“How to Avoid Most Ebay Scams” by Jason James
It really is inevitable that any website that helps buyers and sellers exchange $14 billion dollars a year in merchandise is bound to be targeted by scammers. Although the vast majority of people on the site are perfectly legitimate and only there to buy or sell products legally, the site still has its fair share of scams going on at any one time. Here are some tips for avoiding most of the Ebay scams seen so far.
Bidding Scams
If you have already placed a bid for an item but the seller decides to end the bidding early, be very wary if that same person then contacts you and still tries to bargain with you. Once the bidding ends, you are no longer under the Ebay umbrella and this person is more than likely trying to scam you.
Should you be contacted by someone that has seen that you have bid on another item and tries to convince you that they have the same product or one better for a much lower price, walk away. In this Ebay scam, you will be told that the seller doesn’t have enough time to list on Ebay and that the two of you can conduct your transaction through an escrow company. Walk away.
Escrow Scams
By far, the vast majority of Ebay scams involve an escrow company. Officially, Ebay only recommends using Escrow.com. Sellers who try to get you to send your money to some other escrow company should be regarded with skepticism at best, and walked away from in most circumstances.
If you are a seller and using an escrow service to send an expensive item to the buyer, then make sure that you require a signature upon receipt. Not doing so is just asking for problems.
Do not, under any circumstances, use some escrow company that has been recommended by the other person. Especially avoid these people if they tell you that they use this or that escrow company all the time. Unless they are an Ebay business machine with a very well established history, why would they ever need to use an escrow account “all the time”?
If you do decide to use an escrow company other than Escrow.com, then proceed with caution. Log onto their site and check two things: do they have a URL with http://companyaddress.com and does the little padlock appear at the bottom of the web page telling you that it is a secure site? If you are not on a secure site with a standard URL address, don’t be a fool. Conduct your Ebay business with someone else.
A good idea to try when attempting to determine if an escrow company is legitimate is to go to Register.com. Run a “whois” on the company domain name. If it was only registered a short time ago, you are being scammed.
One of the favorites used by scammers to make an escrow account seem secure and legitimate is to paste the “Verisign Secure Site, Click Here” tab onto a fake site. Take the time to click on it and if it just takes you to the Verisign home page, it is a fake.
A way of checking the legitimacy of an escrow company is use Google and type in their web address. A real escrow company will have a lot of Google results while fake ones will have but one and in some cases no search results.
Basically, there are just a lot of Ebay scams out there involving escrow companies. This is because each scam has the potential to make crooks decent money because an escrow company is only used to safeguard larger transactions. If you want to play it safe, use Escrow.com or no one at all.
Of course there are a lot of other scams out there but we have touched base on the ones used most often thus far. Look, if someone is offering you something that is too good to be true or is trying to go around the normal procedures established by Ebay to help safeguard their online auctions, then be very cautious. If you want to avoid the Ebay scams, avoid these situations and don’t let greed tempt you to do something that your gut is telling you is wrong.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Resources Box:
Claim your FREE 14 Day “Learn How to Sell on eBay” e-Course Here:
http://www.auctionresourcenetwork.com
Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website “The Auction Resource Network” reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.