EBay for Dummies (64 page)

If you’re concerned that someone may have your password, change it immediately:

1. Go to your My eBay area and hover your cursor over the Account tab. From the drop-down menu, click Personal Information.

2. On your arrival in the Personal Information area, find the Password line and click the Edit link.

3. Follow the instructions to change your password.

Your password is immediately changed.

If your password has been changed by some dastardly evildoer, and you can’t sign in to your account, go to the eBay home page. Click the Contact Us link, which is in the upper-right corner. Choose the Chat Online contact option, and you’ll be in touch with a live human being who can help you secure your account before damage can be done.

Credit card information:
Whenever you use your credit card on eBay, you can make sure that your private information is safe. Look for an SSL (SSL stands for
Security Sockets Layer
) link or check box. Sometimes you may see a link that says You May Also Sign in Securely.
SSL is an encryption program that scrambles the information so that hackers have almost no chance of getting your information. (I explain more about SSL in Chapter 2.)

When buying from a listing that accepts credit cards, check the seller’s feedback and carefully weigh the risks of giving your credit card number to someone you don’t know versus paying through PayPal. PayPal is the safest way to pay because your credit card number is not released.

Never
give anyone your Social Security number online. Guard yours as if it were the key to the Crown Jewels.

Registration information:
When you first register, eBay requests a phone number and address for billing and contact purposes. I’ve never had a problem with anyone requesting my registration information and then misusing it. However, many people want an added measure of anonymity. You can give eBay the information it wants in several ways without compromising your privacy:

• Instead of your home phone number, provide eBay with a cell phone number, a work phone number, or a SkypeIn number. (See Chapter 18 for more information on Skype.) Screen your calls with an answering machine.

• Use a post office box instead of your home address.

• Start a bank account solely for eBay transactions. Make it a DBA (doing business as) account so that you can use an alternate name. Your bank can help you with this process.

Chat rooms:
eBay has a multitude of chat rooms where members exchange information and sometimes heated arguments. (Chat rooms are thoroughly discussed in Chapter 17.) But heed this advice: Be careful what you reveal about yourself in a chat room. Don’t expect that “just between us” means that at all. Chat rooms can be viewed by anyone who visits the eBay site, not just eBay members.

Never say anything online that you wouldn’t feel comfortable saying to the next person who passed you on the street. Basically, that’s who you’re talking to. You can find stories of romances blossoming on eBay — and I’m delighted for the happy couples, I swear — but come on, that doesn’t mean that you should lose your head. Don’t give out any personal information to strangers; too often, that’s asking for trouble. Have fun on eBay but hang on to your common sense.

Skim some of the category chat rooms, especially the Discuss eBay’s Newest Features room, for warnings about security problems on the chat rooms and boards — and how to avoid ’em. A great bunch of users and eBay staffers frequent that board, and they’re sure to give you good information.

Check feedback:
Yep, I sound like a broken record (in case you don’t remember,
records
were the large, black, prone-to-breaking disks used by people to play music on electric turntables before iPods and CDs were invented), but here it is again:
Check feedback.
eBay works because it’s policed by its participants. The best way to learn about the folks whom you’re dealing with is to see how others felt about them. If you take only one thing away from this book, it’s to check feedback
before
you bid or buy!

Chapter 16

Staying Safe and Sane

In This Chapter

Keeping eBay members safe

Staying current with the rules

Filing complaints against eBay bad guys

Knowing your items through authentication

Saving yourself: Where to go when eBay can’t help

Millions of people transact business every day on eBay. If you’re new to the Internet, however, you may need a reality check. With hundreds of millions of listings worldwide, and close to 30 million new listings every day, the law of averages dictates that you’re bound to run into some rough seas eventually. If you do, know that you can get the answers you need from eBay’s Trust & Safety department. In this chapter, I take you through the Trust & Safety resources — from reporting abuses to resolving insurance issues. This chapter explains how eBay enforces its rules and regulations, shows how you can use third-party bonding and mediation services, and even points out how to go outside eBay for help if you run into some really big-time problems.

Keeping eBay Safe with Trust & Safety

The Security Center is the eBay area that focuses on protecting eBay buyers and sellers from members who aren’t playing by the rules. Through this department, eBay issues warnings and policy changes — and in some cases, it gives eBay bad guys the heave-ho.

You should know about two important safety areas on eBay:

eBay Security Center:
You reach the Security Center from a small link found at the bottom of almost every eBay page. From here you can find and report safety violations. If eBay ever moves this link, just type
http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/
into your browser and you’re there.

eBay Resolution Center:
From the navigation bar, which is at the top of every eBay page, just cursor over to the Help link and choose Resolution Center from the drop-down menu. This is where you report transactional issues: unpaid items, items received not as described, and more.

The Security Center (as shown in Figure 16-1) is more than just a link to policies and information. It also connects you with a group of eBay staffers who handle complaints, field incoming tips about possible infractions, and dole out warnings and suspensions. These dedicated employees investigate infractions and send out e-mails in response to tips. eBay staffers look at complaints on a case-by-case basis, in the order they receive them. Most complaints they receive are about these problems:

Shill bidders (see the section on “Selling abuses” in this chapter)

Feedback issues and abuses (see the section on “Feedback abuses” in this chapter)

Keep in mind that eBay is a community of people, most of whom have never met each other. No matter what you buy or sell on eBay, don’t expect eBay transactions to be any safer than buying or selling from a complete stranger. If you go in with this attitude, you can’t be disappointed.

If you’ve been reading previous chapters in this book, you probably know about eBay’s rules and regulations. For a closer online look at them, click the Policies link, which is on the bottom of most eBay pages, and then check the User Agreement. (The agreement is revised regularly, so check it often.)

Another helpful link is the FAQ for the User Agreement, which explains the legalese in clearer English. To find it, go to

pages.ebay.com/help/policies/everyone-ov

Abuses You Should Report to Trust & Safety

Before you even consider blowing the whistle on the guy who (gasp!) gave you negative feedback by reporting him to Trust & Safety, make sure that what you’re encountering is actually a misuse of eBay. Some behavior isn’t nice (no argument there) but it
also
isn’t a violation of eBay rules — in which case, eBay can’t do much about it. The following sections list the primary reasons you may start Trust & Safety investigations.

Selling abuses

If you’re on eBay long enough, you’re bound to find an abuse of the service. It may happen on an auction you’re bidding on; or a seller whose listings compete with your auctions may do something really, really wrong. Be a good community member and be on the lookout for the following:

Shill bidding:
A seller uses multiple user IDs to bid or has accomplices place bids to boost the price of his or her auction items. eBay investigators look for six telltale signs, including a single bidder putting in a really high bid, a bidder with really low feedback but a really high number of bids on items, a bidder with low feedback who has been an eBay member for a while but who’s never won an auction, or excessive bids between two users.

Auction interception:
An unscrupulous user, pretending to be the actual seller, contacts the winner to set up terms of payment and shipping in an effort to get the buyer’s payment. You can easily avoid this violation by paying directly through the eBay site with PayPal.

Fee avoidance:
A user reports a lower-than-actual final price or illegally submits a final value fee credit, or both. Final value fee credits are explained in Chapter 13.

Hot bid manipulation:
A user, with the help of accomplices, enters dozens of phony bids to make the auction appear to have a lot of bidding action. Let the experts at eBay decide on this one; but you may wonder if loads of bids come in rapid succession but the price moves very little.

Bidding abuses

If you want to know more about bidding in general, see Chapter 6. Here’s a list of bidding abuses that eBay wants to know about:

Bid shielding:
Two users working in tandem. User A, with the help of accomplices, intentionally bids an unreasonably high amount and then retracts the bid prior to the 12-hour cancellation deadline of the auction — leaving a lower bid (which the offender or an accomplice places) as the winning bid.

Bid siphoning:
Users send e-mail to bidders of a current auction to offer the same merchandise for a lower price elsewhere.

Auction interference:
Users warn other bidders through e-mail to stay clear of a seller
during a current auction,
presumably to decrease the number of bids and keep the prices low.

Bid manipulation (or invalid bid retraction):
A user bids a ridiculously high amount, raising the next highest bidder to maximum bid. The manipulator then retracts the bid and rebids
slightly
over the previous high bidder’s maximum.

Nonpaying bidder:
I often call them deadbeats; the bottom line is that these people win auctions but never pay up. Your bid on eBay is a legal contract to buy if you win, it is
not
a game.

Unwelcome bidder:
A user bids on a specific seller’s auction despite the seller’s warning that he or she won’t accept that user’s bids (as in the case of not selling internationally and receiving international bids). This practice is impolite and obnoxious. If you want to bar specific bidders from your auctions, you can exclude them. See Chapter 13 for the scoop on how to block bidders.

Feedback abuses

All you have on eBay is your reputation, and that reputation is made up of your feedback history. eBay takes any violation of its feedback system very seriously. Because eBay’s feedback is transaction-related, unscrupulous eBay members now have less opportunity to take advantage of this system. Here’s a checklist of feedback abuses that will get you into trouble. These can all be reported through the Security Center:

Feedback extortion:
A member threatens to post reputation-destroying feedback if another eBay member doesn’t follow through on some unwarranted demand. Typical extortion attempts include demanding a refund or a generous discount after the bad buyer has won the item.

Personal exposure:
A member leaves feedback for a user that exposes personal information that doesn’t relate to transactions on eBay.

Malicious feedback:
Writing malicious feedback is a sick game played by those who have very little to do with their time but upset upstanding eBay sellers. These sickies register on eBay with a new user ID and use the Buy It Now function to buy many items from a seller who has a high positive feedback rating. A few hours later, they leave dastardly negative feedback. The only goal of this action is to ruin the seller’s reputation.

–4 Feedback:
Any user reaching a Net Feedback score of –4 is subject to suspension.

Once you post feedback, your words are out there. They become part of cyberspace forever and are there for all to see. Your words are a reflection of your online persona.

Identity abuses

Who you are on eBay is as important as what you sell (or buy). eBay monitors the identities of its members closely — and asks that you report any great pretenders in this area to Trust & Safety. Here’s a checklist of identity abuses:

Identity misrepresentation:
A user claims to be an eBay staff member or another eBay user, or he or she registers under the name of another user.

False or missing contact information:
A user deliberately registers with fraudulent contact information or an invalid e-mail address. If you come across someone on eBay who has false information registered on eBay, that member can be suspended.

Under age:
A user falsely claims to be 18 or older. (You must be at least 18 to enter into a legally binding contract.)

Dead/invalid e-mail addresses:
When e-mails bounce
repeatedly
(single bounces are almost a fact of life on the Internet) from a user’s registered e-mail address, chances are good that it may be dead — and it’s doing nobody any good.

Contact information:
One user publishes another user’s contact information on the eBay site.

Operational abuses

If you see someone trying to interfere with eBay’s operation, eBay staffers want you to tell them about it. Here are two roguish operational abuses:

Hacking:
A user purposely interferes with eBay’s computer operations (for example, by breaking into unauthorized files). If someone attempts to alter any of the eBay-generated information in a listing, such as a feedback rating or user ID, the person is violating important eBay rules.