Guest " " Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I'ts been a busy month or so selling the stuff I no longer need on ebay. For the most part it's been intresting, but not something I would do for the long term. Most sales have turned out better then expected. I got a notice a few days ago that my volume was enought to rate me as a power seller......and as a reward.....I now get flooded with identity theft email tactics from very clever individuals. I also seen a few intresting tactics by folks also selling the same items you are. Here are some high lights. a. If you list an item that suddenly does real well. You can expect a season ebay seller to list the exact same item and end his auction 15 minutes before yours. Next you will see a few bids by folks with low feedback inflated past the new list cost of the item. Finally, before the end of the auction, the inflated bids are cancelled, the other seller makes out with a decent sale from the folks he steered away from your listing, and your item is still unsold. You can't check how many times the other seller has done this, since all bidders from previous transactions are generic. b. Never respond to questions and not choose the option to hide your email address. Never respond to any questions outside of the ebay messaging system. Allowing buyers to have emails from you provides the message headers they need to win most appeals for reversing actions. For example. If you make a sale, and the buyer sends you an email asking to be notified when the item is shipped, respond thru the ebay messaging system. A bidder who does not pay, and you initate a non-paying bidder dispute for, and close with the assumption that he will get a non-paying bidder strike, can submitt and easliy win an appeal to reverse the strike if he submitts your email header and states he thought you and him were in a greement. He can edit the email and copy and paste it to say anything. The key element is the mail header. You will not get notified that he requested a reversal, or see what he sent in. If you check later, you will see strike reveresed, but won't know why. c. Make sure you exclude Hawaiia, Puerto Rico, Alaska, and other off shore US relationships in any shipping estimates,by so stating, else, there may be some mis-understanding about actual shipping costs. d. No matter how tempting, the offer, responding to ending an auction early can only bite you in the a_s. e. Don't assume the rules you played by as a buyer are in effect as a seller. If the winning bidder decides to retract his winning bid at the last minute, don't assume that the second highest winning bid understands he is now the winner and should pay. Your auction basiclly went down the tubes. An heaven help you if you sent the number 2 guy emails to verify or clarifiy his next steps. You will wind up in senerio "B" above. f. You will get flooded with questions that the seller thinks will wear you down and lower your price expectations. None of these messages make any sense. You should reply through the message system only and restrict the buyers from seeing your email address. Do not post answers to your listing that won't help communicate your item's features and benifets. g. Turn off your notifications to your email. A notification is when you get an email with a copy of a message in your ebay messaging system. These notifications are nothing but trouble. If you make the mistake of using the respond now button instead of exiting your emails system and logging directly into ebay to answer your recieved questions, you may wind up on an off shore web site trying to intiate identity theft tactic's. Some of thes emails have ip addresses after the http:// which is an indication you are a target. If you use the respond now button, and log in, you just gave away your ID and password. You can expect strange emails, strange listings, and strange purchases. h. Do not respond to what appears to be ebay notices stating that someone wants to buy your item, but seen one with the same photos and now does not know which is which and ask you to check an inclosed link. That link is not for an ebay site, but rather and offshore identity theft ring trying to obtian your account info. i. Do not respond to emails that appear to be from ebay, warning you about the user ID in item h. above. It's the same guy, trying another approach of getting your info. He is hoping you will click on the respond now button this way since he did not get you the other way. j. Don't get excited about having 25+ folks watching your listing. These are not all buyers. The process used by the spoofing web sites to attack you emulates a buyer who is watching your listing. You have just been tagged in someones robo attack system. k. Most important of all, do not use the same user ID and password that you use for ebay as your mail password and your paypal password. They should all be different in the event one is compromised, the damaged will be minimal. l. If you think you have been penetrated by a idenity theft expert, change all your passwords first. Check for bogus listings and transactions and report them. m. Use a credit card or visa debit card linked to your paypal account only. Do not use an account that does not have a visa debit card on it. If you become a victim to identity theft, and the transactions where thru your visa debit card, you can do a charge back. Well, it's been a busy month and a lot of fun selling on ebay. Congratulations, your now a power seller, welcome aboard, enjoy your benifets, and by all means, we want to thank you for using Ebay. Excuse me, I think the FBI is knocking on my door. Apparently someone bought some weapons using my ebay ID and shipped them overseas, and the FBI wants to discuss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Thanks for posting. There are some scenarios here I wouldn't have imagined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Travis In Austin Posted March 17, 2007 Moderators Share Posted March 17, 2007 a. If you list an item that suddenly does real well. You can expect a season ebay seller to list the exact same item and end his auction 15 minutes before yours. Next you will see a few bids by folks with low feedback inflated past the new list cost of the item. Finally, before the end of the auction, the inflated bids are cancelled, the other seller makes out with a decent sale from the folks he steered away from your listing, and your item is still unsold. You can't check how many times the other seller has done this, since all bidders from previous transactions are generic. Speakerfritz, What can you do, if anything, to combat this situation? Which item did you sell that this happened to you on? Travis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcon20x Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 I did have half of those examples happen to me. You are 100% correct, do not do anything outside of your ebay email and account, you can't thrust anything else. What can you do ? Not much since Ebay does not really care, they still end up getting there money, nothing else counts as far as they are concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 dwilawyer Not much you can do during the auction. But attention to detail preparing your listing helps...any kind of add on's, accessories, articles, included in the photo shoot will help keep folks focused on your listing. Sending questions from another ebay ID to the ID that is making the sale is a common way of amplifing on the positive features your offer has. 3 weeks ago I had a TX-DS989 reciever listed which suddenly wnet to 1200 bucks. My goal was 850. There were 2 new ebayers trying to out bid each other. It turns out that the two IDs were owned by the same person. He had a model TX-DS919 reciever he wanted to sell. He actually wound up victim to his own sting, as the person who bidded 2000 on his model tx-ds919 reciever did not pay. So what goes around comes around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 falcon20x ebay needs a central list of deadbeats that we can down load and post to our block list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Daddy Dee Tt amazes me as well, you almost have to think like a crook to stay one step ahead of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 SF: You have a PM; Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Travis In Austin Posted March 18, 2007 Moderators Share Posted March 18, 2007 dwilawyer Not much you can do during the auction. But attention to detail preparing your listing helps...any kind of add on's, accessories, articles, included in the photo shoot will help keep folks focused on your listing. Sending questions from another ebay ID to the ID that is making the sale is a common way of amplifing on the positive features your offer has. 3 weeks ago I had a TX-DS989 reciever listed which suddenly wnet to 1200 bucks. My goal was 850. There were 2 new ebayers trying to out bid each other. It turns out that the two IDs were owned by the same person. He had a model TX-DS919 reciever he wanted to sell. He actually wound up victim to his own sting, as the person who bidded 2000 on his model tx-ds919 reciever did not pay. So what goes around comes around. Speaker, I notice on a lot of auctions the seller will put they do not accept bids from people unless they have a minimum feedback of X, usually 10. I figured they must have gotten burned by a new bidder along the way, but now I see it is to prevent bidding scams like this. Ebay used to list the bidders but they no longer do that. I guess they figured out that they may have been losing sales by another seller being able to look at who bid what and then try and contact those potential buyers directly. Isn't there an option when you do the listing that you can select that you wish to reject bidder's below a certain feedback? Or do you have to manually go in and remove them? Travis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 "Isn't there an option when you do the listing that you can select that you wish to reject bidder's below a certain feedback? Or do you have to manually go in and remove them?" There are options, but the fact of the matter is that if you talk to these folks, you can pretty much weed out the pranksters from the serious buyers. SOme of the highest paying bidders are from new ebayers. For example, I require them to contact me first. If they bid first, I send them an email and give them 24hrs. While I'm waiting, I check what else they are bidding on, if there activity looks "run away" I cancell their bids. If 2 new ebayers start to battle it out, and none have contacted me, they both get cancelled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcott Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Thanks for taking the time to give the rest of us a heads up on eBay do's and dont's! I for one reallly appreciate your efforts to help the rest of us avoid experienceing the same headaches. Nothing like first hand experience to learn from! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theryugobuddy Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Dittos on making your listing as close to bullet-proof as possible. I had almost 500 transacations last year and never saw the issues you discussed-(knock on formica) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 h. Do not respond to what appears to be ebay notices stating that someone wants to buy your item, but seen one with the same photos and now does not know which is which and ask you to check an inclosed link. That link is not for an ebay site, but rather and offshore identity theft ring trying to obtian your account info. Absolutely follow the advice/ guidance from SF and the others in this thread. This morning I received a string of eBay messages via the eBay system to my normal email, and also in my eBay messages ref a pair of Heresy's I have for sale. First, I saved those messages, but did not respond. I then went to eBay and registered the complaint for each one in "My Messages". All of today's "crop" came from eBay members in the UK that obviously have no clue that their ID's and passwords have been stolen. This started with me about six months ago when I found a pair of K'horns I wanted on ebay. The transaction went fine, I went and got them and very happy. But.... K'horn's = $$$..... Thus about every month or two, or whenever I bid on crappy Heresy's to work on, etc., I got "spoofed" eBay messages telling me that they have K'horns, etc. Since eBay's policy of not identifying bidder ID's (except to the legitimate seller) on certain Klipsch speakers has been implemented, the spoofs have pretty much stopped except when I sell a pair of speakers. Best Simple Rule: Never respond eBay questions about something you are selling outside of the eBay system, ever, ever. Great work, commendations to SF!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 I think I found a new one yesterday to add to the list. A seller has an item for sale that is damaged, and basiclly scrap. He tells his shipping horror story and his fight to get a damage claim settled by fedex in the listing, but the request is denied. He sobs so well that most bleeding hearts become intrested in his crusade. The seller list his item for a buy it now of 3700 bucks, in spite of good condition like items selling for 2200 bucks as a buy it now. The catch....the seller includes a link to a website that has an ip address in it, and invites everyone to view the whole story at the ip address provided. If you send him emails he responds to go to the link with the IP address. I went to the IP address and poked around....I'm still waiting to see what got downloaded to my PC to capture my passwords and other info and send it offshore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Amy Posted March 20, 2007 Moderators Share Posted March 20, 2007 Yep, this is all great advice. I've seen about 4500 transactions on the Klipsch eBay store, and have seen many of these scenarios. Another I have to add which is quite common (especially for auctions ending in over $1000)-- I have a lot of losing bidders contact me after an auction is over curious if I sent them a second chance offer, which I never do. They are getting "ebay" emails from scammers asking them to send them money for the item they just lost. The ask them to contact them outside of ebay with a regular email address. Don't do it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcott Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Yep, this is all great advice. I've seen about 4500 transactions on the Klipsch eBay store, and have seen many of these scenarios. Another I have to add which is quite common (especially for auctions ending in over $1000)-- I have a lot of losing bidders contact me after an auction is over curious if I sent them a second chance offer, which I never do. They are getting "ebay" emails from scammers asking them to send them money for the item they just lost. The ask them to contact them outside of ebay with a regular email address. Don't do it!! Doesn't anybody work for a living any more? It is a sad statement of our world today to have to even converse on a thread topic like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcon20x Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 I would agree with the list thing but the question is who would maintain it and who would decides who gets on it? That's kind of what the feedbacks are for, isn't it? Hidding the bidder's name is not a bad idea, while it protects against spoof emails, it sure does not protect the other bidders from a scam between the seller and a friend of his/her. I did found a solution to the fake links downloading spywares/virus to your comp to steal you I.D. and password, I got a mac. I won't do anything on the net with microsoft when it comes to paypal, ebay ,etc... Once again don't do anything outside of you ebay email and account,. If the email is only in you normal account and not in your ebay account that should be your clue right there. West Scoot I do work !! But I might be a exception. I understand your feelings, but look at it this way with no criminal records you do get further in live, because you know it is only a matter of time before they get caught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcott Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 West Scoot I do work !! But I might be a exception. I understand your feelings, but look at it this way with no criminal records you do get further in live, because you know it is only a matter of time before they get caught. I think you misunderstood me. I was talking about the thieves who try to steal your money\identity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcon20x Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 No I did understand what you meant I was just being sarcastic with a twist of belgium accent (sounds a lot better in real life lol) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 It was a good idea to post and discuss cause all users should be cautious.I've seen most all these scams and became aware long ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.