Types of fraud on eBay. How we are deceived at the ebay auction - — LiveJournal Deception on ebay how to solve the problem
Although it is one of the most effective mechanisms for protecting buyers in the field of online shopping, unfortunately it cannot guarantee absolute protection against fraud on this online auction.
The buyer must take a responsible approach to choosing both the product and the seller, so as not to unwittingly give money into the hands of a criminal. Moreover, with due care and caution, it is quite easy to detect attempts at fraud, since the main schemes by which online trading scammers work are well known and they are designed for inattention, excitement and haste on the part of buyers.
What schemes to defraud buyers exist on eBay and how to avoid them?
Manipulations with product descriptions.
If we summarize all the varieties of this type of deception, then it consists in the fact that the description of the product is compiled in such a way as to create the illusion in the buyer that a completely different, more expensive product is being sold. So, under the guise of a new fashionable smartphone, they can only sell you a case for it. At the same time, in order for it to look like a fair deal from the outside, there will always be a clear, but invisible at first glance, disclaimer in the description, making it clear what kind of goods will actually be delivered for.
To avoid falling for the bait of crooks, follow these tips.
- Compare product prices from different sellers. If the seller’s price is much lower than the market average, then this is a serious reason to doubt the seller’s honesty.
- Pay attention to the photos. The presence of only standard photographs provided by the manufacturer is a reason to write to the seller with a request to provide photographs of this particular instance. Also, in the seller’s photographs, the item may be photographed in such a way that its shortcomings will be skillfully hidden. Ask the merchant to take a photo of the product from the side you want.
- studying its rating and reviews of other buyers.
- Read the product description carefully. Pay attention to the condition of the product (new, used) and the described shortcomings.
Let's look at the example in the picture above. Someone is selling a list of stores where you can buy the latest models of portable electronics.
- In this case, a standard image of one of the smartphones (1) is used as a product photo.
- The price of the product is comparable to the starting price of bidding on a real phone (2), but is obviously overpriced for a regular list of stores, the usefulness of which is in great doubt.
- The seller has positive reviews (3), but there are very few of them, which suggests that they were made from fake accounts.
- And already in the title it honestly states that it is the list (4) that is being sold.
In this particular case, the catch is obvious. But don't let your attention drop. As a rule, scammers are much more creative.
Price manipulation.
Since the final price on eBay consists of the cost of the product and its delivery to your address, some unscrupulous sellers take advantage of this by setting a meager price for the product itself (1) and greatly inflating the cost of delivery (2).
At the same time, the high cost of delivery does not guarantee that the goods will be delivered to you as quickly as possible. Most likely, it will be sent by regular mail, and the remaining amount will compensate for the low price of the product itself.
The delivery price is indicated below the price for the product and is displayed in a much smaller font size, which allows scammers to take advantage of the buyer’s carelessness.
Payment fraud
A payment scam involves a seller asking you to pay for an item in some unusual way that is beyond eBay's control, such as a money order. Today, it is considered a good practice to accept payment on eBay through a payment system that reliably protects the buyer. If the seller insists on making the payment differently, this is a reason to suspect fraud.
Deception by canceling a transaction or closing a dispute
- The essence of this type of fraud comes down to the fact that after payment for the goods, a letter comes from the seller in which he apologizes for the fact that the goods were not in stock or were hopelessly damaged. As a solution to the problem, he offers to return the money, but only if you cancel the transaction.
- Or the seller deliberately does not send the goods to you. By showing a little patience and spending a little time getting acquainted with the available information, you will definitely distinguish an honest seller from a scammer, which means you will save your money and receive the product you expected.
Buying goods online is always a risk. Moreover, both for the seller and for the buyer. Along with domestic trading platforms, fraud also happens on eBay, but the auction learns from its mistakes, so the level of security increases each time, providing additional mechanisms for protecting users.
What is eBay Scam?
Like any type of fraud, scams inside the auction are aimed at illegally seizing funds or material assets of site participants. In this case, civil legal relations are established between two participants - the buyer and seller of the goods, and both can deceive. Third parties with whom the user has never made contact can also be scammers.
The following main areas of scams within the site can be identified:
- creating fictitious user pages to receive money and quickly write it off (the actions are disguised as establishing legal relations for the purchase and sale of goods);
- sending spam correspondence to client pages (as a rule, such messages contain information about a threat to the security of your personal account with a request to go to the address specified in the letter;
- clicking on the link gives scammers access to the victim’s cash balance);
- making payments for products in person, and not as part of an auction (the site administration limits the methods
- sending money to protect the financial savings of its users).
Unfortunately, there are a lot of ways to deceive website clients. But huge amounts of money are allocated to ensure the safety of participants, which reduces the risk of becoming a victim of a scammer on eBay. As practice shows, most often people become deceived due to their own naivety or inattention.
Buyers are no less inventive. Having found the desired product on the pages of the trading platform, the buyer quickly negotiates all the accompanying conditions and sends the required amount of money to the seller. An unsuspecting seller arranges for the goods to be shipped and shares the parcel code.
After two or three days, the buyer forms a request to the auction technical support service, complaining about fraud on the part of the seller. Auction moderators immediately freeze the account and write off money from the fraudster’s account in favor of the failed client.
Important! As user reviews show, trading platform moderation always takes the buyer’s side, blocking sellers’ personal accounts without trial. It is not possible to return access to a previously blocked personal account.
Where to go for help
It is not so easy to deceive a user on a trading platform. Moreover, the punishment will not be long in coming. The first thing you need to do is submit a written statement to the auction moderators group. This can be done through the feedback button. In the window that opens, you will need to display the topic of the appeal, namely, “Fraud,” and in the appeal field the most complete information about the violation committed by another auction participant should be indicated.
It takes about a day to consider the appeal, after which the site administration temporarily blocks the deceiver’s page and freezes the funds. Then, within a couple of days, an internal inspection is carried out, which ends with the return of the money to the victim.
The second authority that can help is PayPal. Considering that users use virtual storage of this particular system, be sure to contact the administration of the payment system. You must send an appeal providing the most complete information about the fraud, as well as attaching material evidence of fraudulent actions. After verification, the user’s account may be blocked, or the amount of funds necessary to return the damage to the victim will be frozen.
The legislative framework
Considering the wide distribution of the resource throughout the world, it is difficult to bring the site’s activities under the norms of a separate legal system. All countries participating in the auction can equally influence the fight against online fraud. And the work of local legislation begins when the injured party receives a statement to the police.
There are also international agreements on the provision of legal assistance during the investigation of a crime. Thus, the state of the injured party may demand that an attacker residing in the territory of another country be held accountable.
But the system has its own legal rules. And during the registration of a personal account in the open spaces of the auction, the system requires mandatory familiarization with the fixed rules. Only after agreeing with the site’s policy will you be able to create an account and begin actively using it.
How to protect yourself
No one can protect you better from being scammed on eBay than personal attentiveness. And auction purchases are no exception. Regardless of who owns the page on the marketplace, it is important to study the profile of the person offering cooperation. Namely, you need to pay attention to the following points:
- duration of registration on the site;
- number of reviews and date of their publication;
- availability of contact information and personal information about the participant.
After a comprehensive study of the user’s data, it will be known whether the person on the other side of the screen should be trusted.
The trading platform is regulated by a group of moderators who are committed to eliminating fraud on eBay. Therefore, if suspicious activity occurs, it is important to immediately contact support. As a rule, the attacker’s account is blocked, and the spent savings are returned to the victim’s account.
Attention! Due to recent changes in legislation, the legal information in this article may be out of date!
Our lawyer can advise you free of charge - write your question in the form below:
Read the following case about purchasing on eBay with an unfortunate ending and remember what not to do in such cases. This article will be especially useful for those who have not yet had much experience shopping on eBay, or on the Internet in general.
Comrade X, for example, decided to buy his wife a new gift that was in demand on the market - the first smartphone in her life! The time-tested Samsung Galaxy S i9000 was chosen due to its excellent selection of alternative firmware, including the latest version of Android. He found an excellent item on eBay: a new smartphone with a full set of accessories, for only half the price including delivery. At the time of purchase the cost was $215, i.e. half of our Russian online stores. The description clearly stated that the lot was NEW, fully complete and in the original box.
eBay auction scam - seller
on eBay#1: A seller with over 140,000 ratings and 98% positive reviews can be trusted, even if he is from Hong Kong.
The purchase is made - the customer is full of joy. The next day he receives the HongKong Post tracking number, pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the seller. A week later, the tracking number is still not tracked on tracking services, but the buyer waits patiently, and two days later, in response to an angry letter, the store support service (the seller on eBay) instantly sends a new tracking number, but for some reason Swiss Post. Every other day it is tracked, and it’s wonderful - the whole family freezes in anticipation of the gift.
The purchase finally arrives, but what’s in the package?! And in the parcel there is a used set of something unknown, assembled from what was lying on the shelves, as a classic once put it, “in the dirty, stinking corridors of the free pit of the Oktyabr cinema.” To be more precise, the Korean carrier version of the Anycall M110S phone, patched with crooked Chinese firmware, full of dust, with a burnt-out screen in several places, a box from another phone, an incomprehensible charger, a left-hand battery, and someone else’s cover, as well as instructions from push-button Samsung !
Received kit Having contacted the seller through eBay, we received an answer that he was indignant and how could this even happen?! Apparently one of the careless suppliers failed. A thousand apologies and you are offered a full refund or resend of another, 100% new device, of course, only after receiving the goods back.
First time buyer mistake on eBay No. 2: you don’t want to pay extra for return shipping, and the seller, cynically caring about your money, strongly advises you to return the parcel by regular parcel post, not registered, i.e. without tracking.
The received phone and the real one First time buyer mistake on eBay No. 3: you send the parcel back in complete peace of mind under double protection of PayPal and eBay, as well as the seller’s assurances that with his over 150000 Sales simply cannot be a problem!
Phone front panels First time buyer mistake on eBay No. 4: you understand that you have already earned a headache, but the problem with the gift has not been solved, and you have already successfully spent half of the budget saved on the gift. Perhaps inside you chooses “exactly the same, but only a new smartphone at half the price.”
Signs of previous use The moment of truth comes on the last 45th day allotted for opening a complaint, when the seller’s interest in you miraculously disappears. He no longer responds to letters and generally ignores them completely. What’s noteworthy is that everything is legal and on the 45th day neither PayPal nor eBay will help you, since the deadline for opening a claim has passed. As a result, the seller has both your money and a “smartphone”, which will soon be sent to the next “Client”. This is the essence of e-business, or rather hired business. Cellphoneforever also known as FAN YANG HONGKONG.
Fraudsters have been working for a long time and apparently successfully. A huge number of positive reviews have been collected on the sale of small things such as cheap chargers, adapters and other mobile accessories. Against the background of several thousand positive reviews, a couple hundred negative ones are a drop in the ocean. This post was written after several of my friends “bought” a headache from this seller for the holidays. This indicates that the problem is large-scale, be vigilant, warn your friends. And remember, if you have already ordered the product, no matter what the Cellphoneforever seller promises you, no matter how they beg you to wait a little more,
YOU MUST OPEN THE DISPUTE BEFORE DAY 45, otherwise you risk being left with your nose.
Many articles have been written about fraud methods on the eBay online auction. The thirst for easy money pushes people to invent more and more new ways of relatively honest, and sometimes completely dishonest, taking money from the population. And there is no end in sight. Therefore, we can say that there were, are and will be scammers on eBay. And you need to be as careful as possible so as not to get into an unpleasant situation.
How to protect yourself? It is not difficult. It is enough to be attentive and distrustful. Do not click on dubious links from emails, do not buy from suspicious sites, and do not try to save money by participating in various shady schemes. Behave the same way you would in a regular store. And then shopping will only make you happy.
What should you pay attention to before purchasing?
Product description
Read the product description carefully. That is, the title, a comment for the title and the description itself (Description). It should clearly state what exactly is being offered. For example, Game's Box, Gamebox and Game Box can refer to three different items. A toy box, a toy in a box and GameBox branded products. It wouldn't be funny to receive an empty box just because you didn't read the description carefully.
It is worth paying attention to the difference between the description and category of the product. If a product is in the “New” category, but the description indicates that it is used, you should not hope for a miracle. It will come used. The same applies to the delivery package. What will arrive is exactly what is indicated there. For example, a camera without accessories or accessories without a camera.
When buying clothes and shoes, pay attention to the sizes. Toy shoes sometimes look very realistic. But you are unlikely to wear it. You can also accidentally buy children's shoes instead of adult ones.
Photos
Photos can also tell a lot about a product. For example, a lone photo from the manufacturer’s official website in the description should raise suspicions. Why doesn’t the seller take a photo of his product, but uses someone else’s picture? If you really need the product, you can always ask the seller to send you personal photos. It is unlikely that he will refuse if he is interested in selling. The photograph also shows the condition of the product, its useful properties, dimensions, etc.
Price
It is not always worth taking the product at the lowest price. Sometimes it's better to overpay a little. And triple-check the advertisement for the sale of goods at a price that is 20-50% lower than the market average. Something is clearly wrong here. Either the seller is trading at a loss, or there is some cunning scheme that allows him to make money.
Likewise, you should be suspicious of “mega sales,” when lots of several items are offered at an unrealistically low price. You most likely won't receive anything because the seller's account has been hacked. Or maybe you will get it, but it won’t be at all what you bought.
Payment Methods
This parameter is not the main one, but still. Over 90% of payments on eBay are made through PayPal. This payment system effectively protects the interests of its clients in case of fraud. If the seller prefers other payment methods, this is strange.
Delivery
When purchasing expensive goods, check the type of delivery and its cost. Paying $50 for trackless mail is not funny. But if the goods are delivered by a courier service, this amount is quite realistic.
Seller characteristics
Make it a habit to study seller profiles before purchasing. See what country he is from, how long he has been on the site. Pay attention to the rating. There are accounts with artificially high ratings, but most often the size of sales and the number of positive reviews correlate with the quality of the goods offered. By the way, you can and should read reviews. Especially negative ones, because from them you can understand what you might encounter when purchasing, and how the seller tried to solve the problem. For example, reviews about poor packaging can be ignored. But reviews about bad content should not be ignored.
Products on sale
Sometimes sellers of “penny” goods have an expensive item that is sold at an incredibly low price. It may be from a completely different category of goods. And this is suspicious. It is likely that the account of a respectable seller was simply hacked. Or maybe not. You need to communicate with the seller, ask him for photographs and additional information.
Phishing and other methods of deception
Every year new methods of fraud on eBay appear. But some deception technologies remain unchanged. Let's consider the most popular methods of appropriating other people's funds.
- Canceling a deal
In this situation, the emphasis is on normal human politeness and mutual respect. After you have paid for your purchase, the seller sends an unexpected letter. In it, he tells a heart-warming story about how your product burned, drowned, broke, or simply ran out. And at the end he asks to cancel the transaction, promising to return your money at the same moment.
You must not succumb to this provocation. Something really could have happened to the product. But in this case, the seller will first issue a refund or offer some alternative option. And only then will he ask you to cancel the deal. And if there is no return, then there is nothing to talk about. After canceling the transaction, there will be no money at all, and the seller will not be at fault. You canceled the deal. Therefore, strictly follow the principle of “First the money, then cancel the transaction.”
- Fake letter
People (Europeans to a greater extent, Russians to a lesser extent) are accustomed to following instructions and requirements. This is a scientifically proven fact: 7 out of 10 people will first do what a colleague or manager asks them to do, and only then will they begin to think - what did they do?
This weakness is what modern Internet scammers have taken advantage of. They organize fan or targeted mailings of letters that are almost indistinguishable from official letters from eBay or PayPal. These letters contain frightening information - a threat of blocking, a message about hacking, an accusation of fraud or mockery of African penguins. Whatever the letter writers deem appropriate.
At the end of the letter, you are asked to open the attached file to get acquainted with the essence of the claims. The file is almost certainly a virus or Trojan in disguise. Alternatively, scammers ask you to send your personal data in a reply letter or enter it in a form that opens when you click on a link in the letter. Doing any of this will result in your data being stolen.
Representatives of eBay, PayPal and many other large companies constantly remind: only scammers send requests for login/password, payment details or any other important information. Any call from the system to the user is reflected in the system itself. And respectable companies do not require your passwords or payment card information at all.
- Fake eBay
Sometimes at an auction you can find a lot at a very, very low price. And the description says that there is no error, the price is really that. But first you need to write him a letter to clarify the details. Of course you will write. If they ask, then why not?
In response, the seller begins to talk about how exactly he got these goods and why he sells them so cheaply. And he offers to buy not one product, but several. Promising, of course, that everything will be within the framework of eBay. Most likely, you will agree. And if not, then you will still be asked to provide your e-mail, eBay login, and delivery address.
Now is the time to be wary. Why does he need this? A regular seller does not need such information to issue an invoice; it is automatically supplied when opening a private auction or direct sale. But scammers really need your data. Because soon after you agree to the deal and send the seller all the information about yourself, a letter will be sent to your e-mail.
It will exactly copy the ones that come from eBay. And only the most attentive buyer will notice that the sender’s address is somehow incorrect. And the User ID (seller login) is non-existent. Plus, the payment method will not be the traditional PayPal, but some not very popular option. For example, Western Union or MoneyGram.
If you ignore all these points and pay, then you will almost certainly find yourself in the role of an unwitting benefactor who has donated a certain amount in favor of an unknown person. After all, you won’t be able to get your money back or prove that the seller deceived you.
Therefore, all negotiations with the seller must be conducted on eBay itself, plus payment for any purchases via PayPal. This will protect you from possible troubles.
When shopping online, you can encounter fraud, and sometimes you can also get scammed on eBay. What punishment awaits online fraudsters on eBay and how to recognize the deceivers?
Protection from fraud on eBay
When registering, probably everyone has a question about whether it is safe to order goods on the eBay marketplace, and whether they will face divorce and loss of money. In practice, eBay, together with the PayPal payment system, employs experienced moderators who check the operation of the auction daily. Therefore, customers are protected from fraudulent sellers, not only by blocking goods, but also by preventing their further activities on the site.
How do sellers deceive buyers?
People from different countries buy and sell things on eBay. Therefore, this opportunity is not missed by scammers who feel that among the large number of offers on the site, buyers may not immediately notice that they want to deceive them.
For example, sellers create lots with headlines about the sale of expensive equipment with a meager starting price. Free delivery to any country in the world is also included. The product characteristics indicate that the equipment is sold with all appropriate documentation. But there is one caveat. For example, in small colored font (so that it is not immediately noticeable) it is written that this auction was created only as a link to an official representative, and not for the sale of equipment. Then the lot is freely sold, while the fraudulent seller does not order any additional services to promote the product.
Despite the outright deception, literally a few days before the administration noticed this, people fall for such a “tempting” offer and decide to take the goods. The rates rise to quite a decent amount, and the seller receives money, but, of course, the buyer does not receive any equipment.
What punishment will follow for the deceiver?
Fraud on eBay is strictly suppressed by moderators.
The seller who deceives buyers receives letters with the following content: “Your listing has been stopped”, “Your account has been blocked” or messages about suspicion of fraud, account blocking and cancellation of all listings. Most often, this happens when conscientious buyers complain to the support service so that the platform employees block such a seller.
The rules section of the trading platform states that the fraudster’s account will be blocked forever. He will not be able to go through the registration process again. But even if this succeeds, then at the very first request for sale, the seller will be blocked again in an instant (even without reviewing the issue by the inspector). This also applies to those cases when the fraudster no longer wants to carry out fraudulent schemes and is simply trying to honestly sell small goods at a low price. Every case of deception is stopped by the inspector.
Even if a platform client changes the IP address and is registered from a new device, changes the address, bank card number and PayPal payment system account number in the settings, he will still be blocked. Although this will not happen instantly, but in a few days. This applies to situations in which a former fraudster is not just trying to buy something on the platform, but to sell it. How the system for recognizing dishonest sellers works remains a corporate secret at eBay, but it operates without failure. Therefore, despite its attractiveness to fraudsters, the eBay system does not allow the trust of buyers to be exploited.
Remember that you can buy and pay for goods on eBay for a long period of time, but this does not relieve you of the need to be careful, since even experienced buyers fall into the traps of deceivers.
Signs of fraud on the site
Scammers' offers usually look like this:
Interesting information about the eBay fraud scheme is presented in the video:
If you find that at least one of these conditions matches your case, save your money and refuse the order. As practice shows, PayPal will still return the funds, but the return will take time. It usually takes 1 to 2 months to dispute a purchase.
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