Scams are notorious all over the internet, and eBay is certainly no exclusion. Sellers can find themselves the victim of a scam, and not even know it until their money and their item is gone. Unfortunately, eBay's methods of settling disputes between sellers and buyers can be time consuming, frustrating, and ultimately leave you with no conclusion. By the time the scam is even recognized, it may be too late to act.



eBay sellers who are stay at home mothers trying to make money on the side cannot afford to lose money or waste time dealing with these scams. However, the fact is that you may likely become the target of at least one or two scams throughout the life of your eBay home business. Protecting yourself and being knowledgeable about what could happen before the scammer hits you will help stop the situation from happening at all. Knowing about the common scams is the first step to protecting your business.

Item Never Received

A popular scam that some sellers deal with is the "item never received" scam. The buyer will pay for the item, receive it with no problem, and then contact you saying they never received it. The scammer then asks for a refund for the purchase price and the shipping. If you don't comply, they may threaten to leave you negative feedback, or file a dispute through PayPal or eBay.

How To Protect Yourself

Always, always, always get a tracking number for your packages, and require that there be signature confirmation upon delivery. This may be frustrating for some of your buyers, since someone has to be home to sign for the package, or else pick it up from the post office at a later time, but it will protect you from being scammed, and protect your buyers from having their packages stolen. If a buyer tries to claim they did not receive their package, you merely have to forward the signature confirmation to PayPal or eBay to prove that the buyer did, in fact, receive the package.

Wrong Item Received

Another popular scam involves the buyer claiming they received the wrong item. They offer to ship the item back, but only after you either charge a full refund plus to cost of additional shipping, or ship the correct item. When you refund their money or ship a new item, they never send the original item back.

How To Protect Yourself

It's not uncommon for sellers to accidentally put the wrong item in the package, especially when they have a house full of kids distracting them. You can't protect yourself 100% against human error, but you can check and recheck your packages and addresses before sealing them up. In the even that a buyer claims that they received the wrong item, always require them to return the item first before you will process a refund or send a new item. This way, you have the original item in hand beforehand, effectively protecting yourself from being scammed.

There are many other scams that sellers can find themselves the victims of, as well. Remember to always be alert, especially when something sounds suspicious. Check your bidders' feedback; if instances of scams pop up in their feedback, you have every right to cancel their bid and protect yourself from being the next victim. You can't afford the time and money that goes into correcting the damage from a scam, so protect yourself before it happens!