Ebay Fraud

While eBay is certainly a fun place to bid on items and to sell items, you must know how to recognize scams and/or fraud, and how to avoid them. If not, you will quickly join the ranks of those who have lost their money to eBay scams. Of course, if you are scammed, there are some actions you can take the correct the situation – but in many cases, the scammer does indeed get away! While some recourse may be available through eBay's Security and Resolution program, the best option is to avoid being scammed in the first place.

You can easily avoid many online scams, including at sites other than eBay, with the payment method that you use, whether you are a buyer or a seller. eBay owns Paypal, and in most cases, Paypal is the best payment method you can choose.

As a buyer: If you are scammed or less than satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can dispute the charge easily, and demand a refund. The seller must then 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 will have to 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 are within your rights to demand that the product be returned to you before the refund is issued.

A common scam that crooked buyers use is the bidding scam. This type of scam is run either with two separate eBay accounts. One person will be in control of both of them, or in collusion with two friends with 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 Right before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid.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 tactic can be avoided by setting a reserve price. Your reserve price is the lowest bid that can be placed and can be set so as to protect your investment.

On the other hand, if you are an eBay seller, you can further protect your auctions by placing a notice on your auctions page, declaring that you have the right to back out of the sale if you suspect potential fraud.

As both a buyer and a seller, beware of spoofed emails.

These are emails which appear to be from eBay but are actually sent by people who are usually trying to get something out of you. The email may claim that you need to verify your information, and ask you to login to your eBay account, using the link provided. If you follow that link, the site may look exactly like eBay;s, but it is actually a scam to get your eBay login details, as well as your credit card information! eBay will never ask you to do this. If you suspect a spoofed email, report it to eBay immediately! Always work online with the potential of identity theft in mind.