gLaM_QuEEn Provides Tips On Things To Take Note To Prevent E-Auction Fraud When A Consumer Participating In An E-Auction

When it comes to e-commerce transactions, who can you trust? Since you don't always know the people or products you're dealing with, conducting business transactions over the Internet can be risky. Basically, the buyer wants to get what he pays for and the seller wants to get paid.

Therefore, Escrow services exists to ensure security by acting as a middle-man in transactions where the two parties do not trust each other. Rather than sending money or goods directly to the other party, party #1 sends their items (X, usually money) to the escrow service, which holds them until the party #1 receives item Y, the service sends X on to party #2. If either party fails to deliver their part of the deal, X will be held at the escrow service and eventually returned to them.



E-auction fraud may include:

- bid shielding >>> having phantom bidders bid at a very high price when an auction begins; they pull out at the last minute, and the bidder who bid a much lower price wins
- shilling >>> placing fake bids on auction items to artificially jack up the bidding price
- fake photos and misleading descriptions
- failure to ship merchandise and make payments
- loss and damage claims
- switch and return
- high shipping costs and handling fees



Protecting Against E-Auction Fraud:
(Click on the protection with links given below to further understand them)

- Escrow Services
- User Identity Verification
- Authentication Service
- Grading Services
- Feedback Forum >>> a forum that provides users with the ability to comment on their auction experiences with other individuals.
- Insurance Policy >>> to insure against fraud

One such e-auction site is ebaY.




Things to take note while participating in e-auction includes:
- Beware of people using with fake IDs and addresses or even hi-jacked accounts. These can be identified by the ID having been dormant for some time and/or a sudden change in items being bought.
- If you received an email, asking for your social security number, credit card, password, or asking you do update any information whatsoever. It is not real. Its a scam. If you click in links in those emails, you can unleash a virus, or a trojan horse that can gain access to all your account info. Neither eBay or Pay Pal, ask for personal information in an email.
- Beware of fake escrow account! (Click Here)
- Indonesian Credit Card Scam (Click Here)
- (For a list of possible frauds and ways to counter them, click here)

* ~ + gLaM_QuEEn + ~ *