Have you received e-mails from “eBay” asking you to click on a link and confirm your details or else your ebay account will get suspended?
eBay will never ask you to provide confirm any kind of private information through email and if eBay does request any kind of information from you, you should wonder if that email really is from eBay.In such a situation, there are 2 things you should do.
1. DO NOT try and sign in through the link provided in the email. Open a new browser window, type www.ebay.com, and then sign in.
2. Check the My Messages box in My eBay, if a copy of that e-mail is not in it, you can be sure the email is a fake.
Also, Never ever email an eBay seller from an email address link listed in the auction. Always use eBay's Contact Seller mechanism on after logging in to www.ebay.com
Another email that eBay will never send you one certifying a specific seller as good.
Since eBay hasn’t sent out a mass-email to all their existing members explaining that members should not respond to these emails, here are a few ways to protect yourself from fraud on eBay.
Fake eBay emails have a few subtle differences compared to real ones :
Real ebay mail will always have “eBay sent this message to name of member (member id)” NOT
“eBay sent this message from name of sender (sender id) OR “eBay sent this message to you.”
Sometime at the top left of the email message you may notice a few vague symbols like an upside down question mark, a comma, an exclamation mark, etc, this is a sure sign of fake eBay mail.
But just to be on the safe side stick to the aforementioned points and ONLY sign in by typing www.ebay.com , it’s more time consuming but trust me when I say it’s Totally worth it.
• If the seller’s location is not specific. For instance: (i.e. Seattle WA vs. DealCityUSA) you can make an exception if everything else seems perfect.
• If the seller doesn't have recent feedback on similar items. (For instance, all feedback a seller has is for quilts and baby clothes and now the product for sale is a Kawasaki Jet Ski)
• If the auction is for a very short time especially for an expensive item, you can be quite sure it’s a scammer who wants to run away with your funds before the original account holder or eBay Security Team discover that the account has been hijacked. A real seller will put up an expensive item on auction at least a week, so it can attract many bidders and thus get sold for a much higher price.
• If you check the advanced search option for the same item in closed auctions and you find the same items with the same descriptions and same photographs.
• If the seller keeps User IDs of bidders hidden/ private.
This can be because of two reasons:
1)The bidders may be warned by past buyers of the seller who have been cheated or just buyers who suspect that the auction is a fraud
2) The scammers themselves bid up each others auctions to artificially inflate the price of the items.
• If the sellers are not using their own item photographs or if the sellers are using their own product photographs and the backgrounds or resolution/quality of the images are not constant.
You can however, ask for additional photographs of the item and a photograph of its serial number plate. This way you can ensure that the item exists and is in their possession.
• If there is a huge gap since the last transaction on the sellers account (check their feedback for the item #'s & dates), and they're suddenly selling a bunch of big ticket items.
This should be your cue to either opt out or start speaking to the seller.
• If the seller is selling a second hand/used item and says they bought the machine just a few months ago and they don’t/can’t send you a copy of the sales receipt from the original dealer for whatever reason.
• The feedback system is a good way to judge the seller but you must know how to read it first. For instance, if a seller has 50 positive feedbacks, don’t assume this seller has a good reputation, go through the feedback, you might realize that the positive feedback is as a BUYER and not a SELLER.
Wouldn’t you rather pay a higher price to a seller with a good SELLER reputation than pay less to a good BUYER?
• Buying an item without seeing its actual photographs is a very big risk. Although, everyone may not have access to a digital camera, items with stock photographs are highly unreliable unless all other aspects of the seller are exceptionally good.
• If you find an item especially an expensive one listed in a wrong category,it usually is a sign of fraud. For instance an Apple Powerbook G4 in the Pottery & Glass category.
• Speaking to the seller about the item before bidding is very important. This not only assures you of any doubts you may have had about the seller but also assures you that the product is with the seller. You can Email the seller a question that requires a detailed answer by clicking the “Ask seller a question” link and then judge the response.
For instance,
• Hello, are XYZ and ABC lenses compatible with the camera you have on sale and has it ever been used and are you the original owner ? How long have you had it and do you still have the original packing, manuals, etc? Do you have any extra batteries? Is the charger a part of the package?
If the sellers reply looks anything like this:
: The camera is awesome, it is compatible with everything. Beautiful pictures. Full package!!!
-Crazyfiddle.
You might want to avoid this seller.
An acceptable reply that should assure you would be something like this:
: Thank you for asking, the lenses are indeed compatible with the camera, I am the original owner and I bought it one year ago from “place name”, it has the packing and manuals. You will receive a charger but I’m not offering extra batteries as part of the package.
John Green.
Contact Details.
• Whenever possible, meet the seller or have someone close to the sellers location check out the item and the seller. If it’s an expensive item that’s going to put you back by more than a couple of thousands, you can definitely afford a few hours drive time or even a flight.
***When you are certain you have done all the necessary things to do and have authenticated the seller and the item in their possession to the best of your ability then you can move on to the next part.***
• If the item you’re bidding on is rare, it makes sense if you are willing to bid high. But if it is sold to another person, don’t feel like you lost a competition. In time, with a little research and persistence, you can probably find another auction for the same item, maybe even at a lower price.
• If you’ve noticed a buyer keeps winning “your” auctions, always by a tiny amount just seconds before the auction ends, then it’s probably “sniping” software in action. And, it’s completely legal, and it can be very successful.
In such a situation, there are 2 things you can do,
1) Bid a dollar more than the natural even increment. Lots of times snipers don't take that into account.
2) Give sniping a try :)
In time, you will learn how to bid in the last minutes of an auction outbid the beginners by a tiny sum. And you must remember that you won’t feel so good about “winning” the auction if you are left penniless after it.
EBay never endorses using Western Union or MoneyGram to send payments to sellers. It’s a violation of eBay’s policy and so they are a complete no-no.
If the Seller requests Bank Check, Money Order, or Wire Xfer get complete contact information on the seller including the street name, phone number , etc. Only send the payment using a verified tracking service like UPS Federal express with a compulsory signature required.But remember, If you send Check, Cashier's Check or Money Order ,you will not be able to get your money back if the seller cheats you and disappears with your money.
Ask the Seller to mail you confirming receipt of the payment, and when they've shipped the item, you should have the tracking number and at all times know where your item is in transit.
Don’t be tempted by Free Shipping or “lowcost” shipping, if a seller is giving you a 90% discount and he’s offering you free or negligible shipping costs for a heavy item, you can be quite sure it’s a scam.
Don’t ever use any service recommended by the other party in your transaction.
If you’ve done everything you can to ensure the genuinity of the seller and the item but you still feel like something’s amiss with the auction, do the best thing you can and go with your gut feeling and give it a pass, you could be wrong but is it worth the risk ?
eBay will never ask you to provide confirm any kind of private information through email and if eBay does request any kind of information from you, you should wonder if that email really is from eBay.In such a situation, there are 2 things you should do.
1. DO NOT try and sign in through the link provided in the email. Open a new browser window, type www.ebay.com, and then sign in.
2. Check the My Messages box in My eBay, if a copy of that e-mail is not in it, you can be sure the email is a fake.
Also, Never ever email an eBay seller from an email address link listed in the auction. Always use eBay's Contact Seller mechanism on after logging in to www.ebay.com
Another email that eBay will never send you one certifying a specific seller as good.
Since eBay hasn’t sent out a mass-email to all their existing members explaining that members should not respond to these emails, here are a few ways to protect yourself from fraud on eBay.
Fake eBay emails have a few subtle differences compared to real ones :
Real ebay mail will always have “eBay sent this message to name of member (member id)” NOT
“eBay sent this message from name of sender (sender id) OR “eBay sent this message to you.”
Sometime at the top left of the email message you may notice a few vague symbols like an upside down question mark, a comma, an exclamation mark, etc, this is a sure sign of fake eBay mail.
But just to be on the safe side stick to the aforementioned points and ONLY sign in by typing www.ebay.com , it’s more time consuming but trust me when I say it’s Totally worth it.
Verify the Seller
There are many red flags that you can look out for when authenticating the seller :• If the seller’s location is not specific. For instance: (i.e. Seattle WA vs. DealCityUSA) you can make an exception if everything else seems perfect.
• If the seller doesn't have recent feedback on similar items. (For instance, all feedback a seller has is for quilts and baby clothes and now the product for sale is a Kawasaki Jet Ski)
• If the auction is for a very short time especially for an expensive item, you can be quite sure it’s a scammer who wants to run away with your funds before the original account holder or eBay Security Team discover that the account has been hijacked. A real seller will put up an expensive item on auction at least a week, so it can attract many bidders and thus get sold for a much higher price.
• If you check the advanced search option for the same item in closed auctions and you find the same items with the same descriptions and same photographs.
• If the seller keeps User IDs of bidders hidden/ private.
This can be because of two reasons:
1)The bidders may be warned by past buyers of the seller who have been cheated or just buyers who suspect that the auction is a fraud
2) The scammers themselves bid up each others auctions to artificially inflate the price of the items.
• If the sellers are not using their own item photographs or if the sellers are using their own product photographs and the backgrounds or resolution/quality of the images are not constant.
You can however, ask for additional photographs of the item and a photograph of its serial number plate. This way you can ensure that the item exists and is in their possession.
• If there is a huge gap since the last transaction on the sellers account (check their feedback for the item #'s & dates), and they're suddenly selling a bunch of big ticket items.
This should be your cue to either opt out or start speaking to the seller.
• If the seller is selling a second hand/used item and says they bought the machine just a few months ago and they don’t/can’t send you a copy of the sales receipt from the original dealer for whatever reason.
Feedback
• Some people demand a 100% feedback rating but anything above 96% is fairly acceptable because it's difficult to maintain a perfect selling record due to the occasional nut case .• The feedback system is a good way to judge the seller but you must know how to read it first. For instance, if a seller has 50 positive feedbacks, don’t assume this seller has a good reputation, go through the feedback, you might realize that the positive feedback is as a BUYER and not a SELLER.
Wouldn’t you rather pay a higher price to a seller with a good SELLER reputation than pay less to a good BUYER?
Verify the Item
Research the item to the best of your ability before bidding. Look for past auctions of the same item, current auctions, and decide on your bid amount from that. If that information isn't available, which it usually is, use another search engine like Google or forums.• Buying an item without seeing its actual photographs is a very big risk. Although, everyone may not have access to a digital camera, items with stock photographs are highly unreliable unless all other aspects of the seller are exceptionally good.
• If you find an item especially an expensive one listed in a wrong category,it usually is a sign of fraud. For instance an Apple Powerbook G4 in the Pottery & Glass category.
• Speaking to the seller about the item before bidding is very important. This not only assures you of any doubts you may have had about the seller but also assures you that the product is with the seller. You can Email the seller a question that requires a detailed answer by clicking the “Ask seller a question” link and then judge the response.
For instance,
• Hello, are XYZ and ABC lenses compatible with the camera you have on sale and has it ever been used and are you the original owner ? How long have you had it and do you still have the original packing, manuals, etc? Do you have any extra batteries? Is the charger a part of the package?
If the sellers reply looks anything like this:
: The camera is awesome, it is compatible with everything. Beautiful pictures. Full package!!!
-Crazyfiddle.
You might want to avoid this seller.
An acceptable reply that should assure you would be something like this:
: Thank you for asking, the lenses are indeed compatible with the camera, I am the original owner and I bought it one year ago from “place name”, it has the packing and manuals. You will receive a charger but I’m not offering extra batteries as part of the package.
John Green.
Contact Details.
• Whenever possible, meet the seller or have someone close to the sellers location check out the item and the seller. If it’s an expensive item that’s going to put you back by more than a couple of thousands, you can definitely afford a few hours drive time or even a flight.
***When you are certain you have done all the necessary things to do and have authenticated the seller and the item in their possession to the best of your ability then you can move on to the next part.***
Bidding
Decide on the highest you are willing to bid on an item after doing some serious research and then stick to it. Don’t get obsessive about the bidding and become part of a bidding war.• If the item you’re bidding on is rare, it makes sense if you are willing to bid high. But if it is sold to another person, don’t feel like you lost a competition. In time, with a little research and persistence, you can probably find another auction for the same item, maybe even at a lower price.
• If you’ve noticed a buyer keeps winning “your” auctions, always by a tiny amount just seconds before the auction ends, then it’s probably “sniping” software in action. And, it’s completely legal, and it can be very successful.
In such a situation, there are 2 things you can do,
1) Bid a dollar more than the natural even increment. Lots of times snipers don't take that into account.
2) Give sniping a try :)
In time, you will learn how to bid in the last minutes of an auction outbid the beginners by a tiny sum. And you must remember that you won’t feel so good about “winning” the auction if you are left penniless after it.
Payment & Shipping
If you use Paypal, only deal with Verfied Paypal Member using a Confirmed shipping address. Paying directly from your bank account via Paypal is a much better option than using your credit card, so if you are using your credit card,you might want to reconsider that. Also, you should try and open a separate bank account only for on-line trading and that is the account you should give Paypal as the linked account and NOT your main checking account.EBay never endorses using Western Union or MoneyGram to send payments to sellers. It’s a violation of eBay’s policy and so they are a complete no-no.
If the Seller requests Bank Check, Money Order, or Wire Xfer get complete contact information on the seller including the street name, phone number , etc. Only send the payment using a verified tracking service like UPS Federal express with a compulsory signature required.But remember, If you send Check, Cashier's Check or Money Order ,you will not be able to get your money back if the seller cheats you and disappears with your money.
Ask the Seller to mail you confirming receipt of the payment, and when they've shipped the item, you should have the tracking number and at all times know where your item is in transit.
Don’t be tempted by Free Shipping or “lowcost” shipping, if a seller is giving you a 90% discount and he’s offering you free or negligible shipping costs for a heavy item, you can be quite sure it’s a scam.
Don’t ever use any service recommended by the other party in your transaction.
If you’ve done everything you can to ensure the genuinity of the seller and the item but you still feel like something’s amiss with the auction, do the best thing you can and go with your gut feeling and give it a pass, you could be wrong but is it worth the risk ?
)