50. Why avoid buying expensive as in 3 digits or over $$$ items on ebay if paying by escrow.com or Paypal via Credit Card or debit card?
First, make sure the CC or debit card is buyer-favorable such that you can get your refund if the item does not arrive or is misrepresented. Second, try to keep the account balance tied to the CC or debit card at a very low amount. Third, if paying by escrow.com, do your research on how escrow.com works before just responding to any email, phone call or letter coming at you "pretending" to be from escrow.com or other "trusted" agency. If the item is truly expensive, have an expert look at it and certify it before allowing escrow.com to release the money for it.Even with these payment types, I advise not to buy expensive items because:
52. You want to bid on an laptop auction from Andorra. What's the other name for Andorra?
Romania. That's right, Romania=LAND OF THE SCUM SCAM VAMPIRES. Heck, just give ME your money. I won't send you anything, either!!53. Here are 2 sellers with their negative feedback comments in detail. Both sellers have about 70% of their transactions with ebayers BUYING something from them ranging from low $ to high $ with their most recent transactions all with buyers. Seller A posted positive feedback for his negative buyer feedbackers once he received payment. All recent feedback for the past 3 months(and there were many that were clickable for auction details) for both sellers do NOT look like feedback padding, feedback shilling, or account hijacking. All positives are strong. None of the positives look "soft." Which seller has better feedback, Seller A or Seller B?
SELLER A
98%, 100 total feedbacks with 2 negatives
| Comment | From | Date/Time | Item |
|---|---|---|---|
Misrepresented item | Buyer 1 (204) | March 14-04 | 7777777777 |
| Never sent item | Buyer 2 (335) | Feb-03-04 | 8888888888 |
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SELLER B
96%, 100 total feedbacks with 4 negatives
| Comment | From | Date/Time | Item |
|---|---|---|---|
| Misrepresented item | Buyer 1 (0) | Aug 04-04 11:03 | 1111111111 |
| Reply by Seller B: Auction ended yesterday Aug 03-04. Retaliatory Feedback bomber. | Aug 04-04 12:00 | Wasn't sent item. Been waiting a long time!! | Buyer 2 (22) | Aug-03-04 11:05 | 2222222222 | Reply by Seller B: I was holding your check. Look at my TOS. | Aug-03-04 12:00 |
Follow-up by Buyer 2: I got the item. Sorry!! Thanx! | Aug 04-04 12:00 |
Didn't give me enough time to pay. Jerk! | Buyer 3 (15) | Aug-02-04 10:04 | 3333333333 | Reply by Seller B: NPB. Been hounding you for weeks to pay! | Aug-02-04 10:22 |
Didn't get item. | Buyer 4 (22) | Dec-27-03 12:04 | 4444444444 |
Reply by Seller B: It's only been 1 week. And it's Xmas!! | Dec 27-03 14:05 |
Follow-up by Buyer 4: OK I got it. Perfect. Thanx. | Jan-03-04 9:00 |
They both have the same number of buyer feedbackers with most of their feedback coming from BUYERS. Since feedback padding/shilling and acct hijacking can be ruled out, both sellers SHOULD be o.k. BUT..... Seller A's buyers give very bad negative comments of misrepresentation and not sending the items and the seller doesn't respond. Notice that the buyers are experienced buyers with high feedbacks in the hundreds.
As for Seller B, I'm going to show you how a 96% positives seller becomes a 100% positives seller. Most ebayers just look at the percentage of positives when what they really should be looking at is WHY the sellers were given those negatives and WHAT are those negatives about. This is one way to get really good deals--- everyone else shies away from the "high neg seller" except you who knows the seller is actually an excellent seller. Seller B's comments from buyers are insignificant and/or undeserved:
For Buyer 1, this is obviously an unfair neg since the bidder didn't even have enough time to receive the item which was less than a day. Also, the feedback of the buyer is 0, a person who probably registered the same day he bid or an alternative i.d. that a person uses just for the purposes of retaliation or hiding. This is probably a kid bidding (especially during the summer when kids are out of school) or a former NPB bidder who's retaliating.
For Buyer 2, if you look at the item TOS, it SAYS that money orders are held 2-3 weeks. Notice that the bidder is a sort of newbie with only 22 feedbacks. Buyer should have emailed or called seller first and reread the TOS.
For Buyer 3, auction for item ended Juy 3, 2004 and so on Aug 2, 2004 seller gives a neg for NPB but buyer gets mad that seller gave him a DESERVED neg and gives back an UNDESERVED retaliatory neg on Aug 2, 2004 10:04 which seller responds to on the same day about 18 minutes later. Notice that the buyer has a LOT of other negs and he calls the seller a juvenile name.
For Buyer 4, this is obviously an unfounded neg, a neg that should never have been given by the bidder since he didn't give enough time to wait for the item, especially on a major holiday season like Christmas when people send lots of gifts by mail. Notice that the bidder is a newbie with only 10 feedbacks.
There are also sellers that don't respond to neutrals/negs because they choose not to lower themselves to the level of bad bidders/buyers. Since the positives are all strong for both sellers and not "soft" and since both sellers don't have feedback padding/shilling or account hijacking involved, Seller A could still be as good a seller as Seller B--one good way to check is to view the auction details(which I didn't allow for in Seller A's neg feedback) AND view the feedback profiles of Seller A's negative buyer feedbackers to check if THEIR feedback(which again, I didn't allow for in Seller A's neg feedback) shows them as honest ebayers. Three problems here are that:
Usually, scam sellers don't post feedback for buyers unless it's retaliatory, so how do we explain Seller A giving good feedback to his buyers immediately upon receiving payment? Because there are some bad sellers or "iffy" sellers (sellers who have excellent feedback who scam only sometimes or only a few times) who will still post good feedback, expecting their naive buyers to post good feedback also even though they have misrepresented their auction items. But this is just one possibility. The other possibility is Seller A being honest which is not reflected on his feedback because:
Here's something else to reflect upon. Seller A's buyers were back in February & March so the buyers COULD HAVE BEEN AT A LOW FEEDBACK LEVEL BACK IN FEBRUARY/MARCH and because of a lot of buying and/or selling since then, their feedback is now very high.........so you will never know that they were a NEWBIE at the time. Newbies, because of their low experience with ebay, will make more mistakes and instantly think the seller is at fault even if his feedback is excellent. The best way to check what level they were at is to click these buyers' feedback numbers (which I didn't allow for in Seller A's neg feedback) and look for the date of when the seller left feedback for them and count the number of feedbacks from that time to the beginning of their membership.
54. Seller wants me to pay at Escrowse.com a legit-looking Escrow site. It's o.k. for me to give my personal/financial info to this site.
Escrowse.com is a FRAUDULENT ESCROW SITE. MOST ESCROW SITES ARE FRAUDULENT AND RUN BY SCAMMERS EVEN WHEN THEY LOOK LEGITIMATE.YOU SHOULD STICK WITH ESCROW.COM IF YOU WANT TO DO ESCROW OR DO THOROUGH RESEARCH/VERIFICATION OF AN ESCROW SERVICE OF YOUR CHOICE NOT SUGGESTED BY THE SELLER.
55. Just previewing email in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express does not allow trojans onto your computer.
False. Dirty scammers are now making keyloggers and trojans by taking advantage of Microsoft exploits and one of these is just the ability to preview email. Consider using another more secure email like Eudora. If you're still using Microsoft's emails, preview ONLY IN TEXT, not html or javascript or other coding.56. It's o.k. to have personal and/or financial information on my computer as long as I have a firewall and latest Anti-Virus scanner/anti-spyware.
Wrong. A persistent scammer can get thru a firewall, especially a software fireall. And because we don't know what the latest virus, trojan, keylogger, dialer, etc. will be because we KNOW the scammers will keep trying and trying, the best way to handle it is to NEVER PUT PERSONAL OR FINANCIAL INFO ON YOUR COMPUTER as long as you connect to the internet with it via the internet or your computer emails. Change your browser to any of the alternative browsers that are more secure like Mozilla or Safari, etc. (and of course, never give out your personal/financial info on the web at websites, chatrooms, forums, etc. or in response to emails.) At this point, i refuse to even log in to any of my bank sites or other business sites. Old fashioned U.S. mail is fine with me. (See "Updates" under "trojans" or "viruses" for background to recent trojans and viruses.)57. The legitimate business is offering me 30 days free trial of their item. Is this a scam? If yes, how?
YES. This is like the phone company or AOL offering you free days trial or you were a member and now want to cancel. Well because they have your CC info, they won't cancel. They'll keep billing you until you pretty much have to cancel your card with your bank to stop them from stealing your money.58. Just the act of placing a bid on an ebay auction will let the scammers have my password and username.
True. If the scammer is redirecting the site to his own scam site which may be highly indetectable, he'll get your info. See updates.59. Just hitting the BIN, or Buy It Now Button will let the scammers have my password and username.
True. If the scammer is creating some artificial "bid" button on his auction ad, he'll get your info.60. I've done weeks of research online outside of ebay and off ebay but I still can't find what i'm looking for whether it be price or quality. Now, i want to do research on ebay. What are the steps I should take from research until after the end of the auction?
Look at the RISKS page/"Sending Payment" Procedures and Bidding Safely before, during, and immediately after the auction on SPEEDY SHEET61. Non-delivery makes up more than _______ % of the online-auction complaints the FTC receives?(one choice only)
a) 10-20%
b) 30-40%
c) 50-60%
d) 70-80%
e) 80-90%
62. The majority of scam artists use phony contact information in conducting their scams.
TRUE.
63. You receive an email telling you to click on the links to check on your account on ebay. What is the best course to take IN THE CORRECT ORDER?(may have more than one choice)
a) Email the scammer back and tell him to screw himself.
b) Click the links to see where they REALLY go.
c) Delete that email.
d) Cancel your present email address and Change your email address immediately.
e) Call up ebay or go to the forum advice boards and ask them if they actually gave you that email.
f) Forward the email to ebay's spoofing dept so they can keep track of the activities/trends/locations of the spoofers.
f, e, c, d are what are required IN THAT ORDER. You want to change your email immediately since it looks like you're a target for scammers. The scammers will just keep sending you spoofs and scams & spams if you don't change your email. Don't let them have a foot in YOUR door.