Everyday thousands of eBay members' lose big amount of money on frauds and unauthorized transections. What is a fraud?

• intentional deception resulting in injury to another person*
• imposter: a person who makes deceitful pretenses*
• something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage*

Let's keep these hard definitons aside and talk real. To me, a fraud is a dishonest person who will buy products without paying money. "Is it even possible?" - I hear new sellers say. Well, when I was new in eBay, I never thought frauds really exist and they can do something so smoothly that I won't notice that I am dealing with dishonest people.

The first sign of a fraud is that, the person will never be an eBay member. All eBay members need to verify their address while registering. Frauds don't want to verify themselves because they will get caught.

Another sign of a fraud is that, the person will give you a deal which is "too good to be true". For example, if you are selling something for $100, they will offer you $200 so that you end the auction and ship it to them. If the offer is too good to be true, think twice before taking any decision.

Of course, they will tell you a really heart touching story like, "My daughter has a church program and her video camera broke" or "My son is really sick and his playstation doesn't work anymore, he doesn't have anything to do now, he is so bored". Logically any person who is good by heart will not think anything else after reading these stories.

In many occasions, the buyer will be in a different country doing some kind of business and wants to buy the product that you’re selling for a person who lives in his native country.  Don’t get seduced by seeing girl’s name! Trust me; I have been scammed by a girl. A fraud can be boy or a girl, or a boy acting as a girl and vice varsa.

And the most thrilling part is, frauds pays as soon as you agree to the offer. You will receive a confirmation PayPal, Bidpay or WesternUnion saying that some one has deposited money in the account for you. Don't jump off the chair in excitement, because the next part of the email will say "We will dispatch your money order as soon as you send us the tracking number. This is due to security... etc.”

Now think, why would money transferring services want tracking number from you? To make sure you sent the product to their customer? But the tradition of online auction is that you send item after money reach in your hand. So why would they want to make sure that you sent the product in only one particular item?

And the best part is, when you check your PayPal or BidPay account, it says there is no new messages. This is when you are 99% sure that it is a scam.

Never send anything without getting paid. Not commitment, money needs to be in hand before you ship the product. There are many people who are honest and really in a hard situation where they can’t pay before you send the item. That is different; at least they won’t send you a fake email saying money is already paid.

I didn’t lose any money because my luck was extra ordinarily good. I went to post office to ship the item, but I was two minutes late and USPS was closed. Now everyone will not get lucky, especially new sellers, full with enthusiasm will ship the item very early in the morning and find out they have been scammed.

Most new sellers lose all their enthusiasm after getting scammed and they often stop their eBay business. What’s the point of blaming eBay for something you have done wrong? You should have verified the person before selling anything. Why sell items to outsiders when there are millions of registered people looking at your item. Not selling? Read the tips and guides; search “What’s the best way to success in eBay?” Now, don’t go and buy a $99.99 subscription in some websites who guaranties to sell your product. You can do it yourself. Just be patient and read.

And last but not least, eBay always sends an email after you receive a message from unregistered members. Read it, eBay is a company which runs on profit. It will not invest time or money to waste your time. If they send you an email that means it has some importance and you should read. I remember, I thought eBay is a joke when I received a mail which says I shouldn’t deal with people outside eBay. Now, I read every single email. It takes two minutes, but it can save you from a terrible loss. Two minutes can save you a fortune. 

* Copied from online dictionary.