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Buyer Protection

Most auction fraud involves sellers who:

• fail to send the merchandise
• send something of lesser value than advertised
• fail to deliver in a timely manner
• fail to disclose damage or working condition or other information
  

Before Bidding, determine what you are willing to pay for an item. It is foolish to keep bidding more and more on an item until you pay more than it is worth or more than you could have bought it for in another auction. Find out the value of the item or determine what it is worth to you and don't spend more than that amount. Never bid on an item you don’t intend to buy. If you’re the highest bidder, you are required by law to follow through with the transaction.

Pay attention to the seller's information. If their auction ID says BobonEbay and they send you an email from jane489292@hotmail.com and then ask you to send payment to a PayPal email address of Samthebigman2920020@gmail.com then something is wrong. This person does not know their own name. This is a scammer who has setup several accounts. Make sure your seller has a consistent name before sending any payments.

If a seller ever asks for your Social Security Number, report them to eBay immediately. No one, buyer or seller, ever has any reason to ask for such information.

Never send any payments by Western Union. This is NOT an approved payment method for eBay auctions. Scammers frequently request Western Union payments because they have no buyer protection. You should only pay for auctions using a virtual credit card number or PayPal. Those two methods give you the most buyer protection. Avoid any seller who insists on being paid by any other means.

Do not use any escrow service other than escrow.com(an eBay company). Scammers, both buyers and sellers, setup fake escrow companies to trick people into giving away money or expensive items. Escrow fraud is very common. You should not do business with anyone who wants to use another escrow company.

Read the auction carefully before bidding. Make sure you know whether or not they accept a method of payment that has buyer protection before bidding.

Avoid any seller who makes unusual demands and if any seller sends you a list of 'instructions' after an auction, that usually indicates a scam. Scammers want to take advantage of inexperienced eBay users and they will send detailed instructions on how to send a bank transfer or Western Union payment. The scammer will then collect the money and disappear. Never trust a seller who sends detailed instructions about how to pay.

Avoid any unfamiliar payment services. Scammers frequently try to trick buyers into using unfamiliar payment systems. These systems may have security holes that allow the scammer to steal your money or the sites may be fakes setup by the scammer. It is safest to use PayPal or virtual credit card numbers only for eBay transactions.

Avoid any auction that looks like a contest or any seller who claims you could 'win' or that they are giving a 'free gift' these are frequently scams.

Avoid any auction where the seller does not disclose shipping costs. Dishonest sellers frequently inflate shipping costs if their item does not receive as many bids as they had hoped.

Beware of any seller who wants you to contact them before bidding or who tries to make it sound like the auction could be ended at any time. These are usually come-on's to a scam outside of eBay.

Auctions should be very simple. Find the item you want, place your bid or click Buy It Now, if you win the item click the Pay Now button on eBay which will transfer you to PayPal. Complete the payment at PayPal. You should receive the item within 7 to 10 days. Beware of any seller who wants to complicate this process.

Beware of any sellers who ask you to send payment to Romania or Indonesia. These are high fraud countries and scam sellers frequently offer expensive items without shipping anything.

Never purchase from anyone with under ten feedback ratings or with only a handfull of ratings that were obtained in a short time.

Never purchase from anyone with negative feedback.

You should receive most items within 10 days after payment is received by the seller. If you have not, contact the seller and ask for the tracking number.

If you receive an email that appears to be from eBay or PayPal, DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS IN THAT EMAIL. Scammers send fake look-alike emails that trick people into revealing their passwords on look-alike websites. You should install a security toolbar like the free MyLittleMole toolbar which will warn you if you are tricked into going to one of these sites. This toolbar will also alert you if you go to any of many thousands of other fraudulent websites.

Use an auction analysis tool like the Auction Inquisitor Auction Analyzer to check auctions for signs of fraud before bidding. This free software will alert you to potential signs of fraud in auctions and in seller histories.

See the Seven Keys to Avoiding Scams on eBay for more information on avoiding scams.

Seller Protection

Under federal law, you’re required to list your item and the terms of the sale honestly and accurately. It is against both eBay rules and federal law to make “shill” bids on your own item to raise the price or offer false testimonials about yourself in the comment section of Internet auction sites.

You are required to ship the item within the time frame specified during the auction, or within 30 days, if a time frame is not specified. Normally, items should be shipped within 2 or 3 days at most of the auction end. If a buyer does not receive their item within 10 days, they can rightfully file for a PayPal refund. If you can not ship the item on time, you must give the buyer an opportunity to agree to a new shipping date or to cancel the order for a full refund. To learn more about your responsibilities when shipping products, see A Business Guide to the Federal Trade Commission’s Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule.

You must list your item accurately. State whether it’s new, used, restored, refurbished or other. If you do not disclose damage or you sell an item that is not working as good and working, the transaction may be reversed.

Always include photographs. Photographs not only help items sell but they will avoid confusion and misunderstandings about condition.

Specify shipping costs, and whether or not you will ship internationally.

Beware of buyers who want you to follow complicated instructions. Scammers frequently send long emails with detailed instructions. You should ship to the confirmed PayPal address only. If a buyer asks you to ship to their 'brother' in another state or another country, do not do it. Scammers often use this tactic to trick sellers into shipping items that were paid for with a hijacked PayPal account.

Only ship by a means that has delivery confirmation or tracking. You will have no defense against a charge back if you ship by untraceable means.

When you receive a payment, immediately let the buyer know the payment has been received and when their item will ship. When it ships, you should again contact the buyer and let them know the item has shipped, the tracking or delivery confirmation number, and when to expect it. This will avoid confusion and the buyer will not think their payment went into a black hole. Always communicate with the buyer.

If a buyer insists on using a particular escrow or online payment service that you’ve never heard of, do not do it. You should only use escrow.com(an eBay company). Scammers frequently setup fake escrow companies to steal money and expensive goods.

If any buyer sends you a cashier's check or money order for more than the value of the item, then STOP. DO NOT CASH THOSE they are counterfeit. Scammers frequently send counterfeit payments and then demand the overpaid amount be wired back to them immediately. After the seller sends the overpayment then the checks are returned as counterfeit and the scammer has tricked the buyer into wiring them money. Never ship expensive items paid for by cashier's check or money order until after the payment has cleared(usually 7-10 days but check with your bank).

Beware of any buyers in Romania or Indonesia. These are high fraud countries.

Auction Scams Lead To Real World Scams

Buyers and sellers should be very careful of any telemarketers or unusual postal mail or emails after an auction transaction. Scammers may offer inexpensive items for sale on eBay to collect buyer information, or they may buy inexpensive items from sellers for the purpose of collecting the seller's personal address and phone number. The scammer now has a name, address, and phone number associated with an eBay ID.

They can send customized emails that look exactly like real eBay emails and include your name to make them look authentic. They will also use various telemarketing tricks by calling your phone number and pretending to be a company you know or to have something of interest to you now that they know your auction interests. They will say your name and address to 'verify' they are legitimate. They are never legitimate. They never say they they obtained your information from an auction and will try to obtain more information from you like personal financial information, credit card numbers, or they may convince you to do something unusual as part of some other scam. If your Caller ID shows "Out Of Area" or "Unavailable" it means the caller is intentionally hiding who they are and you should never trust anything they say.

Auction scams often spill over into other email, postal mail and phone scams.

Make sure you have registered your phone number at the government site DoNotCall.gov This is a listing of phone numbers that telemarketers are legally prohibited from calling. If you sign up on this list and a telemarketer calls you, then you know they are trying to scam you because honest telemarketers(if there is such a thing) will not call numbers on the Do Not Call list. You can report violations of the Do Not Call list because that is a federal crime. Charities have an excemption to the Do Not Call list however honest charities honor it anyway because they do not call people who have said they do not want to be called. If a charity calls you, you have no way to verify they are who they claim to be, not even if they send you an official looking brochure.

Resolution

If you have a problem, try to contact the other party. Many problems are simple misunderstandings and can be easily resolved. Email can be unreliable so try both email and the eBay Message Center. If you have used the eBay message center to contact the other party and they have not responded in 3 days, report them to eBay and file for a PayPal reversal if you are the buyer. If you receive the item, you can always cancel the reversal.

Reporting Fraud

File a Fraud Report Here. Our fraud report will collect information and based on your selections it will give you very specific advice on what you should do next and who you should contact. This is the first thing you should do because it will tell you what you should do next.

Who can you turn to? The FBI or attorney general’s office in your state is unlikely to be helpful unless the case involves a large amount of money(over $100,000). Local law enforcement will not be helpful unless the other party is in the same state.

The Better Business Bureau is not a government organization. They collect money from businesses listed on their sites. They will not investigate and will never recover any money for you.

The Federal Trade Commission(FTC) will allow you to file a complaint online at ftc.gov however this information is kept for statistical reasons and no one will investigate your case.

File a Fraud Report at eBay Security so they will know about a problem seller. If you paid by PayPal then you should file for a payment reversal as soon as you suspect something is not right. If you paid by credit card, you should have at least 30 days to file a complaint and recover your money.

If your eBay or PayPal account may have been compromised(unusual transfers to/from PayPal, auctions posted using your account or strange emails from eBay) you should immediately change both your eBay and PayPal passwords, then contact both companies.

Again, file a Fraud Report Here. Our fraud report will collect information and based on your selections it will give you very specific advice on what you should do next and who you should contact.

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