Hopefully you are already aware of some of these.
It doesn't necessarily follow that if one of these
applies the auction or person is fraudulent. But
if you use your head, and build up a view of the
overall transaction based based upon a number
of these factors, you will reduce your chances
of getting conned.
a) Stock photos and descriptions
Because they don't have the item
they are "selling", some fraudsters use a stock
photograph of the item. And they will probably
use the manufacturer's product description too.
So, stock photos and no original description might
be a sign. Search for other auctions by the same
seller, and see if they are brazen enough to advertise
the same item more than once.
b) A price too good to be true
often isn't true
A fraudster wants your money quickly,
so you may find they offer to close their auction
early with you as the "winner" having bid a price
which you know to be somewhat of a bargain. Why
would anyone close their auction early if the
price hadn't reached market levels? I'll give
you one guess.
c) High value or high volume,
newly registered sellers
Although the vast majority of new
sellers are genuine and honest, be cautious of
buying from people selling high value items in
bulk, very early on in their eBay career. This
pattern isn't quite normal. Think back to your
own first sales. You would have been tentative,
and probably have tried single, low value items
initially. So, a new seller fitting this profile
may be someone who has perhaps been previously
suspended and has registered another ID.
d) 1 day listings
Although 1 day listing are used
by genuine sellers who have more than one item
or who want a quick sale, unfortunately this duration
is attractive to fraudsters too. They sometimes
use a 1 day auction duration to gain a quick sale
before their actions can be reported and acted
upon. So, be extra wary on auctions with 1 day
listing.
e) Invitations to trade off-eBay
This is a classic ploy of fraudsters.
Having made some kind of contact with you, or
you with them, they will invite you to purchase
or to sell off eBay i.e. without using eBay's
auction services. The attraction here to the fraudster
is that they can drive the transaction along the
lines they prefer, whether that be escrow, PayPal
etc. Another reason why trading off eBay is not
a good idea is that you have to keep your own
formal records of the transaction, and you forfeit
any cover from eBay buyer protection and PayPal
buyer protection. Plus, and this might be a minor
point, but you will not be able to leave feedback
to let others know your experience with this seller/buyer.
f) Payment methods with no recourse
Fraudsters prefer to chose payment methods in
which the buyer has no protection, like wire transfers
where the buyer has no way of tracing where the
money is going. Western Union Money Transfers
and BidPay are favourites and should be totally
avoided. Postal orders are similar although they
are a popular payment method among the genuine
sellers as they require no clearance time. Bank
transfers and cheques can only provide the possibility
of your bank investigating the details of the
account the money was transferred into. For the
best protection use Paypal and fund with a Credit
Card. Note there are limits on eBay and PayPal
protection, and you should make yourself aware
of what these are.
g) Unusual sales pattern
If your seller's feedback indicates
that they normally deal in collectables, DVDs
or other specific items, be suspicious that they
are suddenly listing laptops, plasma TVs or other
high value items. The change may indicate that
this seller's account has been hijacked.
h) Bad english gives you a pointer
Some fraudsters operate from abroad
but pretend to be in UK or USA. As they aren't
particularly adept at the english language they
might use a translation tool like Babelfish to
create their emails to you. So, watch out for
emails that are not good english. In itself, it
doesn't prove anything, there are plenty of genuine
eBay sellers for whom english is not their first
language. But it might add to further evidence
you have.
i) Location Location Location
In the case of lazy fraudsters you
might find their locations don't match up. By
that I mean the auction says the goods are in
the UK, but the seller's ID details show their
location to be, say, Ukraine. This is not a good
sign. Often in these cases if you contact these
sellers you will receive an excuse as to why the
item is not in the UK, and therefore can't be
collected in person. In short, if an auction says
the item is in the UK and the seller says that
it is not, I would avoid the auction. And don't
forget to cross check with their PayPal account,
and see in which country this resides.
j) Ask questions
Always, always ask your seller a
question. Any question. Their response, if you
receive one, will help you judge how genuine the
seller is. Beware auctions that carry a message
asking you to contact the seller via a given email
address as opposed to via the 'Ask seller a question'
link. This could be an account hijacker trying
to prevent buyers from 'Asking the seller a question'.
They want to stop this from happening because
such questions could be routed to the real account
owner.
k) "eBay can vouch for me" email
A warning about a relatively new
tactic used by fraudsters. If you are proving
hard to land as a buyer/seller, they may claim
they can get eBay to email you proof of their
validity so that you can trust them. eBay, of
course, will NEVER do this. The email sent out,
however authentic looking, is fake and is designed
to get you to part with your money or your goods.
This applies equally to Square Trade and PayPal.
They will never email you certifying the genuineness
of anyone.
l) A PayPal warning
There are fraudsters who use stolen
PayPal accounts to accept payments. To lower the
possibility of this, check your seller's location
as shown in eBay, and then see if it is one of
PayPal's permitted countries by clicking here:
http://www.workwinners.com/nlr701.htm. If PayPal
don't offer their service in the country that
the seller resides, be very wary.
m) Passwords
Never have the same password on
your eBay and PayPal accounts. Or indeed on any
other financial or personal site. Change your
passwords every 30-60 days on both eBay and PayPal.
n) Escrow
If your seller asks you to use escrow,
and proposes an escrow company they've used before,
this is a clear indication they are fraudulent.
There are many fake escrow sites which will take
your money fraudulently. The only escrow site
recommended by eBay is http://www.escrow.com.
An alternative in the UK is http://www.auctionpix.co.uk
Please don't be tempted to use any other escrow
company, however professional looking their websites
might be. It is a fact that 99% of escrow companies
on the internet are fraudulent. They are set up
solely to defraud money out of unsuspecting buyers,
and to get goods without paying for them from
unsuspecting sellers.
o) Pointers in feedback
Try to read the positive feedback
as well as the negative. Read the way your seller
responds to negative feedback as this will often
give you an idea of how the seller will react
if something goes badly wrong. If the seller is
offering high value goods, be wary if their feedback
has been built up quickly from low value purchases.
Also, if the overall rating is good, but there
are a disproportionate number of negatives in
recent days/weeks, this might indicate the account
has been taken over. Finally, be aware that feedback
is not the guarantee it once was. Feedback can
easily be manufactured. Also, if the user ID has
been hijacked, you'll be reading the feedback
of the original account owner, not the person
with whom you're currently dealing!
p) Credit Card payment
For high value items, or for amounts
of money you can't afford to lose, make sure you
pay by credit card which has online fraud protection.
This will give you some recourse if the seller
is fraudulent. In this context, paying via PayPal
is not the same. PayPal do have a buyer protection
scheme, but there are criteria which the eBay
auction has to satisfy in order to qualify. Even
if the transaction qualifies, PayPal's standard
protection currently has a maximum value of $1,000.
Note that payment by debit card provides zero
protection.
q) Address and Telephone check
Use the Ask the seller a question
link, and request they email you with their address
and telephone number. Any reputable seller will
give you their address and telephone number. When
you get the number, call it, and see if you get
through to the genuine seller.
r) Keystroke capturing virus
This is a computer virus which you
inadvertently download onto your PC. It's task
is to capture the keystrokes you make, and to
send them to the virus placer. The fraudster then
uses pattern recognition software to identify
and extract personal information, like username,
password, credit card numbers etc. To avoid this
happening to you, it is wise to have good, up-to-date
virus, firewall and spyware checking software
on your PC. Here is where you can get free software
for each of these functions:
Virus protection - http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/
Firewall - http://www.zonelabs.com/
Spyware checking - http://www.lavasoft.com/support/download/
s) Shill bidding
Shill bidding is where people work
in cahoots to inflate the bidding on an item.
A seller has a "partner" who makes bids on the
seller's items with a view to bumping up the bid
price. They have no intention of buying the item.
Fortunately, shill bidders and their associated
seller can be stupid. The shill bidder will usually
makes bids on other items from the same seller.
Here's how to check to see if shill bidding is
a feature of a particular seller. First, look
at the seller's closed auctions over the last
30 days. If most of the closed auctions have no
bids, it is unlikely the seller has shill bidders
working with them. If all of the closed auctions
have bids, take a look at the bid history. See
if the same bidder appears in the list of bidders,
usually with aggressive bidding and normally at
the start of the auction. If so, you may have
uncovered a shill operation, so avoid that seller's
auctions.
t) Keep your transaction information
Keep your own record of the transaction
when you're buying. Don't just rely on eBay. You
want a record of the seller's identification,
the item description, emails sent and received,
plus the time, date and price of your bid.
u) "I noticed your bid...."
Never deal with anyone who contacts
you after seeing your bid on another auction.
They will say something like, "I saw you bidding
on that digital camera. I have the same model
available for sale. I don't have time to list
it on eBay. It has more accessories than the one
you lost out on. You can have it for xyz." If
you bite, they'll probably take you down the fake
escrow route. Also, if you entertain this proposition,
you're operating outside of eBay and therefore
have no auction protection whatsoever.
v) Changed eBay ID
Never deal with anyone who has a
changed ID icon next to their name. This icon
menas they've changed their ID in the last 30
days. Few legitimate people change their eBay
ID. When was the last time you changed yours?
There's a 1% chance that an ID change is genuine,
but 99% that it is fraudulent. Why take the risk?
w) Changed email address mid-stream
If a seller or buyer changes their
email address on you in the middle of a transaction,
stop dealing with them. It is likely their previous
email account was closed down due to some irregularity
- such as a previous victim reported them. If
you think about it, why would any genuine buyer
or seller change their email address whilst corresponding
on a transaction they wish to conclude expeditiously?
x) Complications
Never get involved in any transaction
where the seller/buyer tries to introduce a third
person into the financial arrangements. They might
ask you to pay xyz, who will then pay the seller,
and you will receive a discount or commission
for your co-operation. Such proposals are always
fraudulent. They prey on greed. Don't be tempted.
y) Time is of the essence
This is a scam which is has more
potential for success than traditional phishing
attacks, as it is time sensitive. The fraudster
searches for high value auctions that have just
ended. The bid history for an auction contains
hyperlinks to each bidder. The fraudster checks
to see if the winning bidder is selling any items
of their own. If so, they go to that auction and
embed a request for payment from the first auction
within a question for seller. This works because
winning bidders are expecting request for payment
shortly after an auction ends. A variation of
this is to offer a bidder a "second chance". This
time the "Ask the seller a question" email pretends
that the real winner has backed out, and offers
the item at a lower price. The buyer, believing
the story, is lured into paying to whom they believe
is a genuine seller. Many eBayers have heard of
the second chance system, but have no experience
of it. This unfamiliarity coupled with the fact
that a few weeks might have passed, makes this
an effective method for fraudsters. The moral
of this story is never get involved in any transaction
which arrives in your inbox via the Ask the Seller
a Question feature.
z) eBay IDs
Never us your email address as your
eBay ID, or part of your eBay ID. Fraudsters have
software which monitors internet traffic looking
for information such as this. If your eBay ID
and email address are the same, it is simple for
a fraudster to plausibly communicate with other
eBay members in your name.
That's all in my list. If you have
any further ideas on how to prevent fraudulent
transactions on eBay, please let me know and I
will promote these through future newsletters.
In the meantime, be aware, and be
safe in your eBay buying and eBay selling.
About The Author
Brian McGregor specializes in showing
website owners how to make more money from their
sites by applying inventive and original use of
eBay. For a free copy of ‘The eBay Traffic Funnel’
which shows you how to use the power of eBay to
make more money with your website, visit http://www.more-auction-sales.com/websites/
