The scams on eBay, or any other e-commerce site, are on the agenda.
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It happens very often, especially to less experienced people, to make online purchases without giving importance to some fundamental aspects to be taken into consideration.
Scams are always around the corner, whether they are very well-known and safe e-commerce sites or, above all, on unknown and not recommended sites.
Many people think that by shopping on eBay or Amazon, just to mention two of the most used e-commerce, they can feel comfortable and shop in total safety.
This is true only and only if you take into consideration some fundamental aspects that are very important at the time of purchase.
Let’s see together what you need to know and how to behave to buy products of any kind in total safety.
Paypal first of all
Paypal has been an indispensable tool for online transactions for many years.
If you decide to sell or, in this case, buy products on eBay, the first thing you need to do is to open a Paypal account for free if you don’t have it yet.
Paypal allows you to make purchases on any online site and send and receive money from any other person who uses it.
Furthermore, thanks to a collaboration of over 10 years with eBay, it allows you to make purchases safely on the leading e-commerce platform.
Simply connect your bank account or credit card, debit card, or any other prepaid card to pay in total safety.
Why do you need Paypal?
If you are a beginner with online purchases, you may immediately ask yourself what the use of Paypal or a current account with which to pay is.
Simple!
Paypal offers you insurance in the event that the item you purchased does not arrive at your home or does not conform to the description found on eBay.
Many people still make payments online through a simple Paypal top-up to the seller of the product.
Any payment you make through Paypal could prove void if the seller is a scammer.
You understand for yourself that you could pay for a product but never receive anything and, above all, without having any way to prove otherwise.
And here Paypal security comes into play.
If something goes wrong during an eBay purchase, PayPal is by your side.
By making payments with PayPal, it is possible to join the “PayPal Program for Buyer Protection.”
Did you receive an item very different from the seller’s description, or did you not receive anything?
PayPal helps you solve the problem with the seller, and if you do not reach an agreement, you will be refunded the full value of the purchase, including shipping costs.
So when making a purchase, always check that the seller accepts Paypal as his own payment method.
How to choose the right product?
Taking for granted, therefore, that you already have a Paypal account available, let’s now see how to choose the ideal product to buy.
On eBay, you can now find everything (both new and used), from electronic devices to detergents, from clothes to shoes, from cars to jewelry.
Suppose in this case that we want to buy a new smartphone on eBay, in particular a Huawei P30 Pro.
By writing on the search bar the model in question will appear hundreds of objects of that type filtered according to your needs.
The first thing to do once the results are loaded is to look at the different prices of that smartphone model shown on the front page.
In the research that I carried out, as you can see from the following image, the prices vary from $435 to $838.
This means that the average price on eBay for that specific smartphone model varies between these two particular values.
Any product with a price between $435 and $838 (or other slightly higher or lower amounts) is absolutely worth considering.
Any product with prices significantly lower than $435 (for example, $300) are to be excluded.
Either because they are used products, and perhaps the seller has marked them as new (by mistake or voluntarily), or because there is something wrong behind them.
Once the range has been established, it is possible to refine the product search by setting a minimum and a maximum price in the search filters on the page on eBay (in this case, between 500 and 600 euros).
Read the product description carefully
As soon as you have identified the products of your interest, you must now proceed to read the actual advertisement.
To get the most information both on the user and on the object for sale, you will have to analyze the product description thoroughly, paying particular attention both to the photos inserted and to the smallest details contained in it.
In the event that the photos are downloaded from the web, you must proceed with great caution, perhaps by contacting the seller and having other photos sent of the object to be purchased.
If, on the other hand, the photos are real, it is necessary to take care that they have not been modified by the seller to hide perhaps some small or large defect (scratches, breakages, or other abnormalities of this type).
Also, in this case, it is advisable always to contact the seller first to have other photos sent with shots different from those in the listing.
Finally, always stay away from adverts that present strange requests from the seller, such as strange payment methods, absence of the possibility of a return, and, above all, non-traceable shipments.
Choose the right seller.
Once the best products are filtered, it’s time to choose the right seller.
As for the seller, what you need to watch carefully are 3 basic elements:
- Seller feedback.
- Possibility of payment through Paypal.
- Reliable seller.
Once a product has been selected, the page will open with all the data relating to both the product itself and, on the right side, all the data relating to the seller.
As highlighted in the previous image, the seller in question is characterized by 100% positive feedback and the wording “Reliable seller,” which means that he has already received many positive feedbacks from users.
It also guarantees payment via Paypal and, which never hurts, it also allows the Return if you are not satisfied with the product purchased.
By clicking on the value next to the red star, you can view the details of the feedback received.
This user, in particular, has received 15,337 feedback since registering on eBay with 1,915 positives, 3 negatives, and 9 neutrals in the last month.
These features mean that the user in question is to be considered as one of the most reliable on eBay and from which it is possible to buy in total safety.
With distinctly different characteristics and many more negative feedbacks, it is good to stay away from those types of sellers because scams may be hiding.
Watch out for fake feedback.
As already mentioned above, by carefully observing the feedback of a seller, you can understand if that user is more or less reliable.
But you have to be very careful because a high percentage of positive feedback does not always correspond to a reliable and honest user.
As it happens almost everywhere, the “smart ones” are always around the corner, ready to take advantage of naive and careless people.
In fact, some users tend to inflate their feedback by creating false profiles and inserting positive votes for themselves or even negative feedback to other users who are their rivals in that particular sales sector.
A classic example is what happens on Tripadvisor, in which the various competitors acquire positive feedback for themselves and negative feedback for rivals.
Just to avoid falling into a seller’s inflated feedback trap, you need to carefully analyze how many votes it has actually received and how long that user has been a seller on eBay.
If, for example, he has been registered for a few days and already has a lot of positive feedback, there is a very high probability that he is a full-fledged scammer.
Fundamental, in this case, not only stop at the number of affirmative votes but also take some time to read the comments made by the users who have purchased from that seller.
In fact, you could find very useful information to conclude a purchase in the best way, especially if it is a very high price.
What to do if you’ve been scammed
If you have not read this guide before making a purchase and you are among those people who have already been scammed in the past, now you will surely want to know how to behave.
It is at this moment that eBay comes into play thanks to its “eBay customer guarantee,” which can be reached directly from this page.
eBay will refund the full amount if you do not receive what you ordered and if you paid with PayPal or a credit or debit card.
The eBay customer guarantee is basically divided into 3 steps:
- Contact the seller – contact the seller via “My eBay” to resolve a problem related to a purchase or to arrange a return. Go to the “Purchase History” section of My eBay, select the object you want to return and then click on Return this object to start the return procedure. Typically, the seller will respond quickly by offering you a solution. It is also possible that he will ask you to provide more information.
- If you are not satisfied, ask eBay to intervene – if, after 3 working days, the seller has not provided a satisfactory solution, you can ask eBay to intervene.
- Receive a refund – if the item you ordered has not been delivered to you or does not match the description or if you have not received a refund for a return under the return rules, eBay will refund you. The refund will be sent to you on the card or PayPal account used to purchase the item.
Conclusions
Even after reading this article in its entirety, scams, when it comes to online shopping, can occur anywhere and anytime.
But it is one thing to shop quickly, and without thinking about possible risks, it is another to pay close attention.
Obviously, following the guide in this article, the chances of being scammed on eBay drop dramatically.
After all, just use a little common sense and pay close attention, especially when you have to buy a product at a high cost.
It costs nothing to lose 5 more minutes to carefully read the insertions of the objects on eBay and then receive the smartphone or TV of your dreams directly to your home.
