Click the link in the title for a great article about avoiding scams through online auctions. Currently the most popular auction site is eBay (which I will certainly confess to having used occassionally!), and even though stolen items are made available, eBay takes lots of precautions to ensure that you stay safe during your transaction.$Money$
The biggest worry about making any kind or purchase online is the risk of exposing your credit card details. eBay works with a company called PayPal to keep this information away from everyone you deal with online. Basically, when you sign up for an account with PayPal, you give them your bank details. They in turn send you two deposits into your account (both less than 20 cents), to confirm that you do indeed own that bank account. You then confirm back to PayPal the two amounts deposited, and voila! Your online paypal account is set up. If you choose to associate a credit card as well as your bank details, transactions will take place instantly. If you leave it at just bank details, all transactions will be processed as if they were cheques.
Armed with your PayPal details, you can now pay for any eBay auction without exposing personal information to sellers you've never met before.
Item Descriptions
It may sound like common sense, but read the item descriptions very carefully. A reasonable seller will:
a) Provide details about shipping to your country - how much it will cost and how they will ship. Hopefully they'll give you a few options to choose from such as UPS, FedEx and USPS.
b) Provide their return policy - many sellers now have online stores where they can showcase all the items they are selling on eBay, and if you are dealing with a store, they ought to have a refund policy. Some sellers won't refund shipping costs. Some sellers want you to mail the item back at your own cost to recieve a refund. It varies from seller to seller, and even now there are still sellers who do not provide return policies. In which case, hold back your excitement, and take the time to email the seller, asking about their return policy. Which leads me to ...
c) Communication - a good seller will respond to any question you may have within 24 hours of the message being sent. If you don't get a response before the sale is made, don't expect to hear back after the sale. Maybe there's a very good reason the item is priced so cheaply, and the seller doesn't want you to know about it.
Ultimately, you're going to have to choose carefully what purchases you make online, but as someone who uses eBay about 2-3 times monthly, I always follow these guidelines, and so far I've only been caught out a couple of times in the eight years I've used eBay.
Electronics
Just an extra note for those of you looking for cheap computer parts on eBay: Make sure it's tested! Any auction saying the item is "as is" most likely means the item is broken. Message the seller and verify before you buy.
Good buying!
No comments:
Post a Comment