Avoid getting ripped off online

One of the most popular and widely used marketplace online is eBay, utilized by millions of people internationally. Unfortunately, where there are huge number of people in one place, there are also bigger chances of encountering with scammers. There many different stories of people who got ripped off by other members on eBay either as a buyer or as a seller. But there are ways to minimize your chances of being victimized by these scammers.

Here are some tips you might want to try:

Always check member feedback. Ebay provides feedback system as an aide to help tell the reputation of each eBay member. More positive feedbacks given by more fellow members means that such member have history of great, pleasant transactions with other members and is more likely the right eBayer that you want to buy from or sell to. Negative feedbacks says it all, negative, take it as a warning for you. More negative means more warnings for you. If an eBay member have zero feedback, be more guarded and cautious as well.

Too good to be true. Some deals might be too nice to believe. Trust your instinct. Most reliable eBay sellers are not selling on eBay because they feel like they need to give away like a Santa Claus. One way or another, many people try to make some bucks as supplementray income for their family. So if you feel like you are getting such a deal, too good to be true deals, ask the question why? If an item is worth $100 in stores, and you are getting the product for $5, do you think its for real? Do you think the seller will be reliable, worth dealing with?

If in doubt, ask! If seller provides any unclear description, unclear photos, ask seller for clarifications or verifications. That way you will not be assuming and guessing. If you are buying used item, ask seller if there are any flaws or damages to the item, specially if the description seems short and sound shady and incomplete. Conditions that says excellent, great, good, fair, mint tell you something about the actual condition in general about the product, not specifics. So if specific description is not indicated like why is it fair not excellent? Ask the seller before you bid or buy.

For eBay sellers, its always a great idea to require clearing period for any Money Order or Personal Check payments prior to shipment of any orders to make sure that such payment is not fake check or not be cancelled. Since such process will affect the delivery time, make sure that you mentioned the clearing period in your descriptions, specify days like 8-10 work days.

For eBay sellers, having a confirmation or tracking number for any items being shipped will basically tell the seller if the buyer received the item or not. Its also always good to know if the packages are successfully shipped that way.

If you are receiving emails from eBay, make sure that it really originated from eBay site. If you are not sure, you can also login to eBay site directly and use the MyEbay > Messages instead, where all real eBay messages are also sent.

So if you follow some of the tips mentioned above, you minimized your chances of being a scam victim. Remember, its always good to trust your gut feeling, be cautious and be observant.


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Written by JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: The author is not affiliated with eBay in anyway, this article is solely based on personal experience and opinion.