eBay - Good but some caution needed

 

eBay is something of a modern phenomenon. While auctions have been around for many years, centuries and probably millennia, never has the ability for ordinary people to interact in this way on a world-wide scale been available until eBay arrived.

Even if you personally don't use eBay, you probably know someone who does, either for buying or selling; overall most people have an excellent experience.

There are however a few pitfalls and basic things to be aware of - the simplest way of saying this is that not everyone is as honest as you are and it pays to be cautious in your dealings. I'm a fan of Martin Avis's email newsletter, KickStartDaily (which you can read about and subscribe to from this link if you'd like). On Thursday 13th April 2006, Martin sent out this personal item in his newsletter which I thought would be good to include on this site. Martin kindly agreed to my publishing it here to act as a salutary lesson for us all.

A Warning for eBay Novices

A lot of people will be looking to de-clutter their homes this Easter weekend and eBay is the ideal place to unload some of that stuff that has been taking up space. eBay is great, and I highly recommend it, but before you jump in and put your entire household content, including the cat, up for auction, please take a minute to read about my daughter's experiences this week.

My daughter has been buying odds and ends on eBay for some time. She has always been happy with her purchases and has avoided many of the problems that can sometimes crop up.

With that experience behind her, she decided to make the transition to eBay seller.

When she started her new job she was given a company mobile phone (cell phone) and so her almost new 'old' phone has been sitting in its box doing nothing.

Hannah decided to offer it for sale on eBay.

Coincidentally, a girl she works with was in the same position and asked Hannah if she would list her phone for sale too.

So Hannah went ahead and made her first two auction listings.

Both phones are what is known as dual band, which means that they work in the UK and Europe, but not in the US. This was clearly stated in the auction and she also stated that the phones could only be mailed within the UK.

Bids came in thick and fast and both phones sailed past their £30 reserves to final bids of over £80. My daughter was delighted!

Most of the bidders appeared to be from overseas and emailed Hannah with lots of questions. At first she pointed out that the phones could only be mailed within the UK, but several competing bidders were quite insistent and offered to pay any additional postage charges.

To someone more experienced with online auctions this may have rung bells, but Hannah naively agreed.

One auction ended with a high bidder from the US and the other with a lady from Nigeria. (In retrospect, more alarm bells should have rung!)

Within a few minutes of the auctions ending, Hannah received very official-looking emails from eBay saying that the buyer's payments had been processed.

The US bidder then emailed Hannah to say that she was buying the phone for her husband who is working in Nigeria, so would she please mail it to his address. Even with no experience of the Internet, that made Hannah come to me to ask if I thought it sounded real. Guess what I said!

Shortly after that, Hannah noticed that the high bidder's username on her friend's phone had been deleted from eBay and a form email from them confirmed that they had cancelled her account due to persistent non payment.

By now, the other auction was looking even more suspicious.

Hannah checked her PayPal account and, despite the official emails saying that payment had been cleared, no money had arrived for either phone.

She emailed eBay support to explain the circumstances and to ask if there were any known problems with the bidder on her phone.

The following day a form response came from eBay that answered a completely different question and ignored the one she had asked.

Meanwhile, the bidder on her phone was waging a war of emails with Hannah.

Within a couple of hours of the auction ending she had sent Hannah over 6 emails - each one more aggressively asking, and then demanding, that postage details be supplied immediately.

Hannah replied that until the payment was in her PayPal account she would not mail anything. (Personally I think it was a mistake to enter into correspondence with the buyer, but at least she had a paper trail proving her good intentions.)

That was two days ago and the woman has been getting more abusive and aggressive ever since. She has now threatened Hannah with the police, with reporting her to eBay and PayPal and anything else she can think of.

Meanwhile Hannah has copied all the email exchanged to eBay support, but predictably, no reply has been forthcoming.

Thankfully, although Hannah may be naive in the ways of online scams and new to eBay, she is certainly not stupid. She has had her opinion of eBay clouded by this chain of nastiness, but she is not out of pocket and the phones are still in her possession.

But please let it be a warning to anyone else who is looking to get started with online auctions. Here is what we, as a family, have learned:

1. If you make your auction geographically restricted, stick to your guns.
   
   
2. Never, ever send out the goods until the money is cleared into your PayPal account.
   
   
3. Keep all emails from bidders.
   
   
4. If the word 'Nigeria' crops up at any time - run like the wind.
   
   
5. Don't rely on eBay to help you out - they seem incapable of reading simple emails - let alone responding to them.
   
   
6. If you get an email saying that payment has been processed, consider the possibility that it has been forged.
   
   
7. Do not, under any circumstances, give out your real name, address or telephone number to any bidder until you are sure they are genuine and their money is safely in your pocket.
   
   
8. Don't be intimidated. These scammers rely on your inexperience. To coin a phrase from somewhere else, if in doubt, just say no.
   
   
9. At the first sign of trouble, report the offender to eBay - and if necessary, PayPal and their ISP. Include the full list of email exchanges. The 'authorities' may not reply, but at least you will later be able to show that you did your part.
   
   
10. eBay is a great place to make a little money but, cue the music of Hill Street Blues: "Let's be careful out there."
    
    

---

With reference to Martin's mention of forged emails, see also our phishing page.

And with reference to running from anything which says "Nigeria", see also our email scams page.