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Just imagine: you want to buy a fast and modern laptop but you see that in retailstores and internet superstores it costs tons of money. Where will you go? Right!You will connect to Internet; start your favorite browser and type "www.ebay.com".
You find a laptop there and you like a price, you think: "Okay. It's very good deal!I will win this auction!" And you win.
You write to a seller and ask him how to pay. The seller is reply that you shouldsend a money order to him/her. Then you send the money order and... nothing. You tryto contact with the seller, but nobody replies on your messages.
You use eBay to get seller's information. What a hell!? I sent the money to anotherperson!!! You call to the seller and find that he doesn't know what eBay is. Someoneused his credit card to signup.
You find a phone number of a person who had received your money order. You call toher and learn that she is just receiving money orders on behalf of an overseascompany.
She doesn't know what eBay is also. Heck! You want your money back! But it's veryproblematic
As I know it's impossible!
What do you learn from it?
Before bidding on an auction: - Look at the payments part of a page. If a seller accepts money orders andcashiers' checks only when it's a 95% scam. Feedback means almost nothing. I willexplain it later.
- Ask a seller for his/her phone number and make a call to be sure that the selleris real person who is selling an item.
- If a seller is refused or avoiding to contact you via the phone ask for the eBayescrow service. Use eBay escrow only! Do not trust other companies.
- If you are paying a seller by http://www.PayPal.com always check that a sellername the same as on eBay. If different it's 95% scam.
- If you reached a seller by a phone and negotiated with him about a payment methodyou can bid on the auction safely.
Some advanced knowledge:
I said early that feedback means nothing. Why?
Because some scam artists are buying eBay accounts with a high feedback rating.
They are buying it from hackers who overtake legal users' accounts and inactive fora long time period accounts. It's also true for PayPal accounts.
And why you should trust eBay escrow services only? Because rippers are runningbogus escrow sites and try to rip you off. Theirs site looks very fine. You will see a professional design and great domainname. But... it s only fake, intended to take your money and run.
Very often such services tell you to transfer money to an overseas bank account ore-gold account.
