EBay - Avoiding The Pitfalls

[davenerven]

eBay -
An opportunity for a bargain or to have your money stolen?

Next time you have got some time free, have a look at eBay. Search for high value goods such as laptops or drum kits or fancy plasma screeens. See a good deal? Seller's ratings look great? Well, be careful, especially if the seller quotes his email in the auction and asks you to contact him directly. By all means, make a bid but if the seller suddenly changes his mind about mode of payment and asks to be paid via Western Union or Moneygram, then just report him. No legitimate seller would change their minds and want payment via such services.

To report such a seller, go to the eBay Safety Center (usually it's a link near the bottom of the home page), put in your details and let eBay check out the seller for you. Generally, such eBay scammers tend to come from East European countries, although there are a few in every country now.

So what about the great feedback that the seller has? Well, many scammers have access to phished details of legitimate eBay members and they are just using these details to post the auction. The scammers don't even PAY to list the auction as the hijacked members end up footing the bill. If you are in doubt and a bargain looks too good to be true, then look for the PayPal Protection or Payment Protection badges under the seller's name. If these badges are there, then your purchase is covered up to the value specified in the badges.

So the same rule applies to eBay as for other things in life - if something sounds too good to be true, then it certainly is too good to be true.

Original Article by davenerven Nov 2005