With the current economic condition, consumers are flocking to online auctions like eBay to bid and sell new and used items. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous people that take advantage of the auction. If you, your employees, or family members frequent eBay and other online auction sites, watch out for the following schemes:
“Shill Bidding” – This occurs when a seller has multiple accounts or a group of friends who deceitfully raise bids to up the profit margin on a purchase.
“Bid Shielding” – In this scenario, the buyer with the multiple accounts or group of friend bidders will keep upping their bids but then retract them. This process is used to scare off other bidders from making a bid. Then, the bidder with the lowest bid gets the item for bottom-dollar price.
“Switch and Return” – A buyer will purchase an item from you and return it, only the item they return is not what you sold them but an imposter.
“Fakes and Reproductions” – Sellers may provide a fake certificate of authenticity on collector items. This may be done on rare items purported to be in “mint condition.” Also watch out for wording in the ad that states “to my knowledge” or “I think.” Be especially aware of counterfeit trading cards.
Sadly, those are just a few of the terms and practices of unscrupulous eBay participants. There are other precautions eBay users need to arm themselves with to be able to predict and prevent internet crime that can be found at www.bbb.org.
1. Know who you are dealing with! Find out the seller’s information. Do this by placing a low bid on an item and go to http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQtZvbQQsofindtypeZ9. Enter in “the seller’s name and item number”. EBay will send you the contact information. Then, call this person. Look up the phone number online at www.free411.com and verify their address if provided. “If the phone number does not work, that is a red flag.”
2. As far as payment methods, C.O.D. is ideal as is escrow.com, although somewhat expensive. PayPal is also acceptable, although unless stated in the ad, does not provide you with $2000 coverage protection. If using PayPal it is recommended that you use a credit card. Credit card companies will refund your money if the seller fails to provide the merchandise. Keep away from money transfers, i.e. Western Union and MoneyGram. Typically, a scammer uses money transfers to hide their identity, so law enforcement cannot track them down, especially if they reside in a foreign country where American laws will not protect you. Do not send a check as a method of payment. A tactic that overseas scammers will use is sending an overpayment via foreign cashier’s check. Then, they want left over monies sent to them via Western Union.
3. Be wary of fake eBay and PayPal sites. If a hot link is listed, place your cursor over it and look at the URL on the bottom. If the two do not match up, there is a problem. Also if there is no “s” in the “https:” web address, the link is not a secure site. DO NOT add your personal information here. This is how scammers access your eBay ID and password, credit card, and other personal information.
4. Another red flag to watch for is if the buyer or seller only wants to work with you through email. It is likely the account is stolen, especially if they are asking for payment via money transfer. Money transfers have to be requested via email because eBay will not publish these types of requests on their site.
5. Other red flags eBay tells you to watch out for are: auctions that hide the bidders, sloppy English, products located in a different location than the seller, ads missing the eBay “buy-it-now” button, products listed in the wrong category, (which scammers will do, since certain categories are flagged as “SCAM AUCTIONS”.)
6. Keep your password and account secure. Ignore pop-ups that may request personal information. Make sure your computer is protected by updated anti-virus and firewall software. Set your security options in your web browser to alert you when a website is unsafe. Always type out URL addresses provided by eBay and PayPal to ensure that you do not click on malware. Never send your personal information via email. Be careful about opening attachments, which may also contain malware.
7. Be familiar with the product you are buying to ensure you don’t purchase imitations.
8. Be leery of quick-sell auctions, as opportunists will always pressure you into buying but won’t always deliver.
9. Consider paying the extra money to the post office to get a tracking number so the post office can help locate your item if lost or stolen.