Uh, I was told that my european credit card would work to buy items on eBay India using Paisapay. So I ordered some beautiful items and tried to pay beeing logged in to "my ebay" Austria (Europe). No Paisapay available. Logging in to eBay India, Paisapay was available, but I then immediately got an e-mail from Paisapay asking me to send them a fax with a copy of my credit card and a signed confirmation "due to the high amount" and to "protect me". After some problems to reach a fax machine on the other end of the line and hoping that the e-mail I got really came from eBay/Paisapay (seems to, as I got an answer from eBay support telling me the same fax number after I sent them a question about this), I sent the requested document, but I have to say it is a very uncomfortable feeling to send credit card data in such an exposed way around the world, putting my whole credit card account much more at risk than a single transaction ever would (what I wrote to the customer support, hoping that somebody will read it and pay attention).
eBay India could be _very attractive_ to foreign buyers if the payment is made easy and secure together. The offers I have seen - especially on the textile sector (that interests me personnaly the most because these are not items you can find everywhere in the world) - give much more choice and variety of quality products than any import market in my country and the prices including shipping costs and custom taxes would be approximately the same than for imported articles of lower quality. Therefore the international selling could work fine for both sides without spoiling the prices for the customers in India and everybody be happy.
But if foreign buyers need to fax personal data on every transaction and be "parented" by Paisapay telling them what is a "high amount", while of course the price for shipping overseas is much higher than for shipping inside India (and has to be to not disturb the pricing balance for the domestic trading), the option of buying on eBay India becomes a too big risk factor, even if the items offered really are very attractive.
It seems that as Paisapay is available to buyers only when logged in on their personal password-protected eBay-account and submitting the credit card data to a secured server, this offers the same security (or even more) than most credit-card-payment systems. The payment-confirmation-email to the eBay-registered e-mail-address of the buyer gives extra security. Furthermore, the transaction shows in "my ebay" in the "items won"-list with modification of the payment icon on the right. If eBay is secure enough to use, than the payment with Paisapay inside eBay is, too. (If somebody would be able to log on to my ebay-account using my password _and_ submit all my credit card data from there, this person would as well be able to fax a a copy of my credit card or falsify my signature)
But this "fax us a ready-to-use copy of your credit card at each transaction" is really a problem, because any hardcopy of creditcard data that is stored somewhere can be stolen or misused by somebody one day (exactly like the original card, but there is only one original card and I know where I keep it and can see anytime that it is still there). Also, ebay-mails with links to click on are not useful, because customers do not know if the link really belongs to ebay or if it is a spoof-mail - most of time, you remember not-to-click-on-links-in-mails, but in a problem situation due to a not confirmed payment and getting a mail about this from the site that should confirm the payment, the click is done much more easily and this is an additional risk, too. It would be _much_ safer to just confirm the payment right away if done under the secure conditions mentionned above. So, if there is still something wrong with it, the customer can react immediately and ask ebay and the credit card company to take the necessary steps without waiting for any complicated "security" procedures and answers.
...and now, I really hope I did not log on to some spoof site or fax my data to a fantasy number trying to pay correctly the items I bought.
