Payment methods, from safest to least
No replica dealer can get a normal merchant account, so every payment method you'll be offered is a workaround. Roughly from most recourse to least:
- Credit card through a gateway. Shows on your statement under an unrelated merchant name, usually with a 3 to 6 percent fee on top. You keep chargeback rights. That's also why gateways keep getting shut down and the card option comes and goes.
- PayPal. Rare, and nearly always friends-and-family, which carries no buyer protection. A replica dealer offering PayPal goods-and-services is unusual enough that you should ask why.
- Wise or bank transfer. Traceable, not reversible. Get the beneficiary name in writing first.
- Western Union and MoneyGram. The old-school methods. Gone the moment it's collected.
- Crypto. Preferred by most established dealers, and relied on by most scammers. Final the second it's sent.
Match the method to the dealer. A Tier 1 dealer you reached through a forum link asking for crypto or a wire is ordinary business. Anyone else, insist on something with recourse or don't order.