Glen

Here is an article with some good info on using Ebay and avoiding the downside....
http://www.msnbc.com/news/957191.asp?0si=-&cp1=1

amfp

This is a VERY clever scam -- the e-mail and web site APPEAR to be from eBAY. In general, legit vendors and sites will NEVER send you this kind of request for your personal info - especially SSN's.

Rezal

Funny that you should post that one Glen.

Glen, an eBay buyer and I were involved in a triangle transaction recently (the buyer bailed and since I was second in line, he offered the product to me). You should've seen the e-mails I sent to Glen, the buyer, the buyer's e-Bay account, etc., all to confirm that everyone was who they said they were.

Then of course, Glen goes "I know you from Rennlist" and suddenly the cloud cleared. Having said that, there's nothing to prevent someone else from lurking here and then namedropping Rennlist to establish credibility (Pierre anyone?)

SLVR

IMHO, about 99.9% of what's on Ebay has strong signals of rubbish. I bid a few times on an ROW suspension set and the bids kept veering into outer space every time and every time the damn thing returned with the same photo and description a few weeks later under a different name. Puke!

Some good advice on this board was to contact the seller and set up a regular transaction if it is about a car. If it is a smaller deal I would only buy something locally that I can go see, look the seller in the eye and pay in person.


Take care!!

ApexL8

Very good article, thanks for pointing it out. I was aware of the scam emails and fake eBay pages, but this is the first I've heard of fake escrow services, clever way to inspire confidence.

I have one eBay scam under my belt, only lost $25 and chalked it up to experience. The seller never delivered the goods, but kept stringing me along with emails until it was too late to do anything about it through PayPal. eBay doesn't cover your first $20, and the item was $20, so the point was moot whether to get eBay involved. In retrospect I paid someone $25 to force myself to become familiar with all the dispute resolution venues at eBay and PayPal so I won't get screwed again.

I had some tense moments recently wondering if I was getting scammed again at eBay. After the seller informed me my merchandise had shipped he had his account suspended. I emailed the guy using my most professional tone, and he responded with a terse, unconvincing reply about his account being hacked into. I did end up getting the item I had paid for, and it was a great deal, and he had his account re-instated (his account is down again, but who knows why?).

My philosophy now is that I only deal on eBay if it represents substantial savings over what I can find elsewhere, and the bargains offered at eBay seem to be few and far between lately, a seller's market. Within the last few months I've bought a digital camera, and a mini DV camcorder through more conventional e-tailers, of course I checked eBay, but the best deals I could find there were only marginally better, a few percent cheaper. For that kind of savings it isn't worth the uncertainty and stress of an eBay transaction.

914und993

I've only had one "bad" ebay transaction out of 200 or so, but I think that one was because the seller may have really thought I was trying to scam him (defective product). Anyway, he wouldn't take it back or pay for repairs, so I just left him negative feedback. That made him so angry it was almost worth the money I was out.

I did get burned badly very early on with a Yahoo auction. If you think Ebay gives you little support, try getting burned on a Yahoo auction......

Chip

Tech-Law

I've got over 100 Ebay auctions under my belt and have never had a problem. Maybe being a technology lawyer helps to dissuade the ******** but positive feedback is an excellent indicator of a legitimate seller/buyer.

Use your credit card whenever possible.