Watch Out for Vehicle and Computer Scams on eBay.
Fortunately there aren’t that many scammers on eBay, but there are some, and they are greedy. This means most of them will try to pull their scams on valuable items like cars and computers so they can make good money and make it quickly. Since average buyers generally buy these items rarely, they may not know about the different scams floating around.
Automobile Scams.
With cars, you will generally find that scammers try to get you to send them money in advance, for whatever reason. For reasons unknown to me, some eBayers aren’t all that reluctant to pay 25% or even 50% of the money before getting the vehicle. Most of the time these payments are made using some sort of relatively insecure payment method. These buyers believe the seller will deliver the car as promised, as they’ll want the other half of the money.
But a car never existed Pictures of cars are so easy to find, and the experienced scammers will have a whole library of pictures of different cars. And what will the buyer do when they send $5,000 for nothing? Well he can leave the seller negative feedback and file whatever grievance he wants, but the seller will be long gone, on to a new eBay account to find the next victim.
Another thing that can happen is that the car might turn up, but doesn’t live up to the description. The car has been oversold, in the tradition of used car dealers through the ages. If this happens to you then you should open an eBay dispute and say your item was not as described - you might get a partial refund or even a full refund.
Computer Scams.
If you bid on a computer auction but don’t win, the seller might email you to ask whether you would like to buy a computer through their own website that is the same as the one they just sold. This is a bad idea because you have no guarantee the item will ever arrive, and you haven’t just given them your money, you’ve given them your credit card details too.
There are sellers with 100% positive feedback who use this scam, and since you won’t be able to leave them any feedback on the transaction, their reputation will stay that way. You can’t complain to eBay about getting scammed by buying an item offsite because it has nothing to do with them.
How to Beat the Scams.
There are lots of ways to beat scams. First, whenever you buy anything expensive, be sure to check your seller’s reputation thoroughly. Make sure they have sold items of a similar high value before and haven’t just sold a string of $5 items to raise their feedback rating. If you want to be even more cautious, insist that the money is placed in an escrow service (eBay recommend escrow.com).
Also, make sure you know you are going to get a deal when buying expensive items off of eBay. It might be just as easy to find the same thing for the same price off of eBay. Things like cars and computers are available anywhere.
God bless,
Clint
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment