It is very difficult to avoid being taken for a ride so to speak by determined cheats as there are so many variations on scamming.  There is the ID theft method where you may be gulled into thinking that you are dealing with a good eBayer.  If however the actual seller is a 17 year old misusing his bros account where do you stand? (juveniles cannot be sued).  Another scam may occur when a seller builds up good feedback and points score by selling  a large number of cheap items (CD cassettes for multi disc changers for example).  Once he has accrued a couple of hundred points and 99% or more he is in a position to do a "sting" on an expensive item such as a hyped up to be excellent car that is faulty.  Provided that he keeps on selling clothes pegs or whatever he can build up his ratings again ready for the next sting.  Another scam is the faulty goods scam from abroad.  In this scam the bargain wristwatch "in nice condition" is erratic and keeps stopping.  Unfortunately the cost of the airmail to return it is more than it is worth so one may as well bin it.  I will no longer buy anything from the Liverpool area  as the joke "What do you call a scouser in a suit?" has more than grain of truth in it.  (the answer by the way  is "the accused" -as allegedly they only wear suits when in court!) Re the reverse phone number check, this is not possible in the UK thanks to the Data Protection Act.  In actual fact this act prevented me from tracing a scammer as the Driver & Vehicle Licencing Agency, Vodaphone, and Barclays, the criminals bank, all used this act to thwart my attempts to get his full name and address. (without this he could not be sued). Short of suing Barclays there is no way forward, but it seems incredible for a bank to withhold the identity of its fraudulent clients.  The man was banned from eBay but once again the DP act prevented me from getting his address (the pick up address was just an uninhabited compound on an industrial estate). Liverpool Trading Standards will only accept complaints from residents of Liverpool! - so they are part of the scam as well!    God Bless America!