I listed two laptops for sale using http://apps.facebook.com/marketplace/ and received a lot of interest almost immediately What was odd was that on two occasions I received messaged in my Facebook Inbox from people who want me to ship the machine to West Africa. Both people were hoping to get it for their "boyfriend". Obviously my sensors picked up on this right away and I wrote it off as a spam scam but what was odd was that in both occasions the users wanted to PayPal me before I shipped the machine. This left me to believe that perhaps by giving someone my PayPal email they can do something shifty. Has anyone every experienced this? Can someone really hack my PayPal if they know my email?
I don't believe they can hack your Paypal with just your email, if they do then a lot of people would already hacked by then. Maybe they want to capture your email, search it on the internet and track where you've come from.
But my email is available openly on my facebook account. Privacy settings are nill. Should I give them the paypal email and see if the money comes in?
There's a time during which someone can file a dispute on Paypal (45 days I think), and another with credit cards which depends on the company (months). You'd have to send the item before that time period. And if the person pays by Paypal with a credit card and issue a chargeback, even after 45 days, you'll lose your funds for Paypal to pay the chargeback (frozen). You'll need solid proofs on your side to dispute this chargeback with the credit card company of the person who made a chargeback. Paypal should be able to help you in this case. Nevertheless, credit card/Paypal transactions are ALWAYS subject to fraud for the seller, same goes for buyer not receiving an item. But it's usually less trouble for the buyer to get his funds back/scam trough their credit card company. Knowing your email won't let them access your Paypal account (well, unless your password is 12345 and they try to use a pass generator...) and receiving the funds is not a proof it's all going well. Transactions on the net are at your risks. For electronics, I'd suggest if you buy online to buy from the big & trustable vendors, and to sell them through local people/classified where you can meet in person and get paid by cash. I've never liked the idea of buying/selling valuable stuff online and through mail packages with strangers.