Bargains Are Just Too Good To Be True At Ebay
Have you ever been scammed on eBay?
You can buy almost anything on eBay. It has also become a magnet for criminals, counterfeiters and fraudsters.
Two weeks ago, the luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co announced it is suing eBay after finding that almost 75% of items claiming to be originally from its stores are, in fact, fakes.
Laura Moss, a journalist for the Daily Mail, decided to see how bad the problem was. Of the 34 items she bought, from market labels such as Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, it emerged that 33 were fake and only one was genuine.
One tactic is to photograph an item with the brand's logo on display in the background. All this paraphernalia created an illusion of authenticity about the products, but crucially there were no close-up photographs of the jewelry and no detail could be acquire from the distant shot on screen.
It is also relatively common to come across an item on eBay that carries a brand's name but is not a copy of a known design. Another indicative sign can be if someone is selling multiple numbers of the same item cheaply.
The way most eBay buyers decide whether a seller is trustworthy or not, is by the feedback system. Every time an item is purchased online, the buyer can leave a message marking the experience as positive, neutral or negative. It is recorded and can be seen by all potential buyers the next time the seller uses the website, in addition to comments about the sale.
Only one other eBayer refunded Moss when she told them the goods were fake; four out of the 22 refused to repay her and one seller did not respond. The rest promised a refund upon return of the goods. The majority of sellers claimed that they had bought the items in question from other eBayers.
The price is normally an indication of whether or not the garments are legitimate. If something appears on a website with a much lower recommended retail price than retailers, which is normally a sign that it is a fake.
After all, in life, if something seems too good to be true, that is because it probably is.
Labels: Ebay, money saving tip, Scam
Posted By: Joe on Thursday, April 17, 2008
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