1. NO PROTECTION: If you deal with OotUS sellers, you have virtually NO PROTECTION in getting your money back. The FBI won't act because they've got better things to do than chase after someone being scammed out of some money. Interpol won't act either for the same reason. The criminal laws in each country are different too and do you have the time & money to hire a lawyer in the scammer's country AND to travel back and forth OR to spend gobfuls of money on international long distance calls? Do you even speak in Romanian, Russian, Thai, Tagalog, French, etc.?? There has been a case in the Ukraine of some buyers getting their money back, but that's rare and you have to go through a lot of hard work, spending money, contacting other bidders and pushing the police and FBI to do something. There will never be any protection for buyers here unless it's regulated by the government and the government gets ebay to get off their collective asses to provide better security and better disclosure and protection for buyers.

2. CORRUPT THIRD WORLD: Most third world countries like the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Thailand, India, Russia, etc. are so poor and so corrupt that the corruption reaches to the government. If you're dealing with an OotUS seller in the third world, you will have to deal with their corrupt governments and someone being scammed out of their money is LOW ON THE TOTEM POLE of crimes that police go after in these countries. In fact, getting an HONEST lawyer in a third world country is near impossible. And depending on who is head of the country, they might not even act on your complaint for many years. Some of these scam countries have such bad reputations that they are changing their ebay auction ad locations. You see that the location of the laptop is "Andorra"?? Andorra=Romania. Ebayers won't buy from Romanians so now these Romanian scum scam vampires have changed their location to Andorra.

2.1 BAD ENGLISH EMAILS OR ADS: These scammers usually have bad english in their email or ads or if they have good english, ask them enough questions and their english will sink down a sewer .

Here's an actual VERY FUNNY BAD ENGLISH EXAMPLE of a Chinese scammer selling his non-available or possibly available but COMPLETELY FAKE Luis-Vuitton high priced designer handbags

My dear friend
thank you for you view the item which of me on ebay  i am going on the
 successful with you believe and support i am looking forward the
friend from the world and hope doing succeed  in the business in the
world  please believe that i am a honest man and will supply you the
best service if there is something need i help please email me anytime
i will do my best to solve it in a short time .in order to let my
every customer could get the item as soon as possible i choose the
air mail (EMS) send the item ,usually the item will arrive in 3-7 days
 if you still haven't get the payment within 10 days ,after i get the
payment you could unconditioned report the ebay ,if you have some
question please email me.
 shipping cost : GBP30.00.  insurance: GBP3.00.
Check out my other items!
Description:
You are bidding on Louis Vuitton Handbag  . You will be recieving the
 exact same item that you see in the pictures. so best bags if you
wear it ,it will not   only   show your nobleness but also could
bring the happiness to you .If you have any question, Please  message
to me! I will reply to you in less than 24 hours. thank you so much
for looking and good bidding! have a nice day!
We accept payment way :
1. Moneygram  go to www.moneygram.com
2. Bank Wire transfer you could use this way to payment (If you choose Bank Wire trasfer)
3. Personal check we can accpt personal chek,but you have to wait for
a long time. we send your itmes,untilwe get money from our bank
4. West union money transfer go to www.westernunion.com
5.Bidpay go to www.bidpay.com  
6.Money bookers go to www.moneybookers.com

3. SCAM MONEY WIRE TRANSFER OR BANK DEPOSIT TRANSFER OR FAKE BUT LEGIT-LOOKING ESCROW SITE: almost 10 times out of 10, OotUS sellers will ask for a money wire transfer (WU, Egold, Moneygram, you name it) or direct deposit into their account or a fake escrow site lying to you that you are protected and it's 100% GUARANTEED by himself and these companies and ebay. And if they change their terms in their email asking for money wire transfer and/or fake escrow and/or money transfer deposit instead of the other payment methods listed on his auction, you can file a report that the seller changed the auction TOS after the auction was completed and that can be used as a defense for any Non Performing Buyer report that is filed against you.

5. THE SCAM EMAIL THAT CUTS THE DEAL: almost 10 times out of 10, OotUS sellers will try to cut you a deal so that they're not found out by ebay and will close their auction immediately and try to email you to cut a deal whether it be free shipping, 10% to over 50% off. Again, real sellers don't operate this way. a real seller can't afford to give away shipping and certainly wouldn't want to give anything away for any percentage. a real seller comes here to have bidders bid the highest price for the item, not the lowest price. for the same reason, a real seller never closes his auction early and then offer to email you, especially if he's got something $$$ valuable.

6. INTERNATIONAL ISSUES: You have to deal with compatability and other issues with OotUS sellers. Just because it works in Europe doesn't mean it works or is illegal in the U.S.

Examples of things different outside the U.S.:

a. ebay will not list the addresses/phone numbers of sellers outside the USA after you win the auction and try to search ebay for the Contact Info.
b. Different electrical outlets in the US (laptops, electronics, appliances, etc)
c. legality within different countries---tougher U.S. Environmental standards (cars)
d. format is PAL in Europe and not in the US (example: VCR's)
e. platforms make one region of the world unplayable in the other region of the world (e.g. Playstation 2)
f. TAXES: high custom taxes and VAT taxes into the US, especially for high $$$ stuff
g. any other issue(s) i haven't brought up here which you should make yourself aware of, depending on the item you're bidding on

7. SCAM PAYPAL ACCOUNTS: Lately, I've heard of OotUS scammers suckering people with Paypal accounts to lend them use of their accounts and forwarding ebayer bidders' payment to them in exchange for a free *you name it* or a small fee or a %age of the bid price without telling them the truth. BE VERY CAREFUL!! I've heard some of the OotUS sellers try to bribe clueless paypal people (without their knowledge) into letting them use their paypal account or the scam sellers will get their friends, relatives, etc in the U.S. to help them with the Paypal Accts! Is Related to "Money Laundering."

Example of letter from ootUS Scammer to a Paypal User to gain access to Paypal Acct so he can scam ebayers with "his Paypal Acct"

Paypal Acct Scammers Link

Here's the MSNBC article (with portions I considered unnecessary and deleted) of Romanian ootUS Scammer Sellers mimicking legitimate websites and switching to direct account transfers and paypal (thru the use of "intermediaries," or "agent" accomplices--See #9 in this section) since ripped off ebayers will no longer send thru WU

8. OotUS Criminal MINORITIES: OotUS sellers are the most likely to use stolen CC numbers, especially for registering on ebay which can be gotten in various forums on the web. Even in non-poor countries like the UK, the Netherlands (Norway, Sweden, etc.), etc., there can be scam sellers because most of the time, the scam OotUS sellers are "minorities" within these big European countries like the Romanian gypsies, Nigerian scammers, Asian scammers, etc. (Like i said, i bought a video from a seller in the UK since I thought stupidly that most sellers in the UK are honest and i never thought there would be any scammers there which was all wrong!!)

9. "Send Payment to Me Outside the U.S." AFTERWARDS EMAIL: Because they know ebayers are on to their scams, OotUS sellers will list their country as the U.S. but email you later to send your money off to Romania, the UK, Thailand, Philippines, etc. NEVER FALL FOR THIS. THIS IS DEFINITELY A SCAM. Report them to ebay for invalid contact info as your defense and if they change their terms in their email asking for money wire transfer and/or fake escrow and/or money transfer deposit instead of the other payment methods listed on his auction, you can file a report that the seller changed the auction TOS after the auction was completed and that can be used as a defense for any Non Performing Buyer report that is filed against you.

10. "INTERMEDIARY" or "AGENT" U.S. SELLERS: and recently a scam where U.S. JOBSEEKERS on places like Monster.com, hotjobs.com, etc are scammed into being "ebay sellers" for scammers in other countries (since ebayers are scared about sending money overseas but ok about sending money within the U.S.) so that the scammed jobseekers send your (buyer) payments outside the country. MAKE SURE TO CHECK & VERIFY THE CONTACT INFO (P.O. Boxes, PMB(Personal Mail Boxes), Suite #'s that are not really offices, cell phone numbers, answering machines/service, locations that are just being "used" by the seller but not where he lives and/or hard to contact the seller ARE RED FLAGS!!) AND ASK THE PERSON YOU'RE TALKING TO ON THE PHONE IF THEY ARE THE SELLER WHO LISTED THE AUCTION ON EBAY, WARN THEM THAT THIS IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE IF THEY ARE INVOLVED IN A "JOBSEEKING" SCHEME BY AN "EMPLOYER" OR IF THEY'RE ACTING AS AN "AGENT" OF AN "EMPLOYER" OR "COMPANY" OR OTHER INDIVIDUAL OR GETTING SOME SORT OF REWARD FOR PERFORMING A PAYPAL AND/OR EBAY SERVICE FOR SOMEONE ELSE. Is Related to "Money Laundering." Can Also be Related to "Drop Shipping Sellers" since Russian scammers are "recruiting" U.S. sellers and pretending to be "drop shippers." Look at "Drop Shipping Sellers."

Here are emails between the ootUS scammer "employer" and a "employee Correspondance Assistant" he's interviewing.

Here is an ootUS Russian scam seller pretending to be in the U.S. by using stolen CC's to buy products from retailers and using Chinese students in the U.S. as "agent sellers"

-----------------------------------------OR the scam sellers will get their friends, relatives, etc in the U.S. to help them by listing their friend or relative as the " ebay seller" and the friend, relative or whoever doesn't even KNOW it and forwards the money to the scam seller outside the U.S.

Lately, there has been another sort of "Agent" scam where the international scammer sends a letter to many legitimate ebay sellers. The "letter" says they are a large company which is looking for distributor type agents where sellers on ebay can make commissions by "selling" their many (later to be learned nonexistent) "products" and by providing use of their paypal accounts. Some sellers fall for it. Other sellers probably notice it may be a scam but think they can get away innocent of the crime of money laundering and fraudulent theft of funds since they're just the "distributor."

NOTE: THE PATTERN FOR "INTERMEDIATE" OR "AGENTS" IS THE SAME.

1. YOU THE BUYER SEND PAYMENT (CHECK, MONEY ORDER, PAYPAL, ETC.) TO U.S. SELLER.
2. SELLER SENDS BUYER'S PAYMENT OUTSIDE THE U.S. (TO "INTERNATIONAL COMPANY"=SCAMMERS)
3. SELLER MAY OR MAY NOT DIRECTLY HANDLE SHIPMENTS COMING FROM SCAMMER(USING STOLEN CREDIT CARDS) TO BUYER. IF THE SCAMMER SENDS DIRECT TO YOU THE BUYER, THE PACKAGE WILL LOOK PROFESSIONALLY WRAPPED, NEW, LIKE A REAL RETAILER PACKAGED IT.
4. BUYER PAYMENT ACCEPTED BY SELLER CAN BE ANYTHING INCLUDING PAYPAL SINCE THE U.S. SELLER IS NAIVELY ALLOWING THE SCAMMER TO USE HIS PAYPAL ACCT/EBAY ACCT/BANK SERVICES
5. THEN, WEEKS OR MONTHS LATER, THE POLICE COME KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR.

11. "PRE-APPROVED BIDDING" Many LEGITIMATE sellers used to and still do use Pre-approved bidding to get rid of the flaky bidders and buyers. The problem is that the scammers, especially the international ones, are using this method to HIDE what they're doing from the rest of ebay and so listing their auctions as only for "Pre-Approved bidders." How does this scam work? It's basically a way to force YOU to email the scammer first since you're interested in his "item." You have to email the "Pre-approved scam seller" first to be pre-approved and he emails you to wire or send payment to him. Since the rest of ebay doesn't know what kind of transaction is happening between you and the scam seller, he can keep running his scam auctions. And now, you're on the scammers' hit lists for suckers and spoof emails.

12. ACCOUNT HIJACKING CAN MANY TIMES BE A LARGE RED FLAG CLUE TO AN ooTUS SELLER: MANY OF THE CLUES UNDER "ACCOUNT HIIJACKING" WILL ALSO BE FOUND WITH THE ooTUS Sellers, including:

• Phishing Emails,
• Scammer using another Email especially if it's anonymous like Yahoo or Hotmail,
• Running lots of Auctions, especially BIN and/or 1-day or 3-day auctions, especially for expensive items
• private feedback/auctions,
• Low BIN or Low Initial Bid Price Auctions for Expensive items that are too good to be true,
• Seller Currency and/or Location is diffferent,
• Sleazy terms (like Guaranteed everything, just a downpayment needed, real savings, free shipping, Shipping within 1 to 2 days or some other fast short time period (This is a scam since items coming from other countries WILL TAKE LONGER unless you're willing to pay an arm and a leg for Intl Fedex, etc. and even then, the item MUST BE SMALL & LIGHT). Scammer might even say "The deal will go through eBay because this way we are both protected." and then he may even send you an "authentic" ebay email which he hacked together and emailed to you.
• Contact Info discrepancies, etc.