This guide will explain some good techniques that I have developed over time for finding and identifying sellers who are trying to scam you on Ebay in the Cell Phones section.

The first, most obvious way to identify a scammer, is to glance at the listing. On thing that I would say about 90% of the scammers will have in their listing is an email. This is because they 'hacked' or stole someone else's ebay account to avoid entering their credit card number and various other registration details. If you open up the listing, and see something along the lines of "If you wish to order phones or if you have any question about phones , delivery , or any other ..just mail to our email address : *removed*@hotmail.com", and the message will *probably* be bolded, bigger, and/or underlined. This is normally an immediate indication of a scam. If, however, you believe it may not be, click the contact seller button at the top in the header and email the seller that way. My style has been NEVER email a seller with their email in their listing.

Secondly, look at the style of the listing. Then click the number next to the seller's name and click the ID#s next to some of the people that gave a positive feedback. If the style is entirely different, it is likely the seller's account was hacked and that the listing is a scam. I would say to either find another auction, or contact the seller. Keep in mind, however, various things can be discovered by the seller (eg. an early auction may be very plain, but the next auction may have images and some styling that the seller recently learned to do).

Another indication is a lack of what are known as "live" photos. These are simply photos taken by the seller of the exact product. Best way to know it's an original photo is to see if there are any watermarks. For example, if you look up the seller "x1387", you will see all of his listings include live photos with the same style watermark. That is most likely a legitimate listing, and I would recomend a purchase from that style. However, if you can only see images with no text, do some investigation. Have you seen the photo anywere else? Check other listings by other sellers. If the seller has no live photos, I would request them via email.

Third, check the title and what is being sold. If the seller says Motorola MPx300, and you see an MPx220 or Nokia 8801, or multiple phones in one listing, it is most probably a bad listing.

Price is another issue. Everyone's looking for the lowest price. If you were trying to scam someone, how would you draw them in? Give them the price they expected. If you see a phone that usually sells on Ebay for around 500USD, don't be fooled into someone saying "Email me now and I give it to you for 250" or even a BIN (Buy It Now) listing for such values. Monitor other listings before you decide on an auction to see what sort of prices they go for.

Check for payment methods. I have always stood away from Western Union, and pretty much anything other than PayPal. PayPal is accepted by most people, but many people have been turning away. I still discourage Western Union on Ebay, however. I have been following "Escrow", but I say proceed with caution at the present moment, although I have contacted Ebay in the past concerning this method, and have been told that it is safe. Here is a quote directly from Ebay considering such issues: "Never pay for your eBay item using instant cash transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram or by recharging someone's prepaid credit card. These methods are not safe to pay people you do not know personally."

Unreleased phones are usually an avoid at all costs. Yes, the MPx300 could have been purchased before its release date, as with several other phones I am sure, however, I would say more than 50% of the listings were scams. Scammers tend to list phones that have not yet been released or have just been released. I say wait until a couple days after the release date of the phone you want.

Many scammer will also say nothing about the condition of the product, or say things like "BRAND NEW", "UNOPENED" etc. If the seller doesn't list anything about the condition, send an email with the ask seller a question button.

Free shipping is another method for scammer to draw people in. An immediate indication of scam with free shipping is if it is overseas. Very few people would be listing anything overseas with free shipping. Another thing to watch out for, however, is that some people will increase their shipping price to accomodate for a low selling price. For example, someone might make a listing for a 300 dollar phone, with a 100 dollar price then a 200 shipping price. I would just ignore these listings. UPDATE*: I would also like to point out that this is in violation of Ebay's listing rules, and I would recomend reporting them to the appropriate department.

Finnaly, WAIT. Wait until the last couple hours at maximum for the auction to go off before you place your bid. Although this may be given as a good bidding technique (and it is), you need to allow this time for Ebay's fraud department to check it. They are checking the auctions, and sometimes it will take a little bit for them to remove the listing. Bookmark the page and keep checking periodically until the end of the auction is near. If they remove it, then find another auction. I have seen this many times, even on auctions that I thought seemed legit.

On a closing note, never hesitate to contact the seller via the ask seller a question button. Good comunication usually leads to a good transaction.


UPDATED 4/6/06 @ 9:56PM EST: On a side note, I'd like to recommend that you also use the Reviews and Guides search to type in "scams" and read what other guide posters have stated.
*This update was added on 6/25/06 @ 12:48PM EST.