Though any business is susceptible to various scams and cons, as an online eBay business proprietor you need to be especially careful since you attract more technologically affluent, intelligent, and scrupulous scam perpetrators from around the world, something that most brick and mortar businesses do not have to worry about. Most of these scams involve shady methods of payment, offers of “great deals” on product supply, information phishing and fraudulent PayPal or e-billing affiliations. Here are a few things to look out for, because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PROMISING TO OVERPAY
Beware of potential customer that send you indecipherable messages that indicate they want to over pay you for an item, because they came across a check or something, and that all they ask is you send them the product and part of the difference of the money. Usually this is a tip off that the check is a fake, and if you comply you is likely out the product and ALL of the money, while the scammer gets the product and a chunk of real, American cash for their trouble. Beware, especially, for customers pulling anything suspicious from African countries. For whatever reason, African nations have become a hot bed for international online scams targeting businesses and people all over the world.
CUSTOMERS REDIRECTING YOU IN EMAIL TO A SITE FOR THEIR BANK
Some con artists will, during the course of processing a sale transaction with you, direct you to a web site that they claim is the site of their bank. They will ask you to link up with this site by inputting all of your own banking information in, including ABA, account and routing numbers so that they can directly transfer the money to you and avoid PayPal or other e-billing services. These sites are always “phishing” schemes that will take all of your banking information and clean out your accounts, and in extreme cases even sell your personal information to identity thieves. Never use sites that you are not familiar with to process payments, and it is usually best to stick with PayPal and other established e-billing services.
SUSPICIOUS RETURN ACTIVITY
One of the oldest scams, but a scam that is still prevalent today, is for customers to buy a product, let the payment process, receive the item that they got from you but attempt to return an identical (and usually damaged or defective) item in its place, requesting that their money be refunded. Usually this scam is defeated either through a all sales final return policy or through you keeping copious track of the serial numbers of your sold products.
REQUESTING DELIVERY TO AN ADDRESS UNASSOCIATED WITH CUSTOMER
Another tip off that a con artist may be trying to pull something on you is by purchasing your product, but requesting that the product be delivered to an address that is not associated with the customer’s data., including deliveries to other U.S. states or overseas. Often this is the result of identity theft. Report any of these suspicious activities to the FBI or to your country’s law enforcement agency that handles international commerce.
A Good EBay Business Will Go A Long Way If You Know How To Improve Sales And Boost Your Inventory Potential, Visit www.ExtremeEbay.com . Expanding Your Inventory Will Increase Sales. Learn How To Make 6 Figures On EBay, Visit www.ExtremeEbay.com
Johnny Q
A Good EBay Business Will Go A Long Way If You Know How To Improve Sales And Boost Your Inventory Potential, Visit www.ExtremeEbay.com . Expanding Your Inventory Will Increase Sales. Learn How To Make 6 Figures On EBay, Visit www.ExtremeEbay.com
Johnny Q
