Hi readers, thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope your weekend is going great! Today I will be telling you about popular scams I have dealt with through my 10+ years of using ebay. Ebay used to be a very trusted place. When ebay started back in the late 90’s; it was very rare if you got scammed or ripped off. Now ebay has become a breeding ground for scammers.

The sad truth is; lots of people out there use ebay to rip people off now-a-days. You have to be careful, even if you are an experienced veteran seller. I have seen just about everything. But it never ceases to amaze me about all the new types of scams that have gone through ebay in the past ten years.

Phishing scams are probably the most successful scam that people fall for everyday. An ebay phishing scam is a fake ebay email or web page. The scammers make the web page or email look exactly like it came from ebay.

Other scammers try to steal your ebay id and password. They send you a link through your email. It looks like an email that came from ebay. The email may contain a message saying your ebay account needs attention right away. The email contains a link to sign in to your ebay account.
If you click onto the link; it will bring you to a page that looks like ebay. But it’s not; your information gets logged by the scammer and they get your ebay id and password when you sign in.

Just a note, never click onto links in an email from ebay or paypal. Go directly to the website and sign in that way. If you do click a link in an ebay or paypal email. Make sure you look at the web address to make sure it’s really an official website. If the link brings you to www.joeshmoe.com, you know it’s not an official email from ebay or paypal.

Another way people get scammed on ebay is the old “I never got it routine”. I can’t even count how many times this has happened to me. It’s probably happened around 100 times or more. Even though someone signed for the item. Ebay and paypal still take the buyers word over yours (A new ebay thing that is unfair to sellers).
This scam works like so; the customer pays and you send the item. The person reports that they never received it. You usually get a negative feedback and have to send the money back to the customer or another item. So the seller looses out twice.

Another popular scam that still happens to people on ebay is; the stolen credit card payment through paypal. A buyer will buy an expensive item and pay you through paypal. You ship the item and think the transaction went smoothly. A few weeks later you receive a chargeback on paypal.
Guess what? The guy who you shipped the item to used a stolen credit card to pay. Now you lose out on the value of the item you shipped. You lose twice, because you also owe paypal the money that was sent to you from the stolen credit card transaction. Since a few weeks have passed, this can really damage your business.

The best thing you can do to avoid these types of transactions; is to not let new ebayers bid on your high priced auctions. I know it sounds mean not to let anyone new bid. We were all new on ebay at one time or another. But don’t take the chance of someone with a feedback rating of 0 or less bid on any of your high priced auctions. If they do bid, just retract the bid to have it removed.

Most scammers use new accounts to rip you off. This is because their last account got suspended for the same thing. Then they sign up with a new account and try their scam again. Until they rip someone else off and ebay suspends them again.

Another popular scam not only found on ebay. The famous Nigerian check scam. This person will win your auction and ask if they can pay by money order or cashiers check. Then they will go on to talk about how they have a friend in the USA and they want you to ship the item there. They will also offer to pay you more than the item costs. Then they will ask you to send the difference of the money to the person when you ship the item.

This sounds good, right? Wrong! Think about it. Who is going to send you more money than the item is worth? It turns out the check is fake. By the time your bank notices it, a month or more has gone by. Now you owe the bank money on top of the item and cash you sent the scammer.

The best way to avoid this scam is, don’t fall for it. If you do get a check or money order for something; call the bank that the money order or check is from. Make sure that person has an account and the check or money order is real.

These are just a few popular scams that have been floating around ebay for years. Be careful and use your head with every transaction. If you have any questions just email me.

Thanks for reading everyone!