by Adina T. Mason

Created on: November 28, 2007

Buyer fraud happens everywhere, from department stores to grocery stores. However buyer fraud via the Internet is prevalent and in most cases, can be prevented. If you are selling an item on ebay you need to be cautious of who you are conducting business with. Surprisingly it is not as hard as you may think.

When listing an item on ebay you have the option to block buyers who do not meet your preferred criteria. For example, you have the option to block bids from buyers who:

~who have a negative feedback score or one less than a specific number which you can designate
~who are not registered for paypal
~who have unpaid item strikes against them
~who are registered in countries in which you do not ship

This is especially helpful because as you are listing your item you are weeding out possible deadbeat buyers. However this is not foolproof in preventing buyer fraud.

You can also drastically reduce your chances of being a victim to buyer fraud by only accepting paypal as a form of payment. Paypal is an ebay owned company that collects payment from buyers on the behalf of sellers. The beauty of paypal is that they can accept credit cards as well as link to your bank account so it is extremely convenient.

Paypal has seller protection programs in place meaning that if you ship to a buyer that has a confirmed address, then fraud is instantly reduced. This means that the credit card or bank account they are using is most likely valid.

Other ways to avoid buyer fraud:

~do not accept money orders as a form of payment (it is very easy to get a counterfeit or stolen money order)
~do not accept payment outside of ebay.
~do not accept wire transfers or cash
~be sure that you list in your ebay auction that you will only ship items to paypal confirmed addresses and you will only accept paypal.
~insure all packages or add some kind of tracking to your package. (this will reduce buyers who "claim" not to have received their item)

By limiting your business to only accepting paypal you are NOT limiting your amount of buyers. Paypal is an extremely common and safe way to pay online these days.

In addition to using your judgment, if you follow all of the suggested tips, you should minimize your chances of dealing with a fraudulant buyer.

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