I get various newsletters on auction selling. The following is a recent excerpt from THE AUCTION SELLER’s RESOURCE that is particularly relevant in light of a recent situation on eBay. During the past month a seller, ‘pewpepele’, from the Netherlands was using pictures from other auctions. I talked with my eBay support person and Safe Harbor. They closed down some auctions before completion although frustratingly not all until the auctions closed and then they booted the guy.

Hope you find the following advice helpful.
Also, thanks need to go to Paul Munscher (and others) for their information in this matter.

Regards,
Roy More
TSPA

FRAUD ALERT ~ FRAUDSTERS REGISTERING EBAY ACCOUNTS OVERSEAS TO SCAM EBAY US USERS

As I was working on this newsletter my phone rang and it was one of my readers calling from New York asking for help. He purchased a laptop on eBay, sent the payment via PayPal and never heard from the seller again. I looked at the auction and saw that a) the seller had Zero feedback, and b) the seller was just suspended by eBay.

When I was in New York for the eBay Elite meeting, I had a side conversation with several sellers on the topic of fraud. EBay goes to great pains to verify accounts and identities here in the US. Although not perfect, in fact fraud is a tiny percentage of eBay transactions and much smaller in the US than overseas. It turns out that you can register an account on one of eBay’s overseas sites, with far less checking. In some countries eBay doesn’t even require a credit card to register. The scam artists have figured this out and are using it to their advantage.

How can you protect yourself. First of all don’t buy anything expensive from a brand new registered user or some with very low feedback. Just because someone is a new seller doesn’t mean they are a crook, but brand new sellers rarely start selling very expensive items such as computers, digital cameras, and PDAs. An exception to this is eBay motors where new sellers sell cars all the time.

Pay with a credit card. If you pay through PayPal, be sure to fund the transaction with your credit card on file, not an e-check or cash in your account. Credit card companies will reverse the transaction if it is fraudulent. One of the best in this regard in Citibank, although Wells Fargo and others are pretty good about internet refunds as well.

Lastly if sending a large amount of money to another PayPal user, make sure the person is a “verified user.” This is someone who has had their bank account verified by PayPal. You must deal with a verified user if you want to be covered by PayPal’s buyer protection program.

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