NOTATIONS & COMMENTS on data in risk table:

NOTE: It's surprising but there are MANY people with LOTS of FB and have been members for MANY years and still get ripped off. The weakness they all have is that they didn't do one or more of 3 things:

• did not take the time & effort to read enough about online & ebay scams that hurt buyers
• did not know how to transfer this knowledge to ACTUAL HANDS ON knowledge of how to spot scam sellers when placing their bids
• did not TRULY understand why many experienced buyers avoided these certain risks

For example, in my early bidding days, I always knew in the back of my head by reading about other people's experiences that bidding on 0 or low FB sellers was risky yet I continued to do business with them since I was never burned UNTIL I ran into a scammer. That's when I realized why other bidders wouldn't bid on low FB sellers.

Next example. I knew lots of buyers were scammed on high digit $$ items but i really didn't take the time & effort to understand the patterns and how this was SO important to ebay buying and spotting scams. Anyway, because bidders are so used to sending payment by whatever terms the sellers suggest, I had no suspicions sending my high digit $$ via WU and so got scammed. If I had read about ALL the fraud online and on ebay and understood that PAYMENT BY MONEY WIRE TRANSFER was one of the EASIEST ways scammers hook buyers, I wouldn't have been scammed.

Those 2 examples show what I mean about reading about fraud but also UNDERSTANDING fraud, TAKING FRAUD SERIOUSLY and understanding the PATTERNS OF SCAMMERS and how to apply this knowledge to better protect buyers from scam sellers.

#35 indicates how much more risk there is buying from newer members than older members. The longer the member is on ebay, then the more experience they've had and since they haven't been NARU'd yet, they've pretty much followed the rules. Obviously, I could continue to go past 3 years and the risk would lessen for every year of membership. Of course, the member has to have a lot of feedback, too, not just 0 or a few FB's.

#36 indicates how much more risk there is to buy an expensive 3-digit or more costly item from a seller with less experience and who has yet to prove they are trustworthy for 3-digit or more $$$$. Again, obviously, I could continue to go past 6 items and the risk would lessen even more. However, you need to be careful since you could also be dealing with a scam seller who fences items and obviously has a reliable "source" either thru thievery or other illegal and/or unethical means for their items. Examples: high end items like boats, autos, this season's or a rare, high in-demand electronics or designer goods that are the latest in style are highly suspicious items for a seller to "sell" if he has a lot of them--what is his "source"? Also, be ready to get your email phished & hacked by the scammers since they now know you like bidding on these type of items and will email you hundreds of times to try to get you to wire your $$$'s to them or use their keylog viruses to get your passwords and CC# info.

#30 indicates you take a risk buying 4-digit or more items EVEN IF YOU DO RESEARCH since you've exposed yourself to the seller and other ebayers as someone who has $$$ to rob. Don't be surprised if:

• again, you continually receive phishing & hacking emails and/or
• your house is burglarized someday or
• you're a victim of violence
• you're a victim or identity theft or
• you've had $$ stolen from your accounts.

#14 is a direct tip off to whether the account is hijacked. With the severity of acct hijacking now on ebay, buying from a seller who has no (or virtually little) record in the past 3 months of selling is hazardous, even if you've dealt excellently with the seller before. Also, there are many bidshilling/bidpadding rings (esp. from China, Ukraine, Russia, Eastern Europe, Africa, Indonesia, not to mention our own country USA) where bidshillers bid on each other's "items" for the sole purpose of gaining FB. NEARLY ALL FB details are deleted after 3 months. If you buy from a seller who's regularly sold the past 3 months, at least you might be able to see if the Feedbackers also have the same type of "shilling" pattern and you'll have more auction FB details available.

#31 is definitely a risk. Just because it shows up at a search engine doesn't mean the store is reliable. Scammers can create fake but professional looking websites to put on search engines just like they create fake ads on ebay.

#33 is a risk since most people are afraid of leaving neg or even neutral FB. Looking thru positive FB could save you a lot of hassle with a seller.

#69 -Many scammers end their auctions over the weekend since customer service on ebay is light.

#37 indicates you understand and have read about online fraud, but you still don't understand the patterns of online fraud probably because your judgement is pretty much clouded by "that rare deal." It's too prevalent these days to receive an "official looking email" from ebay or paypal or escrow.com or other agency you're dealing with and then automatically trusting that email. People are scammed nowadays when scammers SAY they'll use escrow.com or other agency and then the scammer will send fake emails to the buyers which pretend to be from these agencies. More than likely, this type of seller had a few or more red flags which you ignored because you assumed you would be protected by using only the well-known payment services. Remember, the PATTERNS ARE THERE....if there are red flags or high risks involved like:

low feedback or 0 seller, hijacked accounts, bidpadded/bidshilled FBs, HCD items or 3-digit $$$ or over 3-digit $$$$ items, sellers who run pages and pages of auctions, sellers who run lots of fast auctions esp. for high $$$ items, sellers who indicate or email they initially wanted WU or other money wire transfer or acct transfer, seller who makes excuses such as says he's "visiting" another country temporarily so that's why payment should be sent to the other country, seller who usually doesn't sell that category of items, other risks mentioned on the webpages,

--------->>>>>then to think you're PROTECTED if you go ahead with the transaction ON YOUR TERMS IS RECKLESS and will leave you OPEN TO THE SCAMMERS.

#2 and #38 to #46 to #72 indicate how secure your computer is, how secure you & your personal/financial info are from phishing/hacking/scammer attempts. This includes everything from how securely you personally guard your personal/financial data, how you behave online, and how you protect your personal/financial data by taking proactive action in adding software to your computer to combat viruses, worms, spyware, unpermitted internet contact.

For #71 and #72, many things are NOT under our control like companies we deal with directly or indirectly that hold our financial/personal info which any scammer can get ahold of as well as search engines which hold private info. (Look at "Updates" for articles on companies which have lost info to hackers/scammers.)

For #67, if there are scammers out to use your ID for credit theft, be aware you can go to the 3 financial credit institutions to FREEZE your credit access to everyone including yourself. (Not a good idea if you're looking for a job but a great idea if all you want is 1 or 2 credit cards and not looking for a place to rent or buy.) Look at these articles for more info.

For #68, it shows how EVERYONE is affected whether online or offline no matter how much security and protection you erect around yourself and your computer.

#1 & #70 indicate how bad it is right now shopping from ebay and other auctions with:

• 75% or more of many categories involved in fraud of some kind
• auction sites are rife with scammers from corrupt third world countries who find it easy to get on and scam first world consumers
• just bidding on items will make you and your email a target for phishing attempts with the same scammers selling your email for $$$'s to other scammers with the result you get spammed as well as phished
• just getting on auction sites will make you a target for viruses that scammers attach on to the site. e.g. hacking attempts/false log in websites

Here is one of the most understood, if not perfect, TRANSLATIONS for the various "community" ebay cliche slogans. We welcome any other translation contributions.:

• We believe people are basically good. Let's not mention the Romanian MAFIA scammer gangs, the Indonesian scammer gangs, the Nigerian scammer gangs, and local scammers who'll rip you off!!

• We believe everyone has something to contribute.Yeah, even the scammer can "contribute" his stolen & fenced goods and possibly non-available FAKIA designer items.

• We believe that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people. We encourage you buyers & sellers to be honest to each other, but we don't encourage ourselves to do so. That's why we don't forewarn you upfront on each auction ad with giant red letters about the many various scams on ebay. If we were too honest, you wouldn't buy on ebay again.

• We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual. You're so UNIQUE that we won't even verify you're UNIQUE when you register with 1000 DIFFERENT USER ID'S AS A SCAMMER to list 1000's of BIN plasma TV's as long as we can lie about the number of registered users to our stock investors.

• We encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treated. We encourage you to do so, but we don't encourage ourselves to do so. We don't care if sellers misrepresent on their ads AS LONG AS SELLERS PAY THEIR FEES. After all, we're just a venue and so don't have to get involved with either you or the seller which means you're on your own once you're ripped off.

  In fact, we know you WANT to be treated like dipshit and we know you WANT to give us all your $$$. That's why we say you are obligated to pay as the buyer once you win your bid no matter if you find out later that the seller is a scammer. That's also why we say you are owed nothing or very little for buyer protection or paypal refund since you didn't follow our TIGHT-ASS ebay buyer guideline rules.

For #9, it's listed as +10 even though obviously not all sellers in this category are scammers, but it's listed as +10 because there's such a high degree of fraud in this category of items.

This is far from a scientific accurate table, but it gives you an idea of how to guage your risk. You can say "Yes" to all of the above and still come out smelling roses with a transaction with a seller, but that result is rare. You can say "No" to all of the above and still run into a scam or misrepresenting seller, but again that result will be rare. Basically, each risk you're willing to take means an added burden of running into a bad transaction with a bad seller or scam seller. The point is not to stay away from every risk but to stay away from the heaviest risks especially where it's listed as +10 AND avoid piling more and more risks on.

There are a lot of honest legitimate sellers who for their own reasons (such as privacy, personality, circumstance, etc.) have one or more of the risks above, but it's up to you how many risks you're comfortable dealing with. I've bought from sellers with P.O. Boxes. I've bought from out of the country sellers. I've bought from sellers with more than 2% negs when I was especially desperate for their rare items. I've paid by straight CASH in the envelope for 2-digit items. I've bought from anonymous email sellers. I've bought over 3-digit items***** I've bought from low FB sellers. I've bought from sellers who have sold a high digit item that's unusual for their category. I've bought from BIN or 3-day sellers regularly. I've bought from sellers who I haven't done research on. But in all cases, I balance the risk out, especially trying to stay away from the +10 type sellers who are more likely to be scammers and I rarely buy 3-digit or over $$ items unless I can face the fact that I'm willing to take the risk of losing my money.

NOTE But you can avoid all the risks listed and limit your buying to less than 3-digit items AND STILL BE SCAMMED or not enjoy your buying experience. That's risk on ebay.

Want to reduce your risk further? Shop directly with REPUTABLE RELIABLE WELL-KNOWN retail or manufacturer shops ONLINE.

Want to reduce your risk even further? Shop with a well-known reputable store that is OFFLINE where you can touch and feel the item(s) and talk directly IN THE FLESH to the seller.

***** and the first time I bought an over 3-digit $$ item from a low but honest nice FB seller was obviously when i was a newbie without any real ebay buying experience, the transaction was successful just because of sheer luck until i realized later on after many multiple low cost transactions that maybe sheer luck shouldn't be the way to go--->>>research and analyzing FB & scams would help too!