Protect Yourself From eBay Scam And Fraud

EBay is now being used by many scammers to scam and defraud its users making eBay a less fun place to acquire and sell items. However you mustn’t let these unscrupulous scammers rob you of the fun in bidding and selling items on eBay. All you have to do is to know how to recognize a scam, and how to avoid them.

In the unfortunate event that you find yourself being scammed, there are some actions you can take to correct the situation. Unfortunately in many cases, the scammer does indeed get away! The best option is to avoid being scammed.

Many scams can be avoided through the payment method that’s being used whether you’re the buyer or the seller. eBay owns Paypal, and in most cases, Paypal should be the preferred payment method to use.

As a buyer, if you suspected yourself of being scammed or felt less than satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can dispute the charge easily, and demand a refund. The seller must reply and show proof that the item was shipped, and that it arrived in the condition that you expected, or Paypal will return your funds to your account.

As a seller, you can protect yourself by only accepting Paypal. This will eliminate the chances of receiving a bad check or having the buyer dispute a credit card charge. Instead, they must dispute the charge through paypal, and you of course will be able to prove that you shipped the product. You cannot, however, prove that the product arrived in the condition that was expected. In this case, you should demand that the product be returned to you before the refund is issued.

The bidding scam is another underhanded way used by buyers to secure a lower price for items you want to sell. This type of scam is run either with two separate eBay accounts – with one person in control of both of them, or with two friends having separate eBay accounts. A very small bid is placed on your item, using one account. This is followed by a very high bid, from the other eBay account. Right before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid. This type of bidding can only be avoided by setting a reserve price – the lowest bid that can be placed is the same as the reserve price that you set.

You can further protect your auctions as a seller by placing a notice on your auctions page, declaring that you have the right to back out of a sale if you suspect potential fraud.

Both as a buyer and a seller, you may also be subjected to spoofed emails. These emails claimed to be from eBay and demand that you verify your information, and ask you to log in to your eBay account using the link provided in the email. If you do follow the link, it will bring you to a site that looks similar to eBay. But don’t be fooled. It’s a scam site that aims to get your log in details as well as your credit card details! eBay will never ask you to do this. If you suspect a spoofed email, report it to eBay immediately!

Don’t let scammers ruin your eBay fun! Just use good common sense, and a reasonable amount of caution, and everything should run smoothly. Report suspicious activity to eBay, and if a deal doesn’t feel right, simply back away from it and move on to the next auction.