eBay Scams: How to Recognize and Avoid the Most Common Ones

Scams on eBay come and go, as more security measures are implemented and payment options become available. Now that Christmas shopping season has arrived, here are some of the most prevalent scams, and how to avoid falling victim to them.

Email scams

There are a number of email scams designed to part you from your money, but there is now a fail-safe way to avoid those. One scam is the phony second-chance offer- there is a legitimate second-chance offer system on eBay that allows sellers to send an offer to a bidder for something the bidder did not win, due to either the top bidder backing out or the seller having more than one of the item. This is not utilized that often, but it has been seized upon by scammers. The phony second-chance offer contains a link that you click on, then a sign in page. Through this, the scammer gets your eBay password and can wreak havoc with your account. Usually this also involves the bidder sending money to the scammer to get the item, which of course never arrives, as the scammer was not the seller of the item. eBay is aware of this scam and warns it's bidders against it. The way to avoid this is to go to your My eBay page, and then to "My Messages" on the left side of the screen. If there is really a second-chance offer, there will be a copy of it there. If not, this was a scam.

Another email scam is the old "account suspension" "tko warning" or "your account needs verification" scam. These are all emailed for one reason- to get you to sign in on their phony sign-in page, where they get your ID and password. The information on the account is then changed, locking you out. The scammer then proceeds to scam buyers from your account. There are a couple of easy ways to combat this- if you get an email like this and are unsure of it, go to the My messages section and check it out. If there is really an account problem, a message will be there waiting for you. No matter what email you receive regarding eBay, never click on a link. Ebay will rarely send an email with a link in it anymore because of the prevalence of these scams, and they always address you by your ebay ID, not by "dear member."

This scam is also pulled with Paypal, eBay's payment service. Paypal scam emails are rampant- I get about three a day some days. This scam is popular because it is the easiest- there is money right there to steal. They can have it sent directly to their bank account if they want to. Never click on anything in an email that looks like it was sent from Paypal, no matter what it says. Paypal has a phone number- if you question something, call them to verify it.

Hijacked accounts

Back in the day, feedback was pretty reliable to tell when a seller might be a scammer. It still is a good indicated, but is no longer so foolproof. The email scams have brought about the era of the hijacked account- where someone has hacked an eBay account after getting the password through an email scam. The account is then used by the scammer to "sell" items to unsuspecting bidders. There are a couple of ways to tell if this might be going on, though none is 100% foolproof. One way to spot a hijacked eBay account is through the feedback- if the feedback shows that the seller has a lot of old feedback, from a year ago or more, and now suddenly is selling high-end electronics for cheap, that's most likely a scam. Look through and see what feedback is for- if the seller has never sold before, but has been buying small items, and suddenly has a couple of very nice cars for sale for cheap, it's a good bet that it's a hijacked account. Also, if you see that an eBay seller has a few inexpensive things for sale, then one or two expensive ones that have a different location listed on the auction than the inexpensive things, that is a good indicator as well.

Fake Escrow

Fake escrows have been around for a couple of years now, and can work a couple of different ways. One is that the eBay seller will ask that you put your funds into a nifty escrow account through a new and wonderful escrow company. After the funds are escrowed, the seller says he will send the item, and if you don't like it, you don't have to release the money from escrow. This makes it sounds like it is a very safe deal where you remain in control of the funds. In reality, the funds are stolen immediately and the escrow company is a sham. Nothing is shipped and the money is gone. Another variation is for a scam buyer to pull the reverse- he tells the seller that he has sent funds to an escrow company, and the seller then gets an official-looking email from the fake company. The bidder may say that he has been scammed in the past and is afraid not to use escrow. The buyer says that after he receives the item, he will release the funds. The item is sent, and the phony escrow company disappears.

If you do get scam eBay or Paypal emails, eBay recommends that you forward them with full headers to spoof@ebay.com, or spoof@paypal.com. This may help to shut down one or two scammers, but with the number of scammers out there, the real way to protect yourself from being scammed is simply to arm yourself with knowledge.