Evade the eBay Scams!

Posted by Nick Niesen on November 1st, 2010

If you're doing business on eBay, you must know how to identify a scam, and how to evade them. If you are scammed, there are a number of actions you can take to correct the situation.

You can without doubt avoid many scams with the payment method that you use, whether you are a buyer or a seller. eBay owns Paypal, and in most cases, Paypal is the payment method you should use.

As a buyer, if you are scammed or less than satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can dispute the charge easily, and demand a refund. The seller must reply and show proof that the item was shipped, or Paypal will return your funds to your account.

As a seller, you can shield yourself by only accepting Paypal. This will remove the chances of receiving a bad check or having the buyer dispute a credit card charge. Instead, they must dispute the charge through PayPal, and you of course will be able to provide evidence that you shipped the product.

Another frequent scam that buyers use is the bidding scam. This type of scam is run either with two separate eBay accounts - with one person in control of both of them, or with two friends with separate eBay accounts. A very small bid is placed on your item, using one account. This is followed by a very high bid, from the other eBay account. Before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid.

If you are an eBay seller, you can further protect your auctions by placing a notice on your auctions page declaring that you have the right to back out of the sale if you suspect potential fraud.