EBay Scams - Seller Edition

It is hard to keep up with all of the scams and scammers who roam EBay on a daily basis. The list is very long and the only way to prevent you from becoming a victim yourself is to educate yourself.

EBay Seller Scams

High Shipping Prices

The high shipping prices are more a pet peeve than a scam but it should be listed as one. For the last few years certain sellers have started raising the fees that they charge for shipping, because they realized that they could make a few extra bucks that way. There is another reason that some sellers charge high shipping prices. If you take a look at MP3 players on EBay, you will notice that some sellers have a Buy It Now price set at a penny and shipping is $99 or so. Many times you will actually be saving money. The seller isn't trying to rip you off; they are actually trying to save money on EBay fees. EBay charges sellers to list a product even if it doesn't sell. If the item is sold, the seller then has to pay EBay a completion fee. These fees rise depending on how much the item is sold for. The problem is, too many sellers are trying to make more money off of you using shipping prices.

The newest cell phones are hot, not only because they have great features, but also because they are light and small and should not even cost $10 to ship, but if you look at some auctions, you will notice that there are sellers who want you to pay upwards of $50 or more just on shipping alone. Some argue that you have the option of not buying from that seller, which is true, however some items are hard to find and the only people that sell them are those charging high prices and you don't have much of a choice, if it is something that you cannot find somewhere else. They have the choice to charge what they want when it comes to naming their price, for shipping however, I think they are scamming their own customers by charging 50 to over 100% more than the actual shipping cost. I once spent over three hours searching through EBay for an MP3 player and was extremely disappointed as 99% of the sellers were charging shipping that was completely inflated. This is against EBay's rules, but they haven't done that much to stop it.

Seller Does Not Send Product

The biggest scam on EBay is sellers not sending the product that you paid for. Over the years there have been sellers who have made tens of thousands and in some case millions, selling products that they do not have. If you don't receive a product that you paid for, it's not a guarantee that it is fraud. It could simply be a case of a Powerseller who gets 10,000 or more sales a week and yours was simply lost. Contact the EBay seller and let them know. If you are held off for days with excuses or your email goes unanswered then you should quickly file a claim with Paypal if that is what you used to make the purchase. While Paypal does allow you to try and get your money back, it is only available for a limited time and fraudulent sellers will attempt to waste time to prevent you from getting your money back.

Seller Sends An Empty Package

You might wonder why a seller would go through the trouble of sending you an empty package, but the truth is very simple. Many buyers have become frustrated with EBay and there other company Paypal because they have discovered a little loophole that bad sellers can take advantage of. When you file a claim with Paypal to say that you never received your product, Paypal will ask for a tracking number. The seller will give them the tracking number and in most cases you will lose because that number doesn't say what the package was or what was in it. All they know or care to know is that the seller sent you something, even if it was an empty box or envelope.

Seller Bait and Switch

You see the picture of an item in the auction and it's just what you wanted. You send the payment and wait to receive your product. After a few days a box arrives and its not what you paid for and it certainly is not what the seller advertised. This is known as a bait and switch. The seller showed you one item but sent another. It could simply be a mistake in some cases. Contact the seller and let them know. If they say that it was an accident and want you to send back the product, do so, but be sure to get a tracking number to prove that you did.

Broken or Dirty Products

Some auctions, especially if they are clothing items, will be delivered to you absolutely filthy. Some sellers do not seem to understand that even if you bought a used dress, it should be washed and in clean condition. You are within your right to return it for a refund. This also goes for fragile items such as dishes and ornaments. Sellers will take a picture of only one side and when you receive it, you will find that it is chipped or has cracks that they were never mentioned in the auction.

Stamp Collector Fraud

A few years ago buyers and sellers complained so hard in the EBay chat rooms about fake stamps that EBay got involved. How did they fix the problem? Well, they simply got rid of the stamp forums. They did this because victims and people who are very educated in the stamps would come in and warn others about the scams. There are different variations of this scam that is still ongoing today. Some sellers would sell what they claimed were real collectors items. Stamps that were worth hundreds of dollars sometimes. The truth is that those "rare" stamps were fake and buyers did not know until they took them to be appraised. Another scam used real stamps. Really cheap stamps that is. The sellers would buy stamps that were not worth much because they were used (someone mailed them a letter with them and a cancelled stamp was put on them) dirty, ripped or the perforations were damaged or crooked. The scamming sellers would then fix the stamps by correctly aligning the perforations or bleaching them to remove the cancellation stamp. They would then sell them for much more than they themselves paid for it.

Mystery DVD Auctions

I call this a mystery auction because DVD sellers will tell you that you are getting 100 DVD's for a low price like $50 or less. They will also tell you that it includes blockbuster movies or new releases. Another line they like to use is, "These movies feature some of today's top like Sandra Bullock, Sharon Stone, etc". What they actually mean is you will be lucky to receive one or two newly released movie and the other movies contains major stars yes, but these are the movies that the stars wished they had never made. They are movies you have never heard of and will likely throw in the garbage, where the scripts themselves should have been tossed.

Mystery Auctions

Be very wary of these mystery auctions. EBay has since stopped allowing people to post them, but of course people will always find a way around the rules. Mystery auctions are bad because some people are too curious for their own good and will bid on it them, not knowing what kinds of things they will receive. Looking through one of these auctions, you will realize that the seller is pretty vague about what might be included. To entice buyers they might write a few hints and tell you that hey it might contain electronics. When you win the auction and get the package you will in most cases find that you just bought a box of junk that you would not have taken for free.

Payment Scams

One of the oldest scams besides not sending your products is the payment scam. Some sellers will try to get you to send money by wire transfer or through a money order. The next thing you know, you have never received the product and there is no help because you later find out that the seller is in another country and have covered there tracks.

Hijacked Seller Accounts

You can easily find yourself falling victim to this scam. The reason is that most people look to a seller's feedback to learn more about them and to see if they are legit. This can backfire if someone has stolen their account information. Some sellers have had people steal their accounts. What these criminals do is, they post up expensive items such as computers and laptops and when you send the money, they take it and run. You, EBay and sometimes the police and other buyers are left blaming the seller who owns this account, when they are also a victim themselves.

Getting Rid of the Competition

This one is actually a seller to seller dispute. One check of EBay will show you that just about every product has multiple sellers, so you can usually comparison shop for the best deal. However some sellers have turned nasty because they are losing business to their competition. How do they deal with this problem? Try to lower their prices, write better auctions or give away something free? No. They decide to be underhanded. These bad sellers will contact EBay and complain that the competition has stolen some portion of their auction or is selling them that are trademarked by them. EBay does not contact you or try to investigate. They simply shut down your auction and send you a bland pre-written statement letting you know that if this happens again, you just might lose your account and reputation that you worked hard on. There usually is not much that an accused individual can do.

Counterfeit Products

You see a Gucci purse that usually sells for thousands of dollars on EBay for only $50? Use common sense. Chances are that bag is as fake as a three dollar bill. There are a lot of Asian imports on EBay and you can find many of them in the DVD and clothing auctions. Besides the Asian imports, there are simply many fake items that of course include stamps, coins, sports cards and many other collectible items. If it's too good of a deal you really should pass on it and also look at a seller's feedback.

Fakes and Jewelry Lies

Even jewelry is a risk when buying on EBay. There is a lawsuit pending that Tiffany's has filed against EBay. The reason? Sellers are posting up lots of products that they claim are from Tiffany's. The pictures look like the real thing but once you get the product in your hand, it is clear that Tiffany did not make this subpar jewelry. The scammers even go so far as to completely copy the box and pouch that are Tiffany's trademark. Another jewelry scam is that sellers will place an auction for a certain piece of jewelry and they will mention that it sells for a high price in retail stores and tell buyers that they can get it for a bargain. Once bought and taken to an appraiser you found out that even if the product is real, it is no where close to the retail price that the seller posted. The third jewelry scam is that the product is absolutely and completely fake. Think glass instead of diamonds or cubic zirconium.

Paying Outside of EBay

There are sellers who will try to convince you to send cash or a money transfer to pay for a product but as I mentioned before, that is a very bad idea. If you do so, you will have no proof and no way of protecting yourself if the person does not send you the product. Scammers will even email you with an enticing offer and want you to do a transaction outside of EBay because they claim that it will save them from paying huge seller fees. While this is true for some, the majority is just trying to rip you off and leave you no way to get your money back once you discover the scam. No matter how tempting it is, you should never do any transactions outside of EBay. Do not answer emails sent asking you to buy an item. The whole point of EBay is to see an item and either bid on it or Buy It Now. There is no reason you should be handling things through email, which will leave you no way to get your money back, unless you take the person to small claims court. That is if they live in the same place as you do. If they are overseas you can kiss that money goodbye.

Second Chance Offers

When a buyer lists an auction, they have to choice to put an amount that they want for the product. If the bidding does not reach that amount, the seller does not have to sell it to you. If the seller decides to, they can contact you later and tell you that they have decided to accept your lower offer and you would become the winner of the auction. Another way to use the second chance offer option is the winning bidder does not go through with the auction and the seller decides to see if any other bidder would like to buy it. However, the moment the second chance offer option was put in place, the scammers found a way to take advantage of it. What they do is they keep an eye on certain auctions and when it is completed; they will send the losing bidders an email telling them that the winner did not go through with payment and that you can get the item. You send payment and then start emailing the seller when the item does not show up. You will be surprised to find out that the seller has no idea what you are talking about. The truth is that some third person sent you the email sometimes with a fake link and that is who you sent money too. Congratulations, you've just been scammed.

Scam Quickies

Picture Only Scam - You see the beautiful picture and wonderful written auction for lets say a computer or laptop. You and others bid and eventually you are the winner. A few days or weeks later you recieve an envelope and in it is the beautiful picture of the product. What you didn't realize is that the person was only selling the picture of the product. If you contact the seller they will tell you that you should have read the auction better because they said it was only a picture. When you check, you see that they are right. The fine print that was hardly legible did indeed state that you were bidding on a picture. No matter what they say, this is a scam. They know that nobody is going to pay a few hundred or even thousands of dollars for a picture. Your only course of action? Take them to court, if they live in your country that is.

Shill Bidding - You bid on an auction and someone outbids you. This person keeps on bidding and raises the price. Shill bidding is something that is done by the seller of the product. They or an acquaintance will bid to try and make the product sell for more money. This is against EBay's rules.

Page Referral - This is something that is happening more frequently. What happens is a seller will input some html code into their auction page when they are creating it. When an unknowing victims clicks to go view the auction, the page will take them to another place and they will get spyware, trojans and other nasty computers bugs even if they have an antivirus protector on, since some of these things will turn off your protector. Another thing that these pages can do is once clicked on, a page will come up asking you to sign into EBay again. The problem is, this is a fake EBay page and when you type your login, you have now given it to the scammers who will steal your account and maybe do things that will end up getting you in trouble.

These are only a few of the scams that float around EBay on a daily basis and there are probably many that have not been reported yet. As we know, these kinds of people are always thinking up ways to make an easy dollar and they do not care who they take it from.