Hi all,

As a buyer and seller on ebay, I have gathered some valuable information on how to determine whether the listing you are looking at is not a scam.
First off, if you are buying an expensive electronic something worth $200+ and up- please continue reading.

Age old saying... If it's too good to be true, it most probably certainly is- and we can apply that to real life too! So if you "feel" that this price is Oh my god so unbelievable... just wait, take a deep breath and follow through the steps I have listed.

My husband and I have experienced this incident where we bought a laptop off of ebay from a powerseller with extremely good feedback and there was nothing to doubt- to make the long story short, this seller's account was hijacked.

Now go to nekkidtruth.blogspot.com- there you will see a list of emails of people who are acutally scammers- bookmark it, it is very helpful.
Sometimes, these listing direct you to other links or request you send them an email "to qualify" or to "inquire"- so you got to check the site I told you about to make sure that thier email is not listed.

Don't be afraid to report a listing to eBay if you think something fishy is going on.

DO NOT buy right away unless you see that this seller has received feedback on a similar item you are buying. Usualy you can tell right away whether this seller has been hijacked if you see that the items they sold or are selling is completely different than what you want to purchase.

If you're sure that it is them, read the about me page, they might say something about listing random items.

Another valuable option to make while searching for your item is use the "Completed Listings" option.

Another good way of making sure that account is not hijacked is go to the seller's feedback page, click on "view items for sale" link, then, tick off completed listings in the left hand side pane and click search. If you see that the seller has not sold anything for a while, beware, it is most probably hijacked.

Do not try contacting the seller, because like the hijacker has hold of the account, so does he the emails.

Why is it so easy? Some businesses operate a 9-5 Mon-Fri schedule and the person in charge of checking the emails, orders...etc would only do so within that frame... so keep that in mind- just because a seller is a powerseller and has feedback of 9000+ does not deem thier account safe from any harm- most of the emails sent to these sellers- are very much like the ones ebay sends, and they fall in that trap by mistake.

Scammers love to exploit these businesses on weekends, changing passwords, emails, contact information and bank account numbers.

Luckily ebay/paypal protects sellers/buyers altogether, but don't put yourself in that predicament- it's nerve wrecking and annoying.

I have a lot more to say but I will post another soon.

Thanks for reading.

Nina

PS Check out my store, that's the least you can do!