i was planning on buying a few things from ebay any general rules that i should follow before i buy stuff becuse i heard alot of things about people getting screwed on ebay and i just want to be carefull . any tips would be helpfull.

i was planning on buying a few things from ebay any general rules that i should follow before i buy stuff becuse i heard alot of things about people getting screwed on ebay and i just want to be carefull . any tips would be helpfull.

See the email scams thread below for starters.....

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Always check the seller's feedback! If you notice a lot of complaints, then there's a high probability that they've screwed buyers before.

Also, be a good buyer. Ask questions long before an auction ends so that the seller has enough time to answer your questions. Read auctions carefully and note return policies (if any). Check shipping prices too. Sometimes, a seller will sell an item for less and try to make up the difference in shipping costs. Also note their purchase terms. Some sellers accept only PayPal, others insist on check or money order. Ship times are also important. Don't expect your item to be shipped the very next day in all cases. Sometimes, it will be a couple days, depending on the seller. Allow more time for overseas shipments, if applicable.

I've been buying things off eBay, and have sold things in the past, since Feb 18th, 1999, and I've only had two bad experiences out of over 215 transactions (less than 1%). Generally, eBay is a great place to buy and sell things online.

If you do have a problem, try to resolve it through email first before leaving bad feedback. Bad feedback can never be removed and can really hurt an honest seller who might be willing to make it up to you for a bad experience. If they appear unwilling, be reasonable about your feedback. If it wasn't a big deal, give positive and state as much, or give neutral feedback. If the ordeal was very hostile, then it definitely warrants a negative rating.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

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i was planning on buying a few things from ebay any general rules that i should follow before i buy stuff becuse i heard alot of things about people getting screwed on ebay and i just want to be carefull . any tips would be helpfull.

To get the best range of bargains and exclude the junk get good at using the search by using brackets (), quotes, commas, star and the minus sign.

Use PayPal whenever you can. Whilst I have had a number of items not turn up it has only been the non-paypal transactions that have been hard to get my money back.

Always check to see if you can find the same item new elsewhere. It's suprising how much is sold on ebay (both second user and new) that is near the same price as on Amazon for example. I would rather pay the extra 5 or 10% on top and get a proper warranty.

Be careful of buying 'lifestyle' goods like iPods for example as a great number are clones and you have no cover from the manufacturer.

Be careful of misnamed items also. For example there is a cloned version of the "Picoo Z" (by Silverlit) toy helicopter called the "Pico Z" and is lesser quality.

Watch out for people who increase their feedback rating by buying online pdf books etc for a few cents or pennies each but then suddenly start selling laptops......

As to whether you get screwed to some degree depends on the types of items you buy. Scammers tend to go for the latest fad or popular items... but not always.

There are a couple of newsgroups on UseNet that are excellent places to chat about eBay. The UK one (uk.people.consumers.ebay) is very lively and whilst not all relevant to the US it has quite a few American posters and is a great place to ask general questions.

If buying a name brand popular item be careful. I wanted to buy a laptop and the scammers were only 35 miles away...That was fun. As fast as some adds are reported others are putting them back up. If it is to good to be true it probably is...

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

Couple of other suggestions. If the auction is of super sort duration, ie: 1 day only, then it's probably a scam. When looking at the feedback, check to see how much is from buyer's vs sellers. If there is no feedback from buyers be suspicious. If it is a big ticket item, us a credit card, even if you are using paypal. This gives you to back ups. Paypal only will refund upto $200. Your credit card, assuming you have fraud protection and it's not from BofA, will credit back the full price. I just had over 2K credited back when a seller failed to deliver.
Also don't get into a freenze of bidding. Before bidding determine your maximum price. Something just below what you could get it for anyway. Do not bid over your max price. I have seen things go for more than what I could buy them fore else where.

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i was planning on buying a few things from ebay any general rules that i should follow before i buy stuff becuse i heard alot of things about people getting screwed on ebay and i just want to be carefull . any tips would be helpfull.

Don't but from noods, and haev no feedback...

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I buy and sell on ebay and the hints below all look excellent and dead on target.

Only other things I can think of are http://www.Paypal.com: is a pretty good way to pay but most people have merchant accounts or seller paypal accounts you can use your credit card normally. PayPal is cool because you don't have to punch your credit card info every time. I've used it for 2 years and no complaints. It's nice and secure too.

Read the sellers feedback and you'll see exactly who your dealing with. Make sure about what forms of payment the seller accepts or you may end up having to send a check and have to wait for all that transit time before shipping ever happens.



http://stores.ebay.com/Exotic-World-Art

That's me! 100% positive feedback baby!


*Blushes ;)

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

I posted this on Utopia as well, here is it again - so you people on here can see

It seems there is lots of odd people on eBay.

I am in the process of moving to the States, so I am selling lots of my stuff on eBay - as I am not paying to have everything flown over with me.

One item I am selling is a laptop, and I have had over 10 people... all from Nigeria, sending me fake emails claiming they are from PayPal - and that I should send out the laptop to them - and after they have it - I will get paid. I knew it was a set-up immediately. You'd think these Idiots, with a capital "I", would write better and improve their grammar skills before trying to carry out such a scam.

These are some of the mails I got from one of these guys...

THIS IS THE ONE HE PRETENDED WAS FROM PAYPAL:

You've got new funds!
Dear James Martin,

You have an Instant Payment of £730.00 from Mr Jack (jackeasy1981@yahoo.com ).

Mr Jack is a Verified buyer.

Payment Details

Transaction ID: 0C6220947W751380T


Item #
Item Title
Quantity

Price

Subtotal

140142236461 Acer Aspire Laptop, with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.
--
Total:
£730.00

Shipping Information

Address:
Name: George Abiodun and Mr Jack
Address:#5 Adeola Street Coca-Cola Area, Mokola
City: Ibadan
State: Oyo
Zip Code: 23402
Country: Nigeria

Address Status: Confirmed

This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "Approved" but will not be credited to your account until the you go ahead and make the Shipment and then send the Shipment Reference/Tracking Number to us for Shipment Verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller. Send tracking number to us or email us through service@pay-palcontactservices.com and we will attend to you. As soon as you send us the Shipment Reference/Tracking Number for the Shipment Verification and the verification process is complete the money will be credited to your account.

Note: Once the Shipment Reference/Tracking Number has been verified you will receive a "Confirmation Email" from PayPal® informing you that the Money has been credited. Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

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The website in that email address "pay-palcontactservices.com" takes you to an affiliate site for get rich quick schemes.

Plus you can also note the bad grammar in the email.

Then, I refused to ship the product, with advice from eBay (I told eBay and they warned me about that seller - apparenly he is a famous con artists - and whenever they close his account - he opens another one up again).

So, a couple of hours later... I received this email from the fake PayPal address:

Dear James Martin,

We Got a mail from Mr Jack that the Item he has paid for has been sold so Kindly Try and get a brand new laptop for his son. Your Money will show up in your account in 4-5 Days so try and get something done about this or Your refund the money to his son do he can get a laptop for this Exam. paypal payment is real once you get the payment confirmation and the receipt your money will get into your account in 4-5 Days. we dont want to get this matter reported to the FBI. You are trying to scam for your best interest Kindly get laptop for his son or you get the refund to his son cos he need to get a Laptop for this Final programm . Awaiting Your shipment details or your refund the money and once Paypal credit your account that will be your money .

Note : the Item you said has been sold on ebay has not ended so let us know what is going on and i hope you are not trying to scam so Kindly get back to us with any information..

Paypal Manager

Carlos Alonso

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Again, note the terrible grammar and threats regarding the FBI... somehow I think the FBI have more serious issues to deal with such as terrorism etc... rather that a laptop computer dispute with a scam on ebay.

.. Well, them emails from PayPal are absolutely laughable. These guys who were trying to con me are absolutely pathetic - and ridiculously stupid idiots.

After all this, that guy started emailing me saying his sons life is in danger if he doesn't get a laptop... then he went onto asking if he could have "some of my money".

I concluded by saying that if he continues, I will get the police involved because of harassment. He hasn't messaged me since. None the less, I have reported this to both eBay and PayPal.


... I am in charge of Utopia, so I decide about how I control "email privacy", which of course, for you, our users, its our top priority... but, I will however reveal all about these eBay and PayPal con artists.

Never do business with:

John Clark (j.clarke2@yahoo.com) - who claims he works for Unicef.
He always wants products shipping to:
C/O: George Abiodun
#5 Adeola Street Coca-Cola Area, Mokola
Ibadan, Oyo State 23402
Nigeria

Also, never do business with..

Mr Jack (jackeasy1981@yahoo.com)
He always wants products shipping to:
Elue Igweli
14 Mokola Housing Estate
Ibadan,Oyo State,23402
Nigeria.

==

Also, never deal with emails or websites from the domain names:
@pay-paypalhelps.net
@paypalfeedbacks.com
@pay-palcontactservices.com

Also be careful, as using PHP technology, it is possible for you to get an email which is from "paypal.com" - but what is actually fraud. PHP technology allows you to send emails from "fake" addresses... for example, I could send you an email asking you out on a date from "beyonce@sonymusic.com" or I could offer you a job from "Bill@microsoft.com"...

So, be careful. Never do business with eBay customers outside of the eBay website.

So... yes, I have included and named and shamed them PayPal and eBay con-artists for the whole world to see.

Some might say, it was wrong of me to include addresses and emails addresses.. but no, I believe what I have done is right... to prevent other people from being scammed.

Many Thanks, Your Good Friend,
James

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Forward those emails to:

spoof@ebay.com

Ebay owns PayPal.


;)

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

At the moment my ebay account has been blocked because somebody else got access to it. Along with this I had loads of emails about computer items I had bought which I have forward all to spoof@ebay and that is what they were. But basically it has been a pain in the butt because I didn't know what had happened until I got it sorted out. I have had the account for years. I've left it blocked for now, it seems safer for the moment that nobody can use it, I may go back to it later.

Best way around all the crapola is to ONLY read and respond to email messages inside of "my ebay" and inside of "PayPal.com". Easiest way that I've found.

:)

All others are deleted or sent to spoof@ebay.com

I must have helped bust 20 or more butt-monkeys this way.

:D

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

hi all - just posted in the email thread ... then saw this thread.
I started using ebay this year - gotta !!!!!!! be careful out there, and no matter how good a deal it is - electronic / PC equipment is in the high risk category.

the help boards there are full of horror stories.
"Two common tactics:
(a) Nigerian scam: (i) offers you a very high price for the item and wants it shipped to Nigeria to his relative, or (ii) wins the item and wants it shipped to Nigeria"

As far as your mail, the addy is spoof@ebay.com where you can forward them to, won't do much good, but it just may slow them down for a day or 2.

If you're new to ebay, or just want to look for the l of it, a good long read with heaps of info is Pandora's Box
Hope this helps someone :)

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like take off eh! to The Great White North