I dont do much business on ebay, so I was wondering how you can tell if it is a scam or not?
I am going to bid on something... but all they accept is a money order or a cashiers check- no paypal. This has me wondering. So I send him a money order... and he sends me ????? Whats to say hell send me anything?
What other flags shud I look for if I think I may be getting scamed
thanks

 

I purchased a TON of stuff on EBAY for my project. I never had any problems with anything. Some people just dont want to deal with PayPal. EBAY has checks set up to be sure people dont get ripped off. Only thing I am a little weary of is people selling from other countries. I dont buy anything from outside the US. You should also check the sellers EBAY rating too. A lot of people do nothing for a job except buy and sell stuff on ebay, these people will have really high scores, usually the best people to buy from. If someone had no score I would worry about that too.

There is allways some degree of risk, but I dont hesitate to buy things from EBAY, allways been good to me.

 

I always look for a phone number to call. Call and talk to them and even ask for another phone number to make sure. If it sounds fishy it usually is. I once was going to buy a 03 700 with a 5 year warrenty from Ebay turned out to be a scam. I was emailing the person back and forth and was about to send them cash threw western union and then as I was about to go out the door to send it I got a email from a lady. She said her account had been hacked and it wasn't her that I was talking to. She didn't have an 700 polaris. Later I got a email from the New York state trooper asking about the emails. Boy I was lucky she emailed me before I left.

 

You can ask him for a phone number to talk to them personally, e-mail address,look at the feedback. I dont know if I would trust anyone that only excepts money order or cert.chk only.

 

Well, this fella has a score of 340 and a feedback of 99.5%
Maybe ill be ok

 

Maybe but names can be stolen. I do alot of buys on e-bay. If you dont mind me asking? What are you bidding. I can take a look at it and do some research to see if it is real. Maybe we can both ask him some questions and see if they match up. PM me if you want . If not I understand.

 

Yea the scam I was almost involed with the seller had a 100% feedback because the account was stolen. I have over 200 transactions and everything has been great except I was lied to once I think thats pretty good.

 

Thanks 2many I sent you a pm. What im bidding on is only up to 80$ now but it could go up to 350- 400
I dont guess someonre would take a chance on going to jail over 350$ but who knows. Just wana be safe

 

I've purchased a lot of items on Ebay. I always look at the feedback for negative feedbacks. I have purchased 3 atv's from ebay and been very happy with all of them. I did not pay until I picked them up. Most all sellers will let you do that on large items. Some may require a down payment. The main key is to know what you want and know what it is worth.

 

You would be surprised! Some do small scams, but a lot of them. This makes it harder to prosecute because is is a small amount. The large scams land them in jail, but the small ones are petty theft by deception.