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[ricki]

Is there any kind of protection or international law to help online shoppers avoid being ripped off when they buy from websites that are based overseas? For example, websites based out of India and China? I would like to buy from certain websites based there, but am afraid of being scammed.

[mads]

There is no such thing as international buyer protection, and paypal can only protect you IF there is money in the seller's account. What scammers do is set up a fake website and link a Paypal account to a prepaid credit card. Then they get as many people as possible to send money to them, then after they have a few thousand dollars they close the site and the paypal account. Paypal can't refund you as there is no money in the seller's account

The only protection you have is if you pay with a CREDIT card (not debit) and your card offers purchase protection, which most Visa and Mastercard issuers offer these days.

Also make sure all payments are through a secure HTTPS:// payment page or don't even think about buying from them