How to Avoid eBay Scams and Fraud

Countless people have been scammed and

defrauded on eBay. eBay is a fun place to bid on

items and to sell items – but you must know how to

recognize a scam, and how to avoid them, them or

you quickly join the ranks of those who have lost

their money to eBay scams. Of course, if you are

scammed, there are some actions you can take the

correct the situation – but in many cases, the

scammer does indeed get away! The best option is

to avoid being scammed.

You can easily avoid many scams with the payment

method that you use – whether you are a buyer or a

seller. eBay owns Paypal, and in most cases,

Paypal is the payment method you should use. First,

as a buyer, if you are scammed or less than

satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can

dispute the charge easily, and demand a refund. The

seller must reply and show proof that the item was

shipped, and that it arrived in the condition that you

expected, or Paypal will return your funds to your

account.

As a seller, you can protect yourself by only

accepting Paypal. This will eliminate the chances of

receiving a bad check or having the buyer dispute a

credit card charge. Instead, they must dispute the

charge through paypal, and you of course will be able

to prove that you shipped the product. You cannot,

however, prove that the product arrived in the

condition that was expected. In this case, you should

demand that the product be returned to you before the

refund is issued.

Another common scam that buyers use is the

bidding scam. This type of scam is run either with

two separate eBay accounts – with one person in

control of both of them, or with two friends with

separate eBay accounts. A very small bid is placed

on your item, using one account. This is followed by

a very high bid, from the other eBay account. Right

before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or

withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid.

This bid can only be avoided by setting a reserve price

– the lowest bid that can be placed is the same as the

reserve price that you set.

If you are an eBay seller, you can further protect

your auctions by placing a notice on your auctions

page, declaring that you have the right to back out

of the sale if you suspect potential fraud. As both a

buyer and a seller, also beware of spoofed emails.

These emails appear to be from eBay. The email

may claim that you need to verify your information,

and ask you to login to your eBay account, using

the link provided. If you follow that link, the site looks

exactly like eBay, but it is actually a scam to get

your eBay login details, as well as your credit card

details! eBay will never ask you to do this. If you

suspect a spoofed email, report it to eBay

immediately!

Don’t let scammers ruin your eBay fun! Just use

good common sense, and a reasonable amount of

caution, and everything should run smoothly. Report

suspicious activity to eBay, and if a deal doesn’t feel

right, simply back away from it and move on to the

Increase Your eBay Profits Without Relying on

eBay!

While it is possible to earn a full time living on eBay,

it is a mistake to depend solely on eBay for your

income. You could be using your eBay auctions to

generate a huge amount of business for other

products and services! Many people, however,

fail to fully utilize eBay’s resources to this end.

eBay has over 100 million members, and they

gained those members by continually running major

marketing campaigns. Essentially, they do your

marketing for you. But you have to help yourself as

well. The key is to drive people to your auction page,

which in turn can be used to drive traffic to your

website.

You can sell many different items on your website,

including items that are up for auction at eBay! This

is a fabulous way to earn income that does not rely

on eBay auctions. You can easily accept website

payments with a Paypal account, so there is no

need for an expensive merchant account!

You are not allowed to include the website address

of an outside website on your auctions – you are,

however, perfectly welcome to place a link to your

website on your eBay ‘About Me’ page. Invite your

bidders and potential bidders to view your about me

page, and watch the website traffic roll in!

eBay and Drop shipping – Getting the Product to

Your Customer

If you hope to own an eBay business, and make a

full time living at it, you can easily make that dream

come true – even if you don’t have a product of your

own to sell. eBay provides many people who want to

quit their corporate nine-to-five jobs with a way to

make a good living, without having to put up a lot of

start up capital. This is made possible with the help

of drop shippers. Drop shippers send merchandise to

the customers of business owners. If you have an

eBay business, you are a business owner. This will

allow you to offer a wide variety of stock in your

eBay store, without having the need to warehouse

all of those products!

All you have to do is set up your auction, and sell

the product. You then pass the customer’s

information on to the drop shipping company. The

drop shipper does the rest, and they will even use

your company information, as well as your company

logo if you have provided it to them. When the product

arrives at your customer’s home, they will have no idea

that your company didn’t send it. The drop shipper

will package, label, and ship the products that you

sell, allowing you more time to set up even more

auctions, for greater profits.

You must establish a relationship with several drop

shipping companies in order to become successful.

In the beginning, most companies will require you to

pay for the items that your customers order before

they are shipped. You need to fill orders in a

timely manner, so you should pay for the items with

a credit card for speedy service. Eventually, you will

be able to have the drop shipper fill your orders, and

then bill you for them later.

When you set up your eBay auctions, make sure

that your reserve price is set higher than the price

that the drop shipper will be charging you for the

item. The idea, of course, is to earn a profit!

Depending on the item you are selling, a markup

of about 10% should be about right, but you should

do some research to see if the item is selling for a

lower price in another eBay auction, or through

other online sources.

By starting an eBay business using the drop

shipping method, there is essentially no financial risk

involved. The product will be sold before you pay the

drop shipper for the item. This is one of the few

businesses where you can actually turn a profit

before you have expenditures!

How to Use the Promotional Tools on eBay

eBay wants you to be successful. Essentially, if

their sellers are not making any money, eBay is

not making any money – or not enough money.

eBay does have one other very small source of

revenue, which comes from the sellers. This revenue

is realized from the promotional tools that actually

help you, as a seller, have more successful auctions.

The promotional tools on eBay are very inexpensive.

For instance, you can have a bold listing for just a

few cents. Highlighted listings are equally inexpensive.

These two tools could easily raise your final price by

as much as 25%! Not all promotional tools cost money.

Many of them are free. The available promotional tools

found on eBay are product finder, gallery, bold,

highlight, border, gift services listings, subtitles, featured

home page, featured plus, featured gallery, keywords,

co-op advertising, and optimized listings.

If you are serious about making money from your eBay

auctions, or if you are selling just one high ticket item,

you should definitely take advantage of the eBay

promotional tools that are available to you. These can

easily be found through your sellers account.

eBay Scams – Steps to Take if You Have Been

Defrauded

eBay is a relatively safe marketplace. Unfortunately,

like most online marketplaces, it is vulnerable to

scams. eBay tries to keep instances of scams

occurring, but with more than 100 million members,

and approximately $40 million moving through the

site on a daily basis, this can be a little difficult.

Sometimes, scams occur.

If you have been scammed, there are certain steps

you need to follow to report the incident, and to try

to come to a resolution. If you paid for the item

through Paypal, the first step is to login to your

Paypal account and open up a dispute for the

payment. If you did not pay through Paypal, contact

your credit card company. In most cases, if you have

used one of these two cases, you will recover your

money.

The next step is to use eBay’s dispute process to

report the seller. This is specifically for items that

were not received, or items that were significantly

different than what was described in the auction.

eBay also has a purchase protection program to

further protect buyers. If a settlement cannot be

reached with the buyer, the next step is to make

an eBay buyer purchase protection claim.

Using the eBay Security and Resolution Center

Whether you are an eBay buyer or a seller, problems

may arise at some point. That is why the eBay

Security and Resolution Center was created. Even

if you have never had a problem on eBay, and you

don’t expect to, a visit to this eBay resource can be

very enlightening, and it may even help you to

protect yourself in all of your online activities.

If you do not receive an item that you bought from

eBay, this is where it is reported. The same is true

if you sold and shipped an item and did not receive

payment for it. But there are many other ways to

use the security center as well. You can learn how

to protect yourself from identity theft, how to protect

your eBay account and the eBay guidelines that

are designed to make everyone’s buying and selling

experience safe and enjoyable.

If you are an eBay seller, you will learn how to

become a trusted seller, which will ultimately bring

you more profits. There is something for everyone at

the eBay Security and Resolution Center – even if

you have never had a security problem at eBay.

A Bit of Exercise Can Control Smoking Habit

A new study was published online on April 9th current year in the Journal of Adolescent Health. It reveals that a small amount of exercise daily can help to get rid of smoking.

 233 high school students from 19 schools in West Virginia participated in this study. They were all daily smokers, with a one half to one pack of cigarettes a day.

 

 According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 13% of individuals under the age of 18 in the state smoke. This ranks West Virginia near the top in terms of the number of smokers across the nation.

 Most teenagers who smoke also practice other unhealthy habits.

 "It is not unusual for teenage smokers to engage in other unhealthy habits. Smoking and physical inactivity, for example, often go together," study lead author Kimberly Horn, associate dean for research at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, in Washington, D.C., said in a university news release.

 The teenagers in the study were divided into 3 groups. The group who increased their daily physical activity by 20 minutes with exercise equivalent to a short walk, greatly lowered the number of cigarettes they smoked. Besides this, they took part in a smoking cessation program during the same period. The researchers say the study suggests that exercise can help teenagers who are trying to get rid of smoking. Other reports show that people have just naturally lost the taste for cigarettes after undergoing a cleansing diet.

 For instance, the organic diet has helped people to quit smoking in a casual, natural way. One theory is that as the body cleanses at a rapid rate from mostly water-based foods it loses its ability to handle the cigarette smoke.

 Cigarettes (exactly like soda and beer) are tough to take the first few times and for good reason. The human body yields to the foreign material and normally gets used to it. So it seems that a cleanse brings back the natural desire to keep away the toxic substances.





 Related Articles - smoking, cigarettes, exercise, tobacco,  



     

  Email this Article to a Friend!

 Receive Articles like this one direct to your email box!Subscribe for free today!