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.
