Types of eBay Frauds
Here are few examples of eBay frauds/scams of which buyers need to be aware. If you have been a victim of Internet fraud please check out our internet fraud complaint page.
Auction Frauds: Auction fraud involves fraud via the misrepresentation of a product advertised for sale through an Internet auction site (like eBay) or the non-delivery of products purchased through an Internet auction site.
Identity hijacking: In identity hijacking, a fraudster hacks an identity that belongs to a genuine seller, and steals his identity. He then uses the identity to list phony items and charges the items to the genuine seller's account. Once discovered, the fraudster usually disappears.
Phony identity: The fraudster creates a phony identity and then offers for sale goods that do not exist, then collects money from bidders until he is discovered. Such fraudsters usually have multiple IP domains and addresses thus making it difficult for the authorities to track them.
Account hi-jacking: This is the third most prevalent type of eBay fraud. Here, the fraudster can use different techniques to breach PC firewalls. Probing techniques employed by the fraudsters include port scans, ping sweeps and logging into websites using keystrokes.
The "second chance offer" scam: The most common scam on eBay is the Second Chance Offer scam. The scammers look over high ticket sold items and send a fake second chance offer email to the losing bidders.
Email Fraud: The most common scam involves email. You will receive an email from someone claiming to be an eBay representative requesting that you verify your information. Such spoof emails can be a major problem for unsuspecting Internet users. Claiming to be sent by well-known companies, these emails ask consumers to reply with credentials such as their credit card number, social security number or account password.
Phishing: This is fraudulent acquisition of personal and sensitive information from the victim. A scammer tries to obtain, for example your password and username for a certain website or bank. Phishing is used in PayPal, banks, credit cards and eBay. Scammer's phish on eBay to obtain eBay ID's which then are used to sell fake or non-existent goods.
Shill Bidding: In eBay's words "Shill bidding is bidding that artificially increases an item's price or apparent desirability, or bidding by individuals with a level of access to the seller's item information not available to the general Community."
Claim Jumper: After the buyer places a bid on an item, they receive an email which looks as if it came from the seller. The email actually comes from a fraudster who is not the real seller. The fraudster does not have the item and is hoping to con the bidder into sending money.