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Watch
Out for eBay
Automobile and
Computer
Scams |
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Watch Out for eBay Automobile and Computer
Scams.
There aren't that many scammers on eBay - but
the ones there are tend to be greedy. This means that they
will always try to pull their scams on high-value items like
cars and computers, so that they can make a lot of money
quickly. Since buyers generally buy these items very rarely,
they may not know about the various scams out
there.
Automobile Scams.
With cars, you will generally find that scammers
try to get you to send them money in advance, for whatever
reason. For some reason, some people aren't all that reluctant
to pay 50% or 25% of the money before delivery using a
relatively insecure payment method, especially on a car. They
reason that the seller will obviously deliver it, as they'll
want the other half of the money.
But there never was a car! Pictures of cars
aren't hard to find, and the experienced scammers will have a
whole library of pictures of different cars. The seller just
got your $5,000 for nothing, and you can leave them all the
negative feedback you like. They'll just go and open another
eBay account and find their next sucker.
While it's not an outright scam, what you might
find is that the car does turn up, but simply doesn't live up
to the description - it has been oversold, in the tradition of
used car dealers through the ages. If this happens to you then
you should open an eBay dispute and say your item was not as
described - you might get a partial refund.
Computer Scams.
If you bid in a computer auction but don't win,
the seller might email you to ask whether you would like to
buy a computer the same as the one they just sold through
their own website.
This is a bad idea! You have no guarantee that
the item will ever arrive, and you haven't just given them
your money - you've given them your credit card details too.
There are sellers with nothing but positive
feedback who use this scam often - and since you won't be able
to leave them any feedback on the transaction, their
reputation will stay that way. If you complain to eBay that
you bought an item outside the site and got scammed, they will
tell you to get lost and not do it again.
How to Beat the Scams.
There are lots of ways to beat the scams. First,
whenever you buy anything expensive, be sure to check your
seller's reputation thoroughly. Make sure they have sold items
of a similar high value before, and haven't just sold a string
of $10 items to get their feedback rating artificially high.
If you want to be even more cautious, insist that the money is
placed in an escrow service (eBay recommend escrow.com - don't
use any other service unless you're sure of
it).
To be honest, it's generally quite a bad idea to
use eBay to buy things like cars and computers to begin with -
you can get them anywhere, and the discounts aren't that big
any more. It's better to use eBay for those rare, special
things that you can't find anywhere else. The next email will
give you some tips for buying collectibles.
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