|
All simply about eBay26 Tips on How to be Safe in Your eBay Commercialism and Buying
by:
Brian McGregor
The irony of eBay is that as it grows to be ever much successful, it draws the unsavoury element of the net
towards it. I'm talking simply about folk who do it their business to attempt to cheat you and I in our eBay and PayPal transactions.
Of course, not all dodgy dealings on eBay are fraudulent. Several are simply mischievous. Others are by chancers, who mayhap reckon their victims won't be fazed
to pursue them.
Whoever causes it, it's left to the targeted customer or merchant to try and sort out the problem. All that we as users can do is to be extremely open-eyed and cautious in all our eBay and PayPal activities.
Here is a list of practical steps, in no particular order, which buyers and sellers can take to help avoid becoming the next victim.
Hopefully you are already aware of several of these. It doesn't necessarily follow that if one of these applies the auction or person is fraudulent. But if you use your head, and build up a view of the overall group action
based based upon a number of these factors, you will reduce your chances of effort conned.
a) Stock photos and descriptions
Because they don't have the item they are "selling", several fraudsters use a stock photograph of the item. And they will probably use the manufacturer's product description too. So, stock photos and no innovational description strength
be a sign. Search for else auctions by the same seller, and see if they are brazen enough to advertise the same item much than once.
b) A cost too nice to be true often isn't true
A fraudster wants your money quickly, so you may find they offer to close their auction early with you as the "winner" having bid a cost which you cognize to be somewhat of a bargain. Why would-be anyone close their auction early if the cost hadn't reached market levels? I'll give you one guess.
c) High value or high volume, freshly registered sellers
Although the immense majority of new sellers are genuine and honest, be cautious of purchasing from folk commercialism high value items in bulk, really early on in their eBay career. This pattern isn't quite normal. Think back to your own 1st sales. You would-be have been tentative, and probably have tried single, low value items initially. So, a new merchant fitting this profile may be causal agency who has mayhap been antecedently
suspended and has registered another ID.
d) 1 day listings
Although 1 day listing are used by genuine sellers who have much than one item or who want a quick sale, regrettably
this duration is attractive to fraudsters too. They sometimes use a 1 day auction duration to gain a quick sale before their actions can be rumored
and acted upon. So, be extra wary on auctions with 1 day listing.
e) Invitations to trade off-eBay
This is a classic ploy of fraudsters. Having ready-made several kind of contact with you, or you with them, they will invite you to purchase or to sell off eBay i.e. without victimisation eBay's auction services. The attraction here to the fraudster is that they can driving the group action
on
the lines they prefer, whether that be escrow, PayPal etc. Another reason why mercantilism
off eBay is not a nice idea is that you have to keep your own formal records of the transaction, and you forfeit any cover from eBay customer protection and PayPal customer protection. Plus, and this strength
be a minor point, but you will not be able to leave feedback to let others cognize your experience with this seller/buyer.
f) Payment methods with no recourse
Fraudsters prefer to chose payment methods in which the customer has no protection, like wire transfers wherever
the customer has no way of tracing wherever
the money is going. Western Union Money Transfers and BidPay are favourites and should be altogether avoided. Communication orders are similar though they are a popular payment know-how
among the genuine sellers as they require no clearance time. Bank transfers and cheques can only provide the possibility of your bank investigation the details of the account the money was transferred into. For the better protection use Paypal and fund with a Credit Card. Note there are limits on eBay and PayPal protection, and you should do yourself aware of what these are.
g) Unusual sales pattern
If your seller's feedback indicates that they ordinarily deal in collectables, DVDs or else specific items, be suspicious that they are suddenly listing laptops, plasma TVs or else high value items. The change may indicate that this seller's account has been hijacked.
h) Bad english gives you a pointer
Some fraudsters operate from abroad but pretend to be in UK or USA. As they aren't particularly adept at the english language they strength
use a translation tool like Babelfish to create their emails to you. So, watch out for emails that are not nice english. In itself, it doesn't prove anything, there are plenty of genuine eBay sellers for whom english is not their 1st language. But it strength
add to further evidence you have.
i) Location Location Location
In the case of lazy fraudsters you strength
find their locations don't match up. By that I mean the auction says the goods are in the UK, but the seller's ID details show their location to be, say, Ukraine. This is not a nice sign. Often in these cases if you contact these sellers you will obtain an excuse as to why the item is not in the UK, and therefore can't be collected in person. In short, if an auction says the item is in the UK and the merchant says that it is not, I would-be avoid the auction. And don't forget to cross check with their PayPal account, and see in which country this resides.
j) Ask questions
Always, always ask your merchant a question. Any question. Their response, if you obtain one, will help you judge how genuine the merchant is. Watch auctions that carry a message asking you to contact the merchant via a given email address as opposed to via the 'Ask merchant a question' link. This could be an account hijacker trying to prevent buyers from 'Asking the merchant a question'. They want to finish this from happening because such questions could be routed to the real account owner.
k) "eBay can vouch for me" email
A warning simply about a comparatively
new manoeuvre used by fraudsters. If you are proving hard to land as a buyer/seller, they may claim they can get eBay to email you proof of their validity so that you can trust them. eBay, of course, will Ne'er
do this. The email sent out, however authentic looking, is fake and is designed to get you to part with your money or your goods. This applies equally to Square Trade and PayPal. They will ne'er
email you certifying the genuineness of anyone.
l)A PayPal warning
There are fraudsters who use purloined PayPal accounts to accept payments. To lower the possibility of this, check your seller's location as shown in eBay, and then see if it is one of PayPal's allowable countries by clicking here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlr701.htm. If PayPal don't offer their service in the country that the merchant resides, be really wary.
m) Passwords
Never have the same countersign on your eBay and PayPal accounts. Or so
on any else business enterprise or personal site. Change your passwords every 30-60 days on several eBay and PayPal.
n) Written agreement
If your merchant asks you to use escrow, and proposes an written agreement
institution they've used before, this is a clean indication they are fraudulent. There are many an fake written agreement
sites which will take your money fraudulently. The only written agreement
site suggested by eBay is http://www.escrow.com. An alternative in the UK is http://www.auctionpix.co.uk Please don't be tempted to use any else written agreement
company, however professional looking their websites strength
be. It is a fact that 99% of written agreement
companies on the net
are fraudulent. They are set up exclusively to cheat money out of unsuspecting buyers, and to get goods without paying for them from unsuspecting sellers.
o) Pointers in feedback
Try to see the positive feedback as well as the negative. See the way your merchant responds to negative feedback as this will often give you an idea of how the merchant will react if thing
goes badly wrong. If the merchant is offering high value goods, be wary if their feedback has been built up quickly from low value purchases. Also, if the overall rank is good, but there are a disproportionate number of negatives in recent days/weeks, this strength
indicate the account has been taken over. Finally, be aware that feedback is not the guarantee it once was. Feedback can easily be manufactured. Also, if the user ID has been hijacked, you'll be reading the feedback of the innovational account owner, not the person with whom you're presently
dealing!
p) Credit Card payment
For high value items, or for amounts of money you can't afford to lose, do sure you pay by credit card which has online fraud protection. This will give you several recourse if the merchant is fraudulent. In this context, paying via PayPal is not the same. PayPal do have a customer protection scheme, but there are criteria which the eBay auction has to satisfy in order to qualify. Even as if the group action
qualifies, PayPal's standard protection presently
has a maximum value of $1,000. Note that payment by debit card provides zero protection.
q) Address and Telephone check
Use the Ask the merchant a question link, and request they email you with their address and telephone number. Any good merchant will give you their address and telephone number. Once
you get the number, call it, and see if you get through to the genuine seller.
r) Keystroke capturing virus
This is a computer virus which you unwittingly transfer
onto your PC. It's task is to capture the keystrokes you make, and to send them to the virus placer. The fraudster then uses pattern recognition computer code to identify and extract personal information, like username, password, credit card amount etc. To avoid this happening to you, it is wise to have good, up-to-date virus, firewall and spyware checking computer code on your PC. Here is wherever
you can get free computer code for each of these functions:
Virus protection - http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/
Firewall - http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/comparison.jsp?lid=ho_za
Spyware checking - http://www.lavasoft.com/support/download/
s) Shill bidding
Shill bidding is wherever
folk activity in connivance to inflate the bidding on an item. A merchant has a "partner" who does bids on the seller's items with a view to bumping up the bid price. They have no purpose of purchasing the item. Fortunately, shill bidders and their associated merchant can be stupid. The shill bidder will ordinarily does bids on else items from the same seller. Here's how to check to see if shill bidding is a feature of a particular seller. First, look at the seller's closed auctions over the last 30 days. If most of the closed auctions have no bids, it is unlikely the merchant has shill bidders working with them. If all of the closed auctions have bids, take a look at the bid history. See if the same bidder appears in the list of bidders, ordinarily with aggressive bidding and ordinarily at the start of the auction. If so, you may have uncovered a shill operation, so avoid that seller's auctions.
t) Support your group action
information
Keep your own record of the group action
once
you're buying. Don't simply believe on eBay. You want a record of the seller's identification, the item description, emails sent and received, plus the time, date and cost of your bid.
u) "I detected
your bid...."
Never deal with anyone who contacts you after seeing your bid on another auction. They will say thing
like, "I saw you bidding on that digital camera. I have the same model accessible for sale. I don't have time to list it on eBay. It has much accessories than the one you lost out on. You can have it for xyz." If you bite, they'll probably take you down the fake written agreement
route. Also, if you entertain this proposition, you're operative
outside of eBay and therefore have no auction protection whatsoever.
v) Changed eBay ID
Never deal with anyone who has a changed ID icon next to their name. This icon menas they've changed their ID in the last 30 days. Few legitimate folk change their eBay ID. Once
was the last time you changed yours? There's a 1% chance that an ID change is genuine, but 99% that it is fraudulent. Why take the risk?
w) Changed email address mid-stream
If a merchant or customer changes their email address on you in the middle of a transaction, finish dealing with them. It is likely their previous email account was closed down due to several irregularity - such as a previous victim rumored
them. If you think simply about it, why would-be any genuine customer or merchant change their email address whilst corresponding on a group action
they will to conclude expeditiously?
x) Complications
Never get involved in any group action
wherever
the seller/buyer tries to introduce a third person into the business enterprise arrangements. They strength
ask you to pay xyz, who will then pay the seller, and you will obtain a discount or commission for your co-operation. Such proposals are always fraudulent. They prey on greed. Don't be tempted.
y) Time is of the essence
This is a scam which is has much potential for success than traditional phishing attacks, as it is time sensitive. The fraudster searches for high value auctions that have simply ended. The bid history for an auction contains hyperlinks to each bidder. The fraudster checks to see if the winning bidder is commercialism any items of their own. If so, they go to that auction and enter a request for payment from the 1st auction inside
a question for seller. This works because winning bidders are expecting request for payment shortly after an auction ends. A variation of this is to offer a bidder a "second chance". This time the "Ask the merchant a question" email pretends that the real winner has backed out, and offers the item at a lower price. The buyer, basic cognitive process
the story, is lured into paying to whom they believe is a genuine seller. Many an eBayers have detected
of the second chance system, but have no experience of it. This strangeness coupled with the fact that a few weeks strength
have passed, does this an effective know-how
for fraudsters. The moral of this story is ne'er
get involved in any group action
which arrives in your inbox via the Ask the Merchant a Question feature.
z) eBay IDs
Never us your email address as your eBay ID, or part of your eBay ID. Fraudsters have computer code which monitors net
traffic looking for information such as this. If your eBay ID and email address are the same, it is simple for a fraudster to probably
communicate with else eBay members in your name.
That's all in my list. If you have any further ideas on how to prevent dishonourable transactions on eBay, please let me cognize and I will promote these through futurity newsletters.
In the meantime, be aware, and be safe in your eBay purchasing and eBay selling.
Just simply about the author:
Brian McGregor specializes in showing website owners how to do much money from their sites by applying ingenious and innovational use of eBay. For a free copy of ‘The eBay Traffic Funnel’ which shows you how to use the power of eBay to do much money with your website, visit http://www.more-auction-sales.com/websites/
Circulated by Article Emporium
| |
