Do you Shop on eBay? Avoid Scams with These Tips

Electronic commerce is increasingly present in our day to day. We have a wide range of possibilities to make purchases over the Internet. In recent years, consumers have gained confidence and increasingly rely on these methods. Now, scams still exist and even increase as there are more potential targets. In this article we will explain how to avoid scams when shopping on eBay . We already know that it is one of the most popular platforms.

Buying online is increasingly common

The rise of mobile devices has also helped the growth of electronic commerce. Currently we can buy from any device and anywhere. This facilitates its use, but also helps hackers create different types of attacks and threats.

There are many platforms and services that we have at our disposal to buy. We can enter multiple pages for this, as well as use mobile applications from where we can easily buy.

Some of these services are platform specific. For example when buying a train ticket or accessing a specific store. However, there are also many generic services, where we can buy very varied products. An example is eBay , which is one of the most popular platforms and which users use the most.

We are going to focus precisely on eBay. In times when users can buy more, such as Christmas or Black Friday, it is convenient to take precautions. Let’s talk about what scams are the most common and how to avoid being victims of this problem.ebay-security

How to avoid problems when shopping on eBay

When we go to buy on eBay , although we can apply this to other similar platforms, it is important that we take into account certain measures. We are going to mention a series of points that we consider keys to avoid problems when making purchases on this platform.

Buy from the official website or application

Something fundamental to avoid problems when buying on eBay is to always do it from the official page or application . In this way we will prevent our data from being leaked or having problems accessing unsafe sites and scamming us.

This is something that must always be applied when surfing the net and buying. We should never do it from pages that are not official.

Consult seller information

Of course you have to consult the seller’s data . We can see their scores, possible messages from other users, etc. It is a way to avoid scams and not buy from sellers that may be false.

Accept only secured payments

Whenever we are going to pay, we only have to accept methods that are safe . For example, paying by PayPal gives us guarantees that if the product does not arrive, they will return the money. We must avoid payment methods that are not insured, even if we believe we will have a benefit.

Protect account

You have to protect the account . It doesn’t matter what type of service we are using and eBay is no exception. This means that we must create a strong and complex password, which has letters (upper and lower case), numbers and other special characters. In addition, it is interesting to activate the verification in two steps.

Seguridad en eBay

Most common scams on eBay

Very different product

It is certainly one of the most common problems. We buy a product through eBay but they send us a very different one. Maybe we simply fell into the trap but also by mistake on our part: we did not read the conditions or specifications correctly.

This happens especially with electronic devices. For example when buying a mobile. They may sell us a fake one, with a similar name, but with much lower specifications. Careful with this.

Pay off the shelf

One of the scams that is present by eBay is that the seller asks us to pay off the platform . In this way they can make sure that they make us a discount or simply tell us that the payment method generates problems for them.

What happens with this is that when paying off the platform we are not insured. They could simply say that they have never received payment and not send the item. It is a common scam attempt and that we should avoid.

False discount coupons

Another of the scams very present especially in times like Christmas or Black Friday are the fake discount coupons . We can receive them by e-mail, social networks, instant messaging applications or simply by surfing the net. Sometimes they hide malware and download fraudulent files.

Phishing, also present

Phishing is a technique used by hackers to steal credentials and passwords from users. It is also present on eBay. We usually receive an email where they warn us of a problem with our account. They ask us to enter our data to solve it. The problem is that we are really delivering that information to a server controlled by cybercriminals.