How to Avoid Getting Scammed on Ebay

EBay has pretty much anything a person could want to buy, as it is essentially a worldwide garage sale. There is, however, a downside to this worldwide garage sale, and that is the risk of falling prey to eBay fraud. To avoid getting scammed on eBay takes a cautious nature and the ability to follow a few simple steps.

Instructions

1. Compare the pricing of any item you may want purchase on eBay with the retail price of the item at commercial sites selling the item. While the object of shopping on eBay is to find a bargain, if the item's pricing is way below the retail price, it may be a scam. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

2. Check each sellers rating to avoid getting scammed on eBay. Most every seller on eBay has a list of people that have done business before with seller and rates and comments on the transaction. If the seller has any negative feedback, you need to be leery of the merchandise they are hawking. There are some new sellers with no ratings, and some have fraudulent ratings--the rating system is not foolproof.

3. Stay calm during any auction and do not get carried away in the bidding process. One prevalent scam on eBay is when the seller's partner or the seller himself purposely bids up a item in the hopes another person will attempt to outbid him. Therefore, it is important that you set a budget for each item and stick to that budget during the bidding process.

4. Avoid making any payments through Western Union, MoneyGram or other any other cash-payment system. You want an electronic or paper trail for the transaction in case it was a scam. Credit cards are the safest way to make a payment on eBay, followed by escrow service, personal check, debit card and PayPal. In addition, do not wire money directly from your bank account if possible.

5. Settle all the transactions through the eBay auction system. Some sellers will email you and try to get you to buy the item directly from them and bypass the protection of an eBay transaction system. If someone emails you about an item outside of eBay, tell her you will only bid through eBay.

6. Stop any transaction where the seller changes email addresses during the transaction. This could mean he is trying to cover tracks by not using the email address on his eBay account.

7. Keep any items you sell on eBay until the buyer's money clears your bank and is in your account. If you asked for payment by check, just wait until the check arrives before you ship the merchandise.

8. Treat your eBay account details just as you would your bank account. If someone were to obtain your account information, she could commit fraud under your name, leaving you will bills and the headaches.