Ebay users’ guide to avoid “Ebay Scams”
All Ebay sellers and buyers need to watch out for all old and new type of scams. Taking your guard down for a little while could result in losts. Here you will find all type of scams for you to watch out for!
First of all, is the one called “Bid Shielding” scam for sellers to watch out for. It is when buyer uses two eBay accounts (own accounts or one is the friend’s). Say your item is up for auction, starting at $10 with no reserve and your item’s worth only $100. The first buyer will start the bidding at $5 and soon after that, another bidder partnered with the first bidder will bid $200 on your item. Since your item is currently at twice what the retail stores are selling, most likely no more bidders will come by. Right before your auction end, the second bidder will retract the bid, leaving only the first bidder with $10, and according to eBay, you must send the item at the end after payment. To prevent from such scam, always have a reserve price and put a warning or disclaimer that you have the right to delist the item at suspicions of bid shielding, and if you have proof, report it to eBay. Reporting and contacting Ebay to get more info about the buyers with a concrete reason could not hurt as well. :p
Secondly is “Check Scam”, also to sellers. Like it is said, it is when a buyer sends you a check as payment for the item won. then you ship the item. But several weeks later, the check is voided, charged back, or bounces, leaving you with no money and item. To prevent from this, ship items only after the payment is cleared, and if neccessary, consult with your bank to get the status and authorization of that check.
Then there is the “Wholesale list Scam” for buyers. It is when it seems like the seller is offering a great discount on an valuable item like a TV, computer or Ipod, and having a BIN of $50 or other unreasonably low price. If you don’t read it carefully, and/or ask seller before buying, you will get tricked buying a LIST, not the ITEM. To prevent this, read carefully, ask questions before buying. Don’t just bid at last minute without knowing what you are paying for!
Lastly is the “eBay Email Scam” directed to both buyers and sellers. This scam is focused to steal your
eBay account info. The scammer will send you an email (payment request, ID verification, question on item, or etc..) that looks like as it is from eBay and directing to you to their own site (which also looks like eBay or its log in area). If you put your info there, the webmaster of the site can get all your info. and NO you will not be logged into eBay. You’ll be just redirected to probably the log in area again with error message. To avoid such scams, check the email header. It should have @ebay.com as sender’s email. Don’t look at subject line or signature area, those areas can be edited. Check for sender’s email, if you can’t see it, try clicking “reply”. Also the links to eBay should start with www.ebay.com. If it doesn’t or have something like looooooooooooooooooooooooong.messaaaaaaaage.ebay.com, most likely it is a scam. If you are not sure, forward that email to ebay and ebay staff will surely answer you ASAP. The same goes for Paypal scams.
I hope you all learn the known scams and I bet these are all mother of all scams. So you should be able to avoid such scams by basing on the ones I just provided.
Have a safe shopping environment!
By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com
