Something to be VERY careful about when buying off Ebay is to make sure of
the feedback status of the seller....

Now i'm not trying to put anyone off Ebay - i have done over one hundred
transactions and haven't had any problems but you do have to be careful.

As I said, the feedback is very important and there is a scam doing the
rounds at the moment which can fool the unsuspecting person.....

As people buy and sell things, so their FEEDBACK increases.....FEEDBACK is a
comment either left for a seller/buyer from both parties. Now my feedback is
115 and has taken a few years to build up.....so people can have a look at
my rating and see that i'm a safe seller/buyer. Now as I said.......the
SCAM..........to get your rating up involves many transactions.......BUT
it's very easy to manipulate if you know what you are doing and for very
little cost.

If you use the Ebay search function and look for "Ebook"...it will come up
with thousands of these listed from all parts of the globe.......and some
are ONLY costing 1p. An Ebook is delivered like an email so there arent any
handling costs. So what the person who wants to "UP" their feedback rating
does.....is to "buy" about 50 of these ebooks.........it can be done in an
hour or so and as they use a credit card to pay for it, they can quickly
amass a decent feedback rating without having done any proper trading.
Using this scam method you can get a rating of 50 (which is pretty good) for
the mighty some of 50p (UK).
When looking at someones feedback, it's NOT good enough to just look at the
feedback figure....you MUST click on the Ebay item Auction number which is
on the right hand side of the "READ FEEDBACK COMMENTS" options listed on the
right hand side of the screen. Have a good look at  the transactions and
make sure they are not these Ebook transactions.
Most are genuine but a lot are not.
You might find yourself bidding on a camera from some seller in France who
has no intention of providing you with with the advertised camera but has
every intention of removing £400 from your credit  card.
The reason I chose France, only last week whilst looking for dodgy sellers I
came accross on in France who was selling the Nikon DX50 for £400, I looked
at his dodgy feedback, spotted the scam....and warned the people who were
bidding about this.All withdrew their bids and one saved his £400 final bid.
Be very careful - hopefully this scam wont get you.

Good Luck

Dave

http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/news/2161864/fraudsters-bots-fuel
-phony-ebay

P.S. This link takes you to COMPUTERACTIVES (UK Computer magazine)  article
which explains it ...

I restrict my eBay purchases to low-dollar items, usually under $100.00.

I don't need the hassle of trying to get a seller to make good on a bad
deal.  Fortunately I have reached a point in my life where I no longer need
much "stuff."  Most of my eBay purchases have been pleasant transactions,
and I often paid more than some items were worth, but I was glad to get them
because of their unavailability locally.  Sometimes you just see something
that you WANT, and price is secondary.  On small-ticket purchases, who
really cares a bout a few dollars' difference?

The key to getting great deals on eBay is to do your research and shop
around for the best possible price.  After that, you subtract 40% off this
figure to get your maximum bid price.  Armed with this number you always
seek out newly listed improperly priced Buy It Now auctions.  Participating
in a full term auction is a guarantee of grossly overpaying for your item.

Rita