We all love a good bargain, especially when we find one on eBay.  Though eBay can be trusted from time to time, fraudulent sellers may fall through the cracks.  Sometimes, you may find that these sellers target high end items like digital cameras, camcorders, designer purses, etc.  From my experience, when the price is too good to be true, there's always a reason why (though sometimes, rare but it can happen, the price is not too good to be true).

How do you avoid scam artists who are on eBay?  Follow these guidelines as I have done so to keep myself out of trouble:

• check the seller's feedback (if there are too many negatives, don't buy from the seller)
• set a threshold for seller's feedback percentage. ( I normally would not buy from sellers with less than 98% positive feedback)
• Look at the number of feedbacks (A legitimate seller, most of the time, has over 1,000 feedbacks) Remember  Scam artists are willing to sell several items and gain 100% positive feedbacks so that they may gain the trust of eBayers who they target to get the big bucks from.
  
• Look at the format of the item descriptions and compare it to other item description formats. (Scam artists are willing to set up various numbers of accounts but may not realize that they list the items the same way each time.)
• Be aware of the locations of the seller.  Don't buy from sellers in other countries, especially overseas, because currently there are no US laws protecting US citizens from scammers.  Also, scammers are much harder, nearly impossible to track overseas. 
  

If you believe that a certain listing is a fraud, you should contact eBay right away so that they can further investigate the seller.  (I had to do this with one seller who sold me Coach purse that turned out to be a really good knock-off which fooled eBay personnels through the pictures and the listings, but not a Coach rep. at the local mall.)  Contacting eBay will allow eBay to suspend/revoke the seller from using eBay.

Recently, I nearly purchased a camera from a fraudulent site, but before completing the purchase, I visited resellerreatings.com which revealed that the site was set up by scam artists.  Also, resellerratings.com stated that eBay is location for such scams, as well.  Therefore, I decided to write this as an attempt to help other fellow eBayers and bargain hunters.

Good luck, be cautions (be aware of the crooks) and continue supporting the economy!