Common eBay Scams and How to Avoid Them

To avoid scams on eBay, you should only buy products from guaranteed categories and from very trustworthy users

eBay has been one of the most used online buying, selling and auction sites on the web for years. For some time, however, the robustness of the platform has been undergoing a crisis due to numerous scams by cybercriminals.

First, we must say that eBay will usually refund buyers the full amount if they do not receive the product from the seller. This applies to almost all categories on the site. Unfortunately, there are certain types of products that are not covered by the money-back guarantee. And it is in these sections that it is easiest to get scammed by cybercriminals. Cars, real estate, items purchased from Sotheby’s (Britain’s most famous auction house), some business equipment and websites for sale are not covered under the eBay warranty.

Buy only under warranty categories

How does fraud work in these cases? Simple, you send your payment and get nothing. And suddenly the seller disappears with our money. Why is eBay not refunding this sale? Since these purchases are in the thousands of dollars range, and the site prefers a non-refundable, to protect itself. How can we avoid this scam? Reading positive comments is often not enough. It’s not uncommon for a skilled salesperson to legally sell small items first and then, after gaining some good reviews, start to cheat. Therefore, we advise you not to buy on eBay in terms with no guarantees.

Rename scam

Sellers use a deceptive technique to trick users on eBay. They sell the product and actually ship it to the buyer’s address. Only when they prepare the package do they erase the name. This way, when the package arrives at the buyer’s home, he may think that there has been a mistake and that the shipment is not for him. If you refuse to accept the parcel, the courier will mark it as “returned”. Slight wording that voids the eBay warranty. Basically, the scammer keeps the money and receives the product as well. At this point, we can file a claim and our purchase will be marked as a dispute. The nice thing is that controversial sales don’t allow you to leave a review on the site, so other users won’t find out about the scam the scammer is carrying. How to avoid this scam? It’s not easy. A good citizen will return a package that is not on his / hers However, in order not to fall into the trap, we can use an application to track the shipment by order number. If we find that the delivery is scheduled for the same day, our product is probably the one without a name. The alternative is to take the package and open it. And how good people return if it’s not ours.

Empty box

You go to eBay and you notice Samsung’s latest smartphone with a really interesting discount. You buy the device on a regular basis, but when the package arrives at your door, the surprise is huge: the box is empty. This is one of the classic eBay scams. At this point, you may be thinking: just file a claim and you will definitely get your money back. Not true. It is possible that the seller has put a little sentence somewhere saying: there is only a box in the kit. On the surface, this may not mean anything, but why would you pay hundreds of euros for a box? It’s simple because it is a scam. In order not to fall into the trap, we never buy items with overly favorable discounts that do not seem possible. First of all, read the product description carefully.

Seller scams

Contrary to appearances, the real target audience on eBay is sellers, not buyers. This is because the platform protects buyers much more than sellers. One of the classic scams committed by auctioneers is receiving messages from the buyer. The buyer proposes a higher price than the one quoted on the Internet in order to have the exclusive product. At this point, encouraged by the offer of 50 or 100 euros more, we send the product to the address provided. And of course we never get that money. And this method of sale is not subject to any complaints. How not to get robbed? Quite simply, we never ship the product until we can see the money from the transfer in the account. Often times, the buyer will contact the seller to settle the off-eBay purchase. Again, the promise is you’ll get a little extra money. After sending the package, we get our compensation. Everything seems to be going well until the buyer complains on eBay that the product is defective, different from what was offered, or did not arrive at all. We may dispute this fact, but without the sales receipt, the site will never agree with us. Therefore, the advice is to never close a sale outside of eBay and, above all, to communicate with the buyer only through the service channels.

Item theft

The empty box scam can also work the other way around. The buyer receives the product, keeps it, and returns the empty box to eBay with a complaint. If we do not have any actual proof of our shipment, the service will agree the fraudster. So how do you defend yourself? We always take photos of the package when shipping. Of course also inside the package to show the product. This can also work for a defective item. Suppose a scammer has a broken iPhone 6 Plus and buys our Apple smartphone on sale. After receiving the product, he stops working and files a claim on eBay, indicating that the phone is not working. How to defend yourself in such a case? It’s simple, we register the serial number and IMEI code. This way you won’t be cheated

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