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…eBay scams and scammers can be identified before it’s too late

I’m sure some of you have been victim of an eBay unpaid item scam, or at least heard of such an incident.  This is where you sell an item on eBay to someone and they never pay you; they seem to disappear off the face of the earth.  The good thing about this scam is that you can usually re-list for free and it doesn’t cost you anything.

But what happens when you buy something on eBay and you think something fishy is going on?

I friend asked me the other night about what she should do about an auction she won on eBay for a $1200 laptop.  This was one of her first times buying something that cost this much and she didn’t want to become another eBay / PayPal fraud statistic.

I asked her a bit about who she was buying the laptop from and we determined that the seller would have to be crazy to try to rip her off.  I started thinking about this conversation and realized that there are probably quite a few people out there asking the same types of questions so I created this list of tips on how to avoid eBay / PayPal fraud:

1. Try buying from sellers with a lot of feedback that have high positive feedback ratings. 
2. Look into the seller’s sales history to see if they have had positive feedback on similar items to what you are purchasing.  Some sellers will “disclaim” themselves from knowing anything about the product which can be bad if you are sold a defective product.  Buying for sellers with a history in the product category ensures they know what they are selling.
3. Check to see how much they have sold previous items on auction for.  If they have sold fairly expensive items, and they have good feedback on the transactions then you can feel more confident you are dealing with a legitimate seller.
4. Find out the ratings of people who have purchased from the seller.  If the purchasers have large number of feedbacks, and a high positive feedback rating you can assume these individuals also have a lot to lose by dealing with untrustworthy sellers.
5. See if the seller is verified in PayPal before sending them money.  If they are serious sellers on eBay, they should have a PayPal account, even if they don’t use it for processing transactions.
6. Use credit cards for payments.  eBay / PayPal fraud comes in many different flavors and using a credit card ensures that your credit card company will pick up the tab if you are ripped off or scammed.  If the seller refuses to accept a credit card or PayPal, tell them you will pay the fees (if that is what they are worried about).  If they still refuse investigate why – if PayPal has closed their account there might be a reason.

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