QUIZ ANSWERS

36. Misrepresentation makes up what percentage of ripoffs on ebay?

a) 10%-20%
b) 30%-40%
c) 60%-70%

C. Very common. Even with a picture, scam/bad/poor sellers will misrepresent. Even if you email them (as suggested by ebay forum sellers), they will lie to you and misrepresent.

37. I made my password my wife's name. I'm real smart, especially after I talked about her with other ebayers and/or on the ebay boards and/or on the internet.

False. That was really stupid. NEVER use a personal fact or personal preference as your password. Hackers routinely attempt to hack accounts this way.

38. If you suspect the seller of being a scammer, it's considered by ebay "auction interference" to check up on a seller's auction by emailing that seller's other bidders about your suspicions.

TRUE. EBAY is pretty much a scammer's paradise. The only time it's NOT auction interference is AFTER the auction ends AND you're the "auction winner" AND you're only contacting FORMER buyers about info about the seller.

But no, you can't warn any other bidders in any of this scumball's ongoing auctions what a scumball this scam seller is.

39.
Here's the seller's ebay profile comments. He has 200+ feedbacks, 99% positives, 1 negs/neutrals. Most of the feedbackers are buyer feedbackers. Let's assume you're bidding on a $1,000 item on his May 18, 2004 auction.

Why would you NOT bid on this seller's auctions??

May 15, 2004's comment says the seller didn't ship another component of the item. But MORE IMPORTANTLY, there are NO OLD AUCTIONS TO COMPARE WITH!! How do you compare his May 18 auction with only 2 other auctions that had details?? For something that's $1,000, very expensive, I at least want to know what all the other buyers bought and from what location and the auction details of those other buyers. From what I can see of the buyers on and before February 14, 2004, they mostly bought BOOKS which are USUALLY NOT EXPENSIVE, around $5-$20, especially from ebay's half.com. I personally would not bid on this auction since it smells like SCAMMER!!! Of course, you could email a lot of the former buyers to ask them what he sold and where he was located but just my instincts would tell me---SCAMMER!! He could be a feedback padder or feedback shiller or acct hijacker.

In fact, around June of 2004, a buyer bought a $1,000 item from this seller which turned out to be defective and the seller wouldn't respond to the buyer's emails except for once to tell the buyer that he would just start up a new I.D. to get rid of the negs.

40. The seller is a seller on a website on the internet outside of ebay. His address and phone number and business name are verified and MATCH EXACTLY in the phone directory.

Therefore, It's o.k. to buy from this seller.

NOT YET. Check:

  1. well-known magazines with articles that CRITIQUE them and their products and not just mention them as a link
  2. your friends/family/co-workers/neighbors/associates who use them
  3. business critique ratings websites e.g. planetfeedback.com, epinions.com, ripoffreport.com, complaints.com, etc.
  4. for duplicate item ad details on other sites. You may be dealing with scammer(s) who copy other website details so that they can get your CC info.
  5. rating bureaus like BBB but KEEP IN MIND SOME AGENCIES LIKE THE BBB HAVE THEIR OWN $$$ MOTIVATIONS FOR POSSIBLY POSTING INCORRECT INFORMATION FAVORABLE TO THE SELLER
  6. their LOCAL TAX BOARDS & BUSINESS LICENSE(S)
  7. THE HUMAN BEING!! CALL the business so you can ask them WHAT WEBSITE URL ADDRESS(es) they use and CHECK that they're NOT JUST A FAKE ANSWERING MACHINE/SERVICE.
  8. up neighboring businesses and/or people near that business to see what they think of that business' integrity. Using the phone directory and/or internet, call the nearby businesses and/or people around them and ask them questions. What does the business's building and interior look like? Is that business open 40 hours a week? Do many customers come in and out of that business? Have they used that business' service? If so, what was their experience? How long has that business been present at that location? Is the business regularly selling new products or more incoming products? **MANY HIJACKED ACCOUNTS WILL HAVE SCAMMERS "UPDATING" THE ORIGINAL ACCOUNT HOLDER'S EBAY REGISTERED EMAIL, ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER TO THEIR ADDRESS. SO BEWARE YOU MAY BE TALKING TO THE SCAMMER ON THE PHONE.

  9. EMAIL THE OTHER FEEDBACKERS FOR CONTACT INFO & THE COST/DESCRIPTION OF ITEM THEY BOUGHT/SOLD & WHAT THEY THOUGHT OF THE SELLER.

I've heard the ebay Contact Info no longer has the address. That's right-->>Ebay just makes it easier for bad/scam sellers to SCAM. THAT MEANS AS A BUYER YOU NOW ARE DEALING WITH A TOTALLY ANONYMOUS PERSON. IT'S SCAM CITY ON EBAY. I CAN ONLY RECOMMEND THAT IF THAT PHONE NUMBER THAT'S GIVEN ON EBAY HAS NO PHYSICAL LOCATION IN THE YELLOW PAGES WHICH YOU HAVE VERIFIED, DO NOT SEND PAYMENT!! IN FACT, TELL YOURSELF 1000 TIMES TO NOT BID ON EBAY AFTER THAT!!

41. Most designer brand items on ebay aren't counterfeits. Even if they're counterfeits, they're good knock-offs.

FALSE. Most designer brand items on ebay over 99% ARE FAKES. If you're just looking for knockoffs, they're pretty bad-looking & cheap-looking on ebay as well as illegal for both the buyer as well as the seller. Also, many knockoffs are MADE IN CHINA, that's right, similar to what you would pay for a "cheap lookalike" or "cheap almost-like" designer item in Walmart which everybody can tell is a fake.

42. Many experienced buyer feedbackers with 200+ feedbacks commented on my seller that he's o.k. so it's o.k. that I buy that $1,000 laptop from him.

False. Most newbie ebayers do not realize that just because the buyer is experienced MEANS NOTHING. If the item he bought was a 1 cent doodad or even a $100 item, that's FAR different from $1,000!! You need PROOF of at least 5 or 6 other auctions where the seller has sold items worth more than $1,000.

43. My seller has 58,000 feedbacks, 98% positives. The negs don't look too damaging and the negs look o.k. since most of the buyers are new ebayer buyer feedbackers are 0 or low feedbackers. It's o.k. buying items from this seller.

False. It's too easy to pad and shill one's feedback especially when a seller has THOUSANDS of feedbacks. 2% of 58,000 feedbacks is TOO MANY NEGS above 999 negs. Avoid this seller.

44. I can only find my item from a seller outside the US. He has excellent feedback and I've checked his feedback backwards & forwards. Can I check his contact info in ebay's database?

No. Ebay has closed Contact Info for any ebayer located outside the USA. This is one other reason (besides that the most successful [and still not punished by their governments] fraud sellers are from outside the USA) that I give advice to choose sellers close to home here in the USA and to avoid sellers outside the USA.

Ebay Contact Info no longer has the address for ANY SELLER IN OR OUT OF THE US. That's right-->>Ebay just makes it easier for bad/scam sellers to SCAM. THAT MEANS AS A BUYER YOU NOW ARE DEALING WITH A TOTALLY ANONYMOUS PERSON. IT'S SCAM CITY ON EBAY. I CAN ONLY RECOMMEND THAT IF THAT PHONE NUMBER THAT'S GIVEN ON EBAY HAS NO PHYSICAL LOCATION IN THE YELLOW PAGES WHICH YOU HAVE VERIFIED, DO NOT SEND PAYMENT!! IN FACT, TELL YOURSELF 1000 TIMES TO NOT BID ON EBAY AFTER THAT!!

45. (5 points) All the feedback and Contact Info was correct, but the seller turned out to still be a bad seller who sent me damaged goods falsely stated as "good condition" in the TOS. The seller has been NARU'd by ebay. I need to go to Court against this fraudster seller. What should I have done once I placed my bid and right after the auction ended?

You should have gathered EVIDENCE. You should have printed out the ENTIRE auction ad including pictures once you placed the bid AND once you won the auction, ALL email & phone transactions between you, the seller, ebay, other 3rd party such as paypal, bidpay, etc. You should have made copies of all payment especially Money Orders, personal checks, cashier's checks. You should have made notes of the time/date you called the seller and what was discussed or what occurred if the seller was not there.

Because the seller is now NARU, ebay will have deleted the auction and you will have less proof of the details of the auction than if you had printed it all out.

46. I was bidding on an auction. The auction's ended. I've just gotten an official ebay email from the seller wanting me to pay him at the specified address. What should I check first (BESIDES CONTACT INFO) before I just send off payment?

Verifying the email sent to you by:

  • checking that you ACTUALLY WON by going to the auction ad to see who the winner is
  • matching the location of where you're told to send payment in the EMAIL MATCHES the LOCATION in the auction ad you won and also matches the rest of the seller's current ads as well as his past auction ads
  • making sure the seller's email is exactly the email being used by this person who's emailing you. And remember, if the seller posts on his ad, "Don't pay attention to the email posted here on ebay....Here's my real email....," or posts on his ad to email him at ANOTHER EMAIL or that he will email you from ANOTHER EMAIL, then that is a scam. The seller's email which is revealed once the auction is over and listed next to the ebay seller's name is the email you should be interacting with.
  • checking that the NAME of the email sender is the same name that is mentioned by the feedbackers in the seller's ebay profile if the name is given. Many ebayers will mention the name of the other transaction partner in the feedback. If the feedbackers are saying "thanx for the great item/prompt shipping, Richard" and "fast payment. Great ebayer! would do biz with you again, Richard" and your email is coming from someone named Gary, RED FLAG!
  • checking that the ENGLISH grammar/spelling in the email is not just some ootUS scammer
  • checking that the CURRENCY is correct
  • checking that the TOTAL AMOUNT OF PAYMENT is correct
  • checking that PAYMENT IS IN A BUYER-SAFE & ACCEPTABLE METHOD and not just in the scammer's hallmark payment methods of WU, moneygram, Egold, other money wire transfer service, bank deposit transfer, fake escrow site that looks legit and that the seller INSIST you use
  • looking out for signs of SLEAZINESS from a scammer like "I'll give you a 50% discount if you buy 10 more...." or "I'll give you more xyzaa... if you pay just this more extra" or "We're guaranteed by ebay and/or paypal and/or other third party"
  • checking that the EMAIL is ACTUALLY ORIGINATING FROM the email address registered with ebay--it could just have html/java/javascript/css coding that's deceiving you into thinking it's coming from the ebay address. Never click anything in the email.

A scammer can just as easily lie to you and email you to send payment as the seller.

47. I won an auction and tried to download the software from the URL the seller emailed me, but there was nothing at that URL. I think i was ripped off. I paid by paypal. I think I'm still covered under Paypal/ebay protection plans.

Nope. NEVER trust Paypal/ebay's protection. There are too many loopholes and one of them is that INTANGIBLES like e-downloads, e-files, virtual online game stuff, etc. are not covered.

48. I get a phishing email with dangerous links. I looked at it and maybe clicked a link but then deleted the email. It's o.k. now for me to continue doing what i normally do with my email.

WRONG. You may have a keylogger program that records your keystrokes. Update your anti-spyware, anti-virus programs and run them. Until you get rid of the keylogger program or other program, you're not safe.

In addition, the scammer has harvested your email.He'll continue to bombard you with phishing/hacking emails. It's best you get rid of that email and get another email, preferably web-based which is specific ONLY to your dealings with ebay/paypal people. Also, I don't use Internet Explorer because of the many vulnerabilities. Keep Internet Explorer as a browser since many websites still need it, but start using another browser now that has less vulnerabilities like Mozilla or Safari.

49. I bought $4000 worth of items a year or so ago from this excellent seller. He's emailing me now and telling me he's got good deals. It's safe for me to buy from him.

BE CAREFUL!! It could be an account hijacker. Is it really the seller's email? If it is, a scammer can still be using his email. Call the seller up by phone AT THE PHONE NUMBER YOU USED A YEAR AGO WHEN YOU DID BUSINESS WITH HIM. Sometimes, the seller could be on vacation or never uses ebay anymore for whatever reason and has no idea a scammer has hijacked his account.


the rest of the answers to the Quiz---Give me liberty from scammers or give me death!

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