Please don't take this as presumptuous, but this may be a good time for all of us to remind ourselves how to do business safely on the internet.
Let's begin by reviewing a few facts.
First fact: 95% of the people who offer to do business with you over the internet are trying to steal your money. Does that number seem high? Well, it probably does until you think carefully. Think of all the offers you get from Princess Ubabwe from Nigeria asking you to help her get $10,000,000 into the United States (most of them are probably getting trapped by your spam filter by now). Think of all the "verility enhancement" e-mails you get. Think of all the scams you get every day that you ignore and forget about because you see it so often. And when you think about all of them, it becomes clear that 95% of the people offering to do business with you are, in fact, just trying to steal your money.
Second fact: Many, or even most, of the scammers out there may be too stupid to fool you us smart people on Home Recording.com. (We know from the political posts in the cave that we are, in fact, smarter than most people in America.
) BUT NOT ALL OF THEM ARE STUPID. Don't let your ego get in the way of common sense --- a number of intelligent people on this forum just got scammed by a punk kid whose voice barely changed. Plenty of the thiefs are smart enough to fool you, no matter how smart you are and no matter how much due diligence you have done.
Third fact (this is the most important one): When you run into one of the scammers who is smart enough to fool you, YOU WON'T KNOW IT UNTIL YOUR MONEY IS GONE. Isn't this obvious? It should be, but it's not. That's why those who got scammed here thought they were safe --- they assumed that because they had done their "due diligence" and they were smart people, this kid must be legit. WRONG. If you're smart and you have done your due diligence and still haven't identified a problem, then all it means is that you may be dealing with a scammer who is too smart for you to tell.
Now, armed with these three facts, let's use our common sense. First, from the third fact, we know that every time someone offers to do business with you on the internet, they might be scamming you and you have to take precautions. You have three reasonable options.
Option 1: Go into the transaction accepting the possibility of getting ripped off. Make sure it's not so much money that you can't afford to lose it. Note that this is a perfectly legitimate option --- probably 80% of my transactions are this way. A $1000 Avalon channel probably wouldn't be in this category for me, though, but maybe some of you are much better off than I am.
Option 2: If you can't afford to get ripped off, then take the extra effort that will make it impossible to get ripped off. This could mean meeting the seller in person at a public place to make the exchange. It could mean putting the item in escow. There are many options, but none of them include sending the guy money and hoping he sends the goods as promised. It's more effort and expense, but it's the logical choice if you can't afford to get ripped off for the amount at stake.
Option 3: do without whatever you're trying to buy. It really isn't that hard. Your life wasn't over without it before, and it won't be over without it now.
I know it's always easier to smell a con after the fact. But if you make it standard practice to take these precautions or do without, there will never be an after the fact that involves enough money to worry about.
That still doesn't mean I'll get my money back & I'm not really sure what it means. You might want to check, because it is obviously just a myth that PayPal somehow guarantees you that your money will be refunded, or that it is even a good safety net for the buyer. Like eBay, it is set up to benefit the seller, because they are the ones who pay the fees to PayPal, eBay, etc.
....so I've gone to a cash/debit system to keep my overspending intact. This might actually lead me back to using them again, but I'll definitely pay them off monthly to keep on the track toward my "debt-free life" 
Luckily my Debit Card is a credit card too, so I just have to add it as a credit card. I just beat the system. Aint life grand.
