1) Beware of invitations to trade on another site.

This is a classic tactic of fraudsters. Once they make some kind of contact with you, they will invite you to purchase or sell off eBay. The attraction here to the scammer, is that they can drive the transaction along with any lines they prefer. They will try to milk every cent out of your pocket and laugh about it.

Another reason why trading off eBay is not a good idea is that you have to keep your own records of the transaction. Keep in mind that you forfeit any cover from eBay buyer protection and Pay Pal buyer protection. Another thing is that you will not be able to leave feedback to warn others.

2) Keep an eye on brand new sellers.

Although the vast majority of new sellers are genuine and honest, be very cautious of buying from people selling high priced items too early. This pattern is just not normal. Would you start out by selling high priced items on eBay? A new seller fitting this description may be someone who has been previously suspended and registered with another ID.

3) Protect your eBay ID.

Never use your email address as your eBay ID. Scammers have software that monitors internet traffic looking for information like this. If your eBay ID and email address are the same, it is simple for a fraudster to communicate with other eBay members in your name. Soon enough, you might even be banned from eBay because of their illegal activities.

4) Be cautious of 1 day listings.

Even though 1 day listings are used by expert sellers with authentic items, scammers will use this method to trick you. For instance they will sometimes use 1 day auctions to gain a quick sale before their actions can be reported. You must be very careful with these listings.

5) You should make sure the payment methods are legitimate.

Scammers prefer to choose payment methods in which the buyer has no protection. These include wire transfers where the buyer has no way of tracing where their own money is heading. Western Union Money Transfers and Bid Pay are easily manipulated by scammers, and you should avoid them at all costs.

Postal orders are similar although they are the popular payment method among the super star sellers. Bank transfers and personal checks can only provide the possibility of your bank investigating the details of the account the money was transferred into. For the best protection use Pay pal and add credit with a credit card.

6) False stock photographs and descriptions.

Due to the fact that scammers do not have the physical items, they will use stock photographs. There is also a great chance that they will probably use the manufacturer's product description too. Do some research and search for other auctions by the same seller.

7) Beware of the too good to be true price.

Scammers want your money as quickly as possible. 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. If this ever occurs, you should ask yourself some serious questions. Check to see how many bids were placed before yours.

8) The language they write in has distinct grammatical errors.

A high percentage of scammers tend to operate from other continents. Due to the fact that they are not fully familiar with English, they will use a translation tool like to create their emails to you. Keep a serious eye out for emails that are not in proper English. There are many legitimate sellers that cannot speak or write in English that well, but this is just another precaution you must take.

9) Be sure to know the location of the person.

Many lazy scammers will tend to mess up their locations. Their auction will state that the product is in the United Kingdom, but their ID shows their location to be in China. There is a high chance that when you contact these sellers you will receive an excuse as to why the item is not located properly, and therefore cannot be collected in person. If this ever happens to you, check with Pay Pal to see where the seller is located before making a purchase.

10) Ask many questions for your own sake.

Make it a habit to ask your seller a question. Their response will help you judge how genuine they are. If the ask a seller a question button is not there, do not trust them. This could be an account hijacker trying to prevent buyers from asking any questions. They reason they want to stop this from happening is because questions can easily be routed to the real account owner.

11) Keep changing your passwords.

Try not to have the same password on your eBay and Pay Pal accounts. Make sure you change your passwords every month on both eBay and Pay Pal. This will also keep scammers and hijackers away.

12) Credit card payment

For high value items, or for amounts of money you cannot 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 Pay Pal is not the same. Pay Pal does have a buyer protection scheme, but there are criteria which the eBay auction has to satisfy in order to qualify. Keep in mind that Pay Pal only protects to a certain amount.

13) Check the address and telephone number for safety.

Use the seller question link and ask them to send you an email with their address and telephone number. Any honest seller will give you their address and telephone number. When you get the number give them a call and see if you get the genuine seller themselves.

If you can follow these tips, you will easily succeed on eBay. Keep in mind that each day scammers surf through eBay looking for an easy target. As long as you are armed with the knowledge to keep you safe, everything will be just fine.

Copyright 2007 Donald Mckenzie Jr