If you are a merchant or shopper on big auction sites such as Ebay, it is extremely important to be aware of auction site scams. Auction site scams affect thousands of people each year and can rob you of hundreds of dollars. If you are doing business on auctions sites, here are some tips on avoiding auction site scams.
Auction site scams usually have two major themes in common, asking a merchant or buyer to do a sale off of Ebay and asking the merchant or buyer to use a payment method other than money orders, cashiers checks or Paypal. If you get a request to do business off of Ebay or for a payment method other than those listed above, there is a possibility that someone is trying to commit fraud against you.
Ebay and Paypal are primarily safe places to operate. Most people can protect themselves by only receiving certified payments through Paypal or a money order and buyers are covered usually by postal insurance, or Paypal insurance. The overwhelming vast majority of people that do business on Ebay and Paypal are usually safe and do not get caught up in auction site scams.
Common auction site scams against merchants is when a buyer asks to pay much higher for an item than listed, but can only pay you western union and asks you to send the product first.
A common auction site scam against buyers is that if you lost an auction, once the auction has ended, the buyer will contact you and ask you if you would still like to buy the product. The seller is a fraud and not the original seller and tells you to send money via Western Union or cash. Once you send your money via these methods there is no legal recourse and you obviously do not receive your product. So if you want to steer clear of auction site scams, check out the above suggestions.
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