Part 5 - Avoid The Serious Scam

eBay Article Content:

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - An Overview Of eBay
Part 3 - Evaluating What And Where To Buy
Part 4 - Buying On eBay
Part 5 - Avoiding The Serious Scam
Part 6 - Selling On eBay
Part 7 - Auction Terms, Abbreviations, And Some HTML Code
Part 8 - Authentic Items Verses Fakes

Avoiding The Serious Scam

The internet was founded on freedom and it appears that most of the users still supports this philosophy, but along with freedom always comes people who want to steal some of yours.

Hopefully this section alone will be worth the time it takes to read this article. It is hoped that this section will save you, or a family member, or a friend from losing hundreds of dollars on an internet auction scam. I can sometimes go out to an auction site and search a really hot item, such as a laptop computer, and spot what I consider to be a scam (I have verified this on a couple of occasions). Don't blame auction sites such as eBay, they have rules, but crooks always find ways around rules and eBay does pulls these bad ads as quickly as they discover them, but that can be too late for the unwary.

Buying on eBay can, in my opinion, sometimes be financially dangerous for new people, you folks with the little yellow icon next to your user ID (later you will get a star). Do not take my opinion the wrong way, it is dangerous to get into your car everyday and venture out onto the roads and freeways. Millions of people, including myself, love the thrill and fun of eBay, but no one likes getting ripped-off so buyer beware and here are some tips to help you stay alert and avoid supporting some thief. (At the end of this section there will be a scam scenario and tips on how to spot these scams.)

Number one is to consider the dollar amount that you are bidding. When you are bidding under say fifty dollars then obviously you are not risking a large amount of money and most people play pretty freely with their money in this price range. At this dollar figure your biggest risks are probably misrepresentation which may just be a matter of opinion or an oversight by a seller. Scams on eBay are like counterfeiting green backs (money), no one counterfeits one dollars bills, it just isn't worth the time and effort. No one would set up a big scam operation selling twenty dollar items, unless they are a few cards short of a deck, because they can't stay at one address for long enough to make money that way. Most people selling ten and twenty dollars items are not getting rich, they are probably just like you, honest people trying to have a little fun on eBay and maybe bring in a few extra bucks.

When the selling price of an item gets up to fifty, a hundred, two hundred dollars, you are probably still dealing with plain, average folks as sellers, but you might should be more careful about the item description and the seller. Again, these lower priced items, under a couple of hundred dollars, are probably not cost effective for a scam operation. When you send out thirty dollars for a video, if something goes wrong with the deal you will be ticked off but you probably drop that much just going to dinner and a movie; you can live with it. However, when you lose a couple of hundred dollars, you might can live with it, but you are going to be mighty unhappy so be more careful. Be sure to e-mail the seller if you need any clarification about the item listed for sale. Do not assume that the seller's opinion of an item's condition and yours are even close to the same; look at any pictures the seller provides and ask questions if needed. Also, be more cautious about sending large amounts of money to a new seller, scam operations are generally new sellers for the obvious reason they have to keep changing and moving around. Now, every new seller has to start somewhere, but just be more cautious with large amounts of money. Many new sellers start with low cost items knowing full well that smart buyers are not going to sent them a large wad of their hard earned dollars until they have proven themselves to be good sellers in the eBay world.

Most sellers in the lower price range are the same cross section you might find at flea markets or garage sales, some people are so honest they will talk you out of buying their merchandise. The middle of the road sellers will shot you straight, but they might not be experts and they assume that you are an adult who can analyze and make decisions for yourself. And the "little bit too greedy" sellers who will pawn off on you whatever they can get away with. None of these people are con-artists, they are not actively thinking and planning various ways to illegally separate you from your money. You can deal with these people if you just stop and think before you buy.

Often when we spot something that we really like and want to buy, we stop looking for the flaws or defects and instead we start mentally using the item or placing it in on a shelf in our home. The best way I have found to back-off and look at a possible purchase objectively is to think of the item as a gift. I would only give a "used" gift to someone if it were in great condition. Granted, if the items is actually for myself it does not have to be in perfect condition, but this "gift" thought can sometimes help me get around my blinding desire for an item so that I can look at it more carefully. I do not mind less than perfect, but I wish to avoid damaged, ruined, not working and so on.

Your real danger on eBay (or anywhere for that matter) is from the serious con-person. They probably spend more time thinking about how to separate you from your money than you spend earning it. Many of you will never encounter these con-artists out on eBay because you would never send a large amount of money to an unknown person. Most of you will have a wonderful time bouncing around on eBay buying and selling with other great people. But for those of you who might make large purchases on eBay, please do not skip these last paragraphs, they are important.

Also, remember that there should be no reason to give out your social security number or drivers license number to a seller (there may be some exceptions when purchasing automobiles from dealers, but as a normal course, don't give out personal information that is not necessary for the delivery of your purchase). And a note for new people, eBay and PayPal NEVER sending out e-mails asking for personal information. There are always scams out there that send people e-mails saying there is a problem with their PayPal or eBay account, just click on the link in the e-mail to contact them - don't do it. In the rare circumstance that there was a problem with your account you would be asked to log-in to your account and correct it from there - not through an e-mail. If you get an e-mail from PayPal or e-Bay that you are not sure of, forward the e-mail to their security department, they will respond and let you know if it was real or not.

spoof@ebay.com
spoof@paypal.com

An Example Of A Possible eBay Scam

The scam, how do you spot it?

There is a great laptop computer listed for sell. This computer would normally cost in the neighborhood of $2,500 even on eBay, looking at how the auction is running, you can probably get this computer for about $500 to $1,000 and that is a tremendous savings. The description on the laptop is sort of brief and the picture is just a copied picture from the manufacturers advertising. It is a lot of money to spend, so you dutifully click on the seller's feedback icon and check them out. Well, it looks pretty good on the surface, they have twelve feedbacks and they are all positive. With that said, should you send them your money? If you stop your research there, you stand a chance of loosing your money to a crook.

Bad apples always make a mess of things for the good guys, but it is a fact of life, so dig a little deeper before you literally "give" away your money. There are several warning signs that, alone, can mean nothing, but in combination should flash a big WARNING.

Was the item popular and expensive?

The biggest danger lies with popular and expensive items. Does the computer in the example fit that criteria? Yes. I will not declare that no one will scam you for twenty bucks, but the real danger is with high dollar items: computers selling for hundreds to thousands of dollars, games systems for hundreds of dollars, palm pilots, global locators, just anything really popular that comes with a high price tag. With a real scam, the perpetrator will probably select items that are extremely popular and expensive. The idea is that "hot" items will all sell, and sell fast. The high price should be obvious, to a thief's way of thinking if you are going to steal, you might as well grab all you can. Also, as a thief, you have scam setup expenses to cover, it may take a few months to get another scam ready so there is a need for several months of living expenses, and they like money for clothes, cars, gambling or whatever. It is expensive to be a crook!

Were there pictures and a good description?

A couple of things to watch for in a listing are no pictures and brief listings? Good pictures and information are things that you should expect in a listing. It costs sellers nothing to have one picture in their listing. Yes, I know not everyone has an expensive digital camera and knows how to use it, and many power sellers think taking pictures is time consuming. So no picture is not an indication of anything (alone), but trying to sell an expensive item without a picture is not a good sign. If you saw an ad in your local newspaper advertising a laptop, would you call the seller and say "Hey, the ad sounds great, I don't need to see it. I'll just drop a couple of thousand dollars in the mail to you today, please send me the computer real soon!" If you would do this, please put me on your mailing list!

Yes, some people riding the eBay wave can hardly type and therefore use only brief listings and individuals who are power sellers list so much they might not have time for long-winded listings. So brief, incomplete listings could simply be that the item doesn't require much description or the seller is lazy, busy or can't type, but it can be a warning sign.

What does the overall listing tell you about the seller. Is there an adequate description for the item? You should expect the listing to at least address the information that you, as a buyer, needs in order to make a decent decision. A listing for an expensive item should include a picture of the actual item which shows the condition and that the the seller really has the item in their possession. This is especially true of unique items where condition can change the value by hundreds of dollars such as rare, first edition books, collectible toys and so on. A stock picture from another source only shows that the seller knows how to capture a picture from someone else's web site. This, of course, does not apply to retailers who represent name brand manufacturers and are authorized to use their descriptions and pictures.

A con-seller will probably be saying that the item listed is new, remember, new, popular, expensive items are part of the con (although some cons will be of rare, collectible type items). If the con-seller is aggressive they will have fifteen, twenty or more of the same item and since they obviously don't own the product they will probably use catalog pictures they swiped off the manufacturers' web site or scanned from a catalog along with product details they also high-jacked. Brief listings and catalog pictures alone do not say thief, but they should definitely be telling you to check out the seller further.

What can you find out about the seller?

There are many points to check out about a seller. While it is not possible for eBay to completely check people out, they do have a system that gives the observant buyer some good information. When you go to an auction listing, on the right, towards the top there is information about the seller. You will find links and information such as: Me Page (if they have one), Read feedback comments, an eBay store (if they have one), and View seller's other items (for sale). There is also information about the length of time the seller has been an eBay member and the seller's feedback percentage (good verses negative). The seller's location is provided by the seller so it may not be accurate. Protect your money, don't give it to con-artists, analysis this information that eBay has provided about the seller.

The "Me" link will take you to a page that the seller fills out about themselves (if they have filled it out).

"Feedback" will be on of your biggest helps in determining whether or not to send someone your money, if you learn to read between the lines and then combine this knowledge with other information about the listing and the seller. No one can please all the people all of the time, so expect a seller to have an occasional negative or neutral feedback. What you are probably looking for in a scam is someone that has "just enough" positive feedback to look okay, but it was probably all registered just in the past 30-60 days. In a scam in the making scenario, the con-person will register with eBay, make a few small dollar purchases as a buyer, maybe even sell a few cheap items so they can build up some feedbacks, then boom, they will list a bunch of expensive items.

When you are considering making a large purchase on eBay, go beyond merely looking at the seller's feedback, you might should delve deeper into the seller's information. There is also information about how long the seller has been a member of eBay. Has the seller been a member just long enough to lose their "new" yellow icon and get some feedback?

On the seller's feedback page, each transaction is marked "B" for Buyer and "S" for seller. Check out what they have been doing, have they been selling or buying. Don't stop yet, click on some of the feedbacks and see what and how much the transactions were for. Remember, this seller is trying to sell a laptop, in the past have they just been involved in small dollar transactions? Granted, people who just buy a few things on eBay can get a new computer and want to sell their old one, but remember that a scam is probably for several new laptops, not someone's used computer.

After you have thoroughly checked out the feedback page, take that knowledge with you back to the seller's item listing page (the computer in this scenario). Think about the listing, is it brief with just a manufacturer's picture. From the feedback page did you get that the seller was new and just making small dollar transactions (with maybe one or two sells of a hundred dollars thrown in just to look real). At this point, you should get a little concerned, but it is not all bad, yet. Still, you should be cautious and maybe e-mail the seller and establish some contact.

But you are not ready to stop your investigation just yet (now you know what a police detective has to go through). There is yet another step in verifying a seller that still needs to be completed. There is an icon link on the listing page that will allow you to view all of the seller's other auctions. I would definitely click on this link before I sent this seller my money. Wow! Look what you found, twenty other computers listed for sell by this seller, and all expensive. And more Wow!, there are twenty game systems and more stuff, palm pilots, digital cameras and so on. Boy oh boy, this seller, who was just buying and selling small stuff and only have twelve feedbacks must have hit the jackpot or inherited a real stash of cash to have bought all of this merchandise to sell - YOU THINK? Or just maybe this seller is an eBay pickpocket and their stash is fixin' to come out of your wallet. Could this seller be legit'? Oh sure, they could be, and if you want to send them money to find out, be my guest, but if I was you, I wouldn't hold my breathe waiting for a new computer. The big electronics sellers on eBay, that I know of, have thousands of feedbacks, they are probably Power Sellers (eBay sellers who have met certain sales criteria), they generally have an eBay store, and they normally have their own web site; they are not out-of-the-blue no names suddenly listing thousands of dollars of merchandise.

As already stated, most of these warning signs, alone, mean very little or maybe that buyers should be just be a little cautious, but when a newer, small time seller suddenly lists twenty, fifty maybe a hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise right out of the blue, with no "real" pictures of the product, you can be sure that this buyer "ME" is going to button down their wallet pocket.

Buying and selling on eBay should be fun and it will be fun if you keep your wits about you when those flashy listings turn your head. If you want to help keep eBay safe for all of us, you can contact eBay if you spot a real scam type setup or you can contact the FBI by going to the FBI's special internet division and filling out a report. Remember, that giving false information to the FBI is a crime, so don't be using the FBI to get even with a buyer or seller that you are mad at over some disagreement as to the condition of an item, or it just might be you that gets to meet an FBI agent in person!

http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/cyberhome.htm

This scam scenario is not meant to scare you away from eBay, quite to the contrary; I am an eBay seller. I want you to join our eBay family, but I want you to keep your money from criminals and send it to us real sellers. So be careful and play safe.