be easy to reverse. So I called PayPal. Representatives told me the issue was my fault because I didn't respond to three e-mails they sent me. I check my inbox and didn't find any e-mails. PayPal then told me to appeal. "I am sure they will rule in your favor," the clerk told me. I appealed and 24 hours later received a form letter stating that the issue was my fault and I was out of both the money and the equipment. This dance of annoyance went on for days and could fill a couple of columns, but I want to share with you what I have ultimately learned. First of all, e-mails from PayPal are among the most "phished" in the world, meaning many "fake" ones come to your mailbox hoping you will log in to fake PayPal sites and give away your info. Windows Mail, the new mail program in Windows Vista, does a great job in filtering out what it thinks are "phishing" e-mailsllltrouble is it also filtered out these real e-mails from PayPal. So I never got mine, as I get hundreds of spam mails a day to that folder. Michael Oldenburg, a PayPal spokesman, told me that the vast majority of users on the site are happy with how PayPal works and many of those are focused on fraud prevention. When disputes are filed, he said, "they are usually worked out amicably during that process." My recommendations are simple: keep very little money in your PayPal account. If your account is hacked or a transaction is reversed, there won't be much money in there. Also keep checking your PayPal account and don't rely on e-mails to notify you of anything. It is up to you if you want to avoid the platform altogether (if you read the complaint site PayPal Sucks you'll never wan to use it again) but it has become ubiquitous on eBay (PayPal is owned by eBay). Just be careful out there.