I've been buying and selling on eBay for 9 years, and this year I've been (almost) ripped off by more sellers than ever! Unfortunately, eBay is not much help- after all, they get their income from the sellers not the buyers, so they are not very proactive in helping buyers who have been ripped off. That's why I am writing this guide.

To prevent seller ripoff, protect yourself by using a credit card for your purchase. Do NOT pay by check or money order. It is much more difficult to go after a rip off seller when you've paid by these means. It can be done, and I have done it myself, but it's not easy!

Another important proactive measure- ALWAYS read the feedback of the seller, particularly all negative comments. Do not assume that if the seller has 14,000 feedbacks that everything is cool. I was scammed by a jewlery seller with a ton of feedback. 98.8% positive. However, the 2% negative feedback was on high end items that were fake! Now it might take you a few minutes to read through numerous pages of feedback, but it is worth it!

If you are a victim of a scam - item not received or item not as described, take immediate action. Do not let the seller give you excuses as to why the item has not arrived. In the 9 years I have bought on eBay, the ONLY time that an item takes longer than 7 days is if the seller has lied about the ship date.

Here is what you should do:

1. Write the seller and tell him/her that your item has not arrived (or is is not as described.). You expect to receive resolution within 2 days or you will escalate the claim to the proper authorities.

2. At the same time, contact eBay to obtain the seller's address and telephone number. Make the call to the seller to try to resolve the problem. Document all conversations.

3. If you paid by paypal, initiate a claim right away. Give it 2 days and then escalate the claim and ask for a refund of the total price,including shipping. You can file a Square Trade claim, but don't pay to do it! Square Trade is a ripoff! They are pro-seller as well.

4. You can attempt to contact eBay about the scamming seller, but be prepared to get no resolution this way. The bad seller I dealt with, who tried to scam me out of $5000 also scammed about $40,000 from other buyers who all tried to contact eBay. They did nothing to help for months. Finally the seller was NARU'd after countless of buyers lost thousands of dollars.

5. POST NEGATIVE FEEDBACK- don't be afraid of retaliation! It may happen! Unfortunately eBay won't help, but you can counter comment and tell everyone that the feedback is retaliatory and wrong. The negative feedback that you post will help you. More than likely, the seller has done the same thing to other buyers. Now others can see you have trouble and they will email you. As a group, you are more powerful.

6. Contact the following authorities, and urge other buyers to do the same. It works! I can't put outside links in this so you'll have to figure them out

• Go to the IC3 web page and file internet fraud. It is easy to do.
• Go to  the FTC web page  and at the bottom of page, click "file a complaint" this is easy too and will document your problem with the FTC.
• Report your claim to the USPostal service  and click on "file mail fraud complaint" This works! Because several buyers who were scammed did this, a Postal Investigator contacted me and began investigating the other scam cases.
  
  *****Most importantly- report it to State Attorney General Offiice. You can usually do that by internet link as well. Also call his/her local police dept. Ask them to call him and request your money back. This is what I did the Sheriff's dept was very helpful. It scared him and he sent a refund check within a day of the call.
   
  Once you have taken this action, by all means, let the seller know that s/he has been reported and you will not stop until justice is served. You deserve to get what you paid for. You deserve to be treated fairly. DO not give up and do not let the seller bully you. Even if it is a $5 item, you deserve an honest transaction.