Fake Escrow Account This is where the scammer will make payment but it hasn't yet been credit to your account because it is in an escrow account. Once the buyer, I mean scammer, received the item, they will release the money to you. The scammer will claim this is a safe payment for both parties. After the scammer receives the item, you learn there is no payment because it was a fake escrow service set up by the scammer/buyer. This is more likely to happen on higher end items and I wouldnt use a escrow service. Tell your buyer to use PayPal. When you know the deal is a scam and it not going any future, file an UnPaid Item depute. Do Not file a mutually agree to cancel. By filing a mutually agree to cancel you place the power back to the scammer. If the scammer doesn't agree to mutually cancel, you will not get your Final Value Fees refunded. http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unpaid-item.html

PayPal Escrow Scam The same concept of the normal fake escrow scam. The buyer (and in this case the scammer) buys an item. The seller gets what looks like an email from PayPal saying the payment was made and the funds would be deposited in the sellers account once the item is shipped. The email did not come from PayPal. If you question if the email is real or not forward it to "spoof@paypal.com". Do not send the item, you will never see your money.

Credit Card Charge Backs This is where the buyer requests a refund from his/her credit card company. Lets say someone purchased your WKRP In Cincinnati tape but after watching it, the buyer falls on hard times and regrets spending so much needed money on the VHS tape. They tell their credit card company the tape was damaged. The credit card company tells PayPal they are taking back the payment. Guess what, PayPal is not going to be holding the bag, so PayPal takes the funds out of your account. This doesnt happen to often as the credit card company will get wise to this scam if they see a pattern of chargebacks.

Pick-up Item Not a large problem, but one I feel will be on the increase. Since most items that are picked up at your home or business might be large heavy items, they typically are some of the more expensive items. The scam: The buyer sends payment via PayPal then picks up the item in person. After the buyer has the item, they claim they never received the item and get their money back from PayPal (PayPal takes the payment back from you). You can have a signed statement showing the items was picked up, a video tape of the buyer driving off with the item and PayPal will still take the payment out of your account and give it to your buyer. The only proof PayPal accepts is on-line tracking. If a buyer picks up an item....have them bring CASH.

Claim Jumper After the buyer places a bid on a item, they receive an email made to look as if it came from the seller. The email offers the item at a great price. The email actually comes from a scammer who is not the real seller. The scammer don't have the item and is hoping to con the bidder into sending money (usually western union). This takes us back to the first rule. If it is to good a deal to be true, it probably is. Keep the transaction on eBay, Pay through PayPal or better yet use your credit card.

Gift Cards Gift cards are an easy scam. Most large retailers have the plastic cards setting at the check-out counter. The plastic cards are worthless until they are activated by the cashier but that doesn't stop scammer from shop lifting them and placing them on eBay. It is not likely the retailer is going to put much effort into stopping the theft of worthless items. eBay has limits on the amount of gift cards a seller can list which can slow down the scam but like everything else on eBay, you need to be careful, read over the feedback, and check past sales. Look what the seller is currently selling. If the seller is listing a lot of gift cards it is a red flag. Know your seller and pay with a credit card through PayPal.

Indonesian Credit Card Scam This one is as old as the hills and is very basic. The item is purchased with a stolen credit card. The seller sends the item only to learn later the credit card is stolen. PayPal or the credit card company takes back the payment. You are out the item, the payment and you paid the postage to mail the item to the fruadster. This can happen anywhere. eBay calls this the Indonesian Credit Card Scam because it is more common with buyers from Indonesia and Philippines. To reduce the risk you might think about not shipping to these countries.

Win a Car Contest Scam This one comes from eBay's earlier days. The eBay member gets an email that looks like it comes from eBay telling them they can win some great prize. The victim clicks on a link that takes them to a fake eBay sign-in page. If the member signs-in to resister for the fake contest, they have given up their ID and password. To avoid this scam, check your MyMessages in your MyeBay (click on My eBay at the top of any page) and any emails from or through eBay will appear in your My Messages. Members should also forward the email to spoof@ebay.com.

Fake Drop Shipper Like the spoof emails, it wouldn't be surprising if you don't already have one of these scam emails in your in-box now. A scammer sends out an email claiming to be a drop shipper or someone who needs help moving merchandise. You have good feedback and eBay knowledge so if you list the items, they are more likely sell. The scammer claims he will do all the work after the items sell. All you have to do is forward your part of the payment to them. They will ship from their end. You wait for feedback while your buyer waits for the item. It will never arrive because the scammer never had the items. You are left holding the bag. Deal with honest companies.

African Store If you sell long enough on eBay you will have an item that sells will in Africa. It doesn't matter what it is, they might not even care. There are version of this scam but it goes something like this. Your items sells very well in (place country here). They need your item and will send you payment via Western Union and a UPS shipping slip. You get an email said you have been paid and to ship the item. After the item is shipped you find out the UPS shipping slip was stolen. Everyone has something that will sell well in Africa, don't get excited. Be careful and make sure you have CASH in your hand before shipping the item.

Western Union Double Wammie After an items is sold, the seller will get and email from what appears to be Western Union saying the payment has been made. Usually a second fake Western Union email ask for personal information to process the payment and says it is okay to go ahead and send the item. The seller sends the item believing the payment is waiting for them at Western Union but the scammer now has both the item and the sellers personal information. I would not accept Western Union wire transfer payments (it is not an approved eBay payment) and make sure you have Cash in hand before shipping. I've always heard this scam used with Western Union but it could be used with PayPal or any other payment service.

Similar Item This one if fairly new to us. A seller will get an email that looks like it came through eBay. The email will ask if the item the item is similar to another item listed on eBay. The email provides a link that appears to the other item. It actually take you to a fake page where you have to sign in. This give the scammer the sellers personal information. Easy to avoid if you check your My Messages (part of your My eBay). I never click on a link in an email. Better to take a few extra seconds to be safe.

Fake Pre-Paid shipping The scammer will make payment via PayPal and provide the seller with a Fed Ex or UPS account number but it has to be delivered to a work address or some other third party. The carrier picks up the item and delivers the package. Days later the seller learns the funds and or shipping account where stolen. PayPal takes back the money and the seller is left holding the bag. Unless you know the buyer, I would not send the item using the buyers shipping account. Small items are less a risk than higher valued items.

End Item Early Not really a scam but low and a little dishonest. The scam: The buyer emails you and asks that you end the item now. They give some sob story about needing the item asap so they offer you what would appear to be a fair amount. In most cases the buyer doesn't want the auction to go to the end because they know it will go for a much larger amount than they want to pay. They are hoping you don't know the value and will be happy with the offer. Odds are if you accept the offer you are cheating yourself out of a great auction. Unless you personally know and trust the buyer (friend, family etc,) I would thank the buyer for the offer and invite them to bid on it. I would not close the auction.

Send To My Friend Scam In this scam the fraudster will be using a stolen eBay and/or a stolen PayPal account. The scammer with either purchase and item or email the seller requesting to the expensive item to sent to a friend or relative at a different address, usually a country where it will be impossible to recover your item. They will offer to pay with PayPal and request the item to sent to some place like Russia. After the item is shipped the seller learns the accounts where stolen and PayPal takes the money back. The seller is out the item, postage and listing fees. If it is a small valued item during the holidays, shipped somewhere within the USA, probably not a scam but if you are selling an expensive item you should only ship to confirmed addresses.

The Redirect This is where a computer savvy scammer has listed an item with a code that will redirect you to a fake sign-in page or to an email address. The redirect to a fake page is an attempt to get you to sign in with your password. The scammer will now have your password. The redirect to an email address is to get you to make the purchase off eBay. In this case they are after your cash. You spot this scam because the whole page is link. I haven't seen one that was good enough to make only the proper areas link. With this scam you can click on any part including the white part, text and even the eBay header. It is unlikely the seller even has the item you are looking for.

A new version of the redirect used by scammers: Post a listing with a phonographic gallery picture. This is an attempt to get kind people to report the listing by using the "report" button at the bottom of the listing. When people click on the report button, they are taken to a fake sign-in page. Do not sign in from any listing page.

Report here: contact ebay - redirect Listing Violation > Other listing Violation>Use of HTML or Script. You will need the listing number. Might want to jot it down before starting the reporting process.

Contact Me This is a classic scam. The scammer will list an item. Usually a car or high valued item with the "pre-approved" bidder feature. Since an interested member wants the great deal, they email seller. The seller/scammer talks the interested buyer into an off eBay transaction. The scammer doesn't have the item, It was listed for the purpose of have buyers contact them so they can con them out of their payment. Keep the transactions on eBay. If the seller wants to take the transaction off eBay, odds are they are up to no good.

eBay Safe Payment Scam Scammers will make up several different safe payment program names but they are all likely to be a scam. A buyer will want to pay a "safe" way so they wish to use the "eBay Safe Purchase Program" or some such non-sense. There is no eBay Safe Purchase Program. It is a version of the escrow scam. The scammer claims to have made payment through eBay and once the items has been delivered and inspected eBay will release the payment. The seller will even get official looking fake ebay emails but they are fake. No payment was made.

The Takedown This usually happens in high end or popular electronic items. You list the item with a buy it now and within a few hours your item has been purchased by someone with little or no feedback. Just because they don't have any feedback doesn't mean they are a scammer. We all started with zero but it is a red flag. This also can happen with a bid placed in the final seconds. This is just step one of the scam. You have just been ripped off your listing fees. (eBay will refund the final value fees but not the listing fees). The scammer hopes to have a victim. They might send you a fake money order to go with the fake escrow scam. To help prevent this you can choose to only accept bids from the countries you ship to (we advice the USA only on high end electronics), and/or require the bidder/buyer to have a PayPal account. The buyer doesn't have to pay with PayPal but since most scammer don't have PayPal accounts this helps reduce the scams. You can also place the item on a Fix Price format with immediate payment. In this case the buyer will have to have to pay via PayPal. The listing stays live until it payment has been relieved.

When you know the deal is a scam and it not going any future, file an UnPaid Item depute. Do Not file a mutually agree to cancel. By filing a mutually agree to cancel you place the power back to the scammer. If the scammer doesn't agree to mutually cancel, you will not get your Final Value Fees refunded. http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unpaid-item.html

Fake Tickets Fake tickets are much like any other high end, in-demand item. There are car scams on eBay everyday but the large scam ticket scam only comes around a few times a year. While you are excited your team reached the Super Bowl, the scammer is excited that you are excited. Buyers who are excited normally don't think clearly, they just want to be part of the big event. You really have to calm yourself and look for any red flags. Someone from some third world country is not going to have tickets to the World Series. Never send payment via Western Union Money transfer..NEVER! Look over the feedback. Read the comments left by others. And always pay with a credit card. If you can pay with a credit card through PayPal all the better. If you need to withdraw any funds you have in your account, they pay for your purchase to insure the payment will be applied to your credit card. If the tickets are pre-ordered they have to be delievered within 30 days. If something doesn't feel right contact PayPal asap. Don't wait to long.

Charity Auction Scam From time to time you will come across a listing claiming to be for a charity. Odds are it is to help the charity but some are designed to pull at your heart strings and to get you to bid a little more. eBay has rules in place for running a charity auction. Sellers wishing to sell for charity need to go through MissionFish to list the items. MissionFish will charge your credit card the donated amount and pass most of it to your charity. Personally, I'm not a big fan of MissionFish. I feel their fees are to high but they do offer a good service and keep the site safer. If the MissionFish rules and additional fees don't fit your business plan, you can go directly to the charity and at a written document (on charity letter head) stating you have the charity blessing to list items on their behalf. This document needs to be scanned and placed in your listing.

Soft Fraud Soft fraud is just as damaging to the market place as major crime, maybe more so. eBay doesn't recognize soft fraud. We consider soft fraud to come from when the seller has the "you should have asked" attitude. Lets say you find a Fleetword Mac CD, This had great memories to you and you thought it would make a great gift. The seller shows the CD in overall great condition. It is shown with the case and the paper artwork insert. When you get the item you find the seller only sent the disk in a plan envelope. When you complain to the seller, their standard statement is: I never said it came with the case and artwork, you should have asked. These type of sellers run off as many, if not more buyers than the Nigerian scammer. Buyers can file a SNAD (Significantly Not as Described)

List or Information Listings These are listings made to fool people into thinking they are purchasing something they are not. Their listing might read something like: "Sony Playstation PSP Portable" The listing shows pictures of the game and has a long list of the game details but somewhere in the listing it states you are only purchasing a list or the name of the wholesaler where you can purchase the game. You are not purchasing the game itself. These sellers are taking advantage of those who get excited of getting a game at a great price and don't read the description or terms of sale.

Buying Feedback To boost a scammer's reputation, they will often times buy feedback. Scammers will sell and buy one cent items (recipes, eBooks, etc) for the sole purpose of getting feedback. For about a buck a scammer can use eBay UK to sell .01¢ items build impressive feedback and become a powerseller. While it is harder for a scammer to get the PowerSeller icon on the USA eBay site, the scam is just as popular. Know who you are dealing with my not only checking the feedback comments but also click on the item number to see what they have sold or purchased. Stay away from sellers who have purchased their feedback.

VeRO Abuse The Verified Right Owner program should not be in the frauds and scam pages but because of the way some rights owners have abused the program to keep their products off eBay, we have given the program the honorary dishonor of the scam page. Most VeRO members are honest companies or individuals but a few bad apples have given this needed program a bad name. To fight VeRO abuse please see these website: Tabberone.com or owenandemma.com.

Inflated Value This not an offically a scam. This is often refered to as "gaming the system". In this scam like system a seller will list an item on a Fix Price format, then purchase their own item. Since this is done on a fix format and not an auction, there isn't ant shill bidding violation.

Shame on you PayPal While this is no doubt legal, it has the same effect as the scams above. In fact, this one might hurt more than the others. This one is done by PayPal itself. The scenario: Seller "A" sells and item and receives payment via PayPal. The seller then takes those funds from the PayPal account and purchases an item from another seller. Now seller "B" has the funds for the item he sold by seller "A". PayPal learns that the original payment the buyer gave to seller "A" is from a stolen credit card. There is no money left in seller "A's" account so PayPal follows the money and takes it back from seller "B". Seller "B" did nothing wrong but PayPal doesn't want to be out the funds so it takes the money from an honest seller.

It is doubtful these are all the scams. There are fraudsters who are right now thinking up the next great scam. If you need to retract a bid, you might be able to do so using this link: http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-retract.html