Section 6.7. Scams to Watch Out For

6.7. Scams to Watch Out For

Just as scammers prey on new buyers (Section 4.3), they also target new sellers. If you're selling expensive merchandise, you can pretty much count on being approached by scammers. Knowing their angles will help you steer clear of trouble. And every seller, large or small, sooner or later runs into someone who tries to get something your somethingfor nothing. This section describes common ploys aimed at sellers and how to deal with them.

6.7.1. The Check's in the Mail

Deadbeat bidders write great fiction . They'll go to great lengths to sell you a heart-wrenching story of the troubles they've been sufferingand why this means they can't pay for the item they won. On the other hand, tragedies do strike, and it would feel pretty awful to accuse a nonpaying bidder of lying and then find out that all sixteen of her children really do need emergency operations.

This situation is probably the least serious but most common of all the scams. It's a scam simply because the bidder is lying to get out of an obligation. Knowing what to do when a nonpaying bidder with a good story asks to back out of an auction can be a tough call. You've got your eBay fees to consider, but you also want to develop a reputation for good customer serviceand an unhappy bidder who's won an auction can leave negative feedback even if he or she is a complete deadbeat.

The best approach is to deal with this situation on a case-by-case basis. You might insist on payment and use eBay's UPI dispute process (Section 5.7.2.1) to back you upthe bidder forks over payment or gets an Unpaid Item strike. In other cases, you might choose to strike a deal with the bidder to let it go if she reimburses you for eBay fees. Still other times, you might open a UPI dispute and then close it with "We've agreed not to complete the transaction." (If the buyer agrees, this option refunds your FVFs, makes the item eligible for a relisting credit, and doesn't leave a UPI strike against the buyer.)

Tip: If you don't believe the nonpaying bidder's sob story, put the bidder on your blocked-bidder list (Section 6.6.1.2) so you won't have to listen to any more of his tragic tales.

6.7.2. Phishing for Sellers

The term phishing refers to official-looking (but totally bogus ) emails designed to weasel personal and account information out of you, the recipient. A recent type of phishing email has been appearing in sellers' inboxes lately. These fake emails look just like the emails you get when someone clicks "Ask seller a question" to email you a question about a running auctionexcept the email doesn't really come through eBay. It comes direct from a scammer who's trying to hijack your account.

The spoof email typically says something like, "I paid for the item. When will it ship?" and provides a link you can click that looks like a link to the auction page. But the link doesn't take you to eBay; it takes you to a scam site that tries to get information about your account. In some cases, clicking the link also loads a Trojan horse or other kind of virus onto your computer.

If you get an email like this from a buyer and you're not sure what auction the buyer is referring to, don't click any links inside the email. Open your Web browser, type www.ebay.com into the address bar, sign in, and go to your My eBay page. If you have a legitimate question waiting from a buyer, it will show you there.

Tip: Check My Messages in your My eBay page. All messages sent through eBay appear there.

Another phishing email directed at sellers offers to make you a PowerSeller. Because eBay does invite sellers who qualify to become PowerSellers via email, this can be confusing. You can check two ways to see whether the offer is legit: From your My eBay page, check My Messages. If eBay has sent you a message, you'll find it there. Or sign in to eBay and go to Services PowerSeller Program, and then click the big green PowerSellers Sign-In ! button, shown in Figure 6-18.

Figure 6-18. When you click the sign-in button for PowerSellers, the next page tells you whether or not you currently qualify for the PowerSellers program. If the next page says, "We're sorry, but this User ID is not recognized as being qualified for the eBay Powerseller Program at this time," you know that any email inviting you to become a PowerSeller was a fake. Forward the bogus email to [e-mail].

6.7.3. "Damaged" Goods

Sometimes, you know you packed an item carefully , but the buyer will insist that the item arrived in pieces or is not working. This is why requiring shipping insurance is a good idea. If you have an insurance receipt, the buyer has to cooperate with you to get a refund. Buyers who are trying to pull this scamblaming you for damage that either doesn't exist or is not your faultwill pressure you to give them a refund before the shipper investigates the insurance claim. Don't give in. If the only way that the buyer can get a refund is to participate in the insurance investigation (the buyer has to take the item and the packing materials to the shipper), dishonest buyers suddenly change their minds.

In the same vein, some buyers will claim that an item is damaged or not as described and want you to refund their money immediately. What they're trying to do is get a free item; they keep your perfectly good item and get their money back. Don't refund until you have the item back in your hands. Spell this out in your auction's return policy, and these scammers might steer clear of your auctions.

Tip: Buy an ultraviolet pen and UV reader so you can invisibly mark your items (you can get these supplies right on eBay). If a buyer insists on a refund for a "damaged" item that you know was just fine when you shipped it, tell the buyer to return the item so that you can check for the secret mark you put on everything you sell. Your buyer might suddenly decide to keep the item, after all.

Another variation on this theme is switching a good item for a bad one: a buyer purchases something from you, say a new camcorder, to replace a broken one they already own, then tries to "return" the broken one to you for a refund, claiming the camcorder you sent didn't work. The way to beat this shell game is to keep good records. If you're selling electronics, for example, photograph your items' serial numbers and keep them with your sales records, so you have proof of what you sold.

6.7.4. Fake Escrow Sites

A legitimate escrow site protects buyers and sellers: the seller doesn't ship until payment is with the escrow service, and the buyer can make sure the item arrives and is the real thing before releasing payment. But scammers use fake escrow sites to trick buyers and sellers both. (For escrow scams involving buyers, see Section 4.3.5.) For this reason, some eBay sellers won't do escrow transactions at all.

WORD TO THE WISE
WHOIS That Knocking on My Door?

Scammers can be very persuasiveit comes with their conartist territory. You might find yourself communicating with someone who appears to have a perfectly valid reason to avoid Escrow.com, and wonder whether you should go ahead with the transaction to save a big sale.

The best path is to insist on Escrow.com or no escrow service at all, but you can check out an alternative escrow site doing a WHOIS search. This kind of search clues you in about when a Web site was registered and who owns it. Network Solutions offers a free, easy-to-use domain name lookup. Go to www.networksolutions.com and click WHOIS. Type in the name of the Web site you're checking, make sure that Domain Name is turned on, and click Search.

If the site exists, the page that opens will give you the lowdown on when it was created and registered, and the name, address, and phone number of the registered administrator. If it's only a few days or a few weeks since the Web site's birthday, you can assume that it's not a legitimate escrow site. Scammers love to use stolen credit cards to set up their fake sites, so another warning sign is a site registered to an individual (as opposed to a corporation) or a registration address in a different state from where the site claims it's located. The scammers steal a credit card account and use it to set up a fake site that the card's rightful owner doesn't even know about.

Finally, if you can't find any registration info because it's hidden, run the other way. What legitimate business would want to keep that information secret?

Here's how escrow scams target sellers. A buyer bids on an expensive item, like a computer or a piece of jewelry , and insists on using an escrow service. The fake buyer often acts nervous about the transaction and the seller's honesty. This puts the seller on the defensive; the seller wants the transaction to go smoothly and keep her good reputation on eBay intact. When the buyer suggests using an escrow service, the seller often agrees, figuring it's safe for both parties. The buyer, however, insists on choosing the escrow service, and you can bet it's not Escrow.com or one of the international escrow services recommended by eBay (Help AZ Index E Escrow for Sellers).

The seller agrees to use the buyer's escrow service, registers on the site, and soon gets an email from the escrow company, saying payment has arrived and it's OK to ship. The seller ships the item. Days pass, and there's no news. The seller goes to the escrow service's Web site, only to find the site has disappeared. There is no escrow service. The buyer set up a fake site to steal the seller's item.

Not only has the seller lost the item, he probably opened himself up to identity theft when he registered with the fake escrow service, which might have asked for his email address, home address, and bank account or credit card info.

The upshot? You can refuse to use escrow at all. But that might scare away legitimate buyers who want the security of escrow when they're spending big bucks. If you decide to accept escrow, protect yourself by always insisting on Escrow.com (or an eBay-approved international escrow service).

6.7.5. The I'll-Ship-It-Myself Scam

Sometimes a buyer insists on using his own shipper. This can seem legitimate; many people have accounts with FedEx, UPS, or DHL/Airborne, and using their account can save them a few bucks on shipping charges. It's a safer bet, though, to stick with the terms of your auction. If your buyer has stolen someone else's shipping account info, when the shipping company catches up with what's happening, they'll charge you for sending the package.

6.7.6. Overpayment

In this scam, a potential buyer contacts the seller with an offer to purchase the item at a good price, sometimes using the Buy It Now button and sometimes asking the seller to end the auction early for a high price. The buyer often (but not always) claims to be an "agent" working on behalf of a "client." Or the buyer might claim that he or she is buying the item as a gift.

The buyer wants to send the seller a cashier's check for an amount that's substantially more than the agreed-upon price. The buyer offers one of several possible explanations for this: the extra money is for shipping and the seller should send the item via the chosen shipper, or someone owes the buyer money and the buyer wants that person to send the whole amount to the seller, or the buyer wants to include a cash gift with the item. The buyer frequently offers the seller a percentage of the overpayment for the seller's "trouble." This appeals to sellers who want to make a quick buck beyond their auction proceeds.

When the cashier's check arrives, the buyer pressures the seller to wire the excess amount at once and ship the item as quickly as possible. The matter is extremely urgent and must be taken care of right away. And the matter is urgent (to the scammer): the seller is holding a forged cashier's check, and the buyer wants to steal the seller's money and item before the seller finds out.

It can take a while for a bank to discover that a cashier's check is a forgery, particularly if the check is supposed to be from a bank outside the U.S. Many banks make deposited funds available immediately if your account has as much as or more than the amount of the check. But making the funds available is not the same as the check's clearing. And that's how these scammers rip off the seller. You think the check has cleared, so you wire the funds and ship the item. Later, you find out that the check was a forgeryand the money you thought was in your account has disappeared.

Tip: To get an amusing education in this type of scam, visit www.bustedupcowgirl.com/scampage.html. The woman who owns this site got so tired of being approached by scammers that she started playing with them, coming up with all kinds of explanations for delaying the sale. Then other sellers started contributing their own stories. You can read email exchanges between scammers and on-to-them sellers, from the initial approach to the final gotcha !

If you receive an email from someone asking you to accept overpayment and wire the difference to someone else, run the other way. Don't answer the email. Block all future emails from that person, add their eBay ID to your Blocked Bidder list (Section 6.6.1.2), and report them to eBay (Help Security Center).