Tuesday, 8 August 2006

Deal or Steal?

As mentioned in my earlier blog posts, Sellers just as easily as Buyers, can fall victim to online scams.

So what is a DEAL and what is a STEAL?

Here are descriptions of the most common fraud seen at auctions, written by Sharon Curry:

1. Misrepresentation
2. Failure to ship merchandise
3. Failure to pay
4. Shilling
5. Bid Shielding
6. Piracy and counterfeiting
7. Internet Fencing
8. Triangulation
9. The "Buy and Switch"
10. Fee stacking
11. Loss or Damage Claims
12. Shell Auctions

You can view the entire article, along with author's tips for avoiding becoming the victim of each, by downloading the OnlineAuction PDF file.

But does this mean that we should stay away from online trading altogether? I don't think so.

Life is also about taking risks. Let's say we would like to buy an item online and the Seller is new with no feedback for us to check, should we go ahead with the deal?

For me, I will ask myself, "Can I afford to lose this amount of money, if this Seller turns out to be a scammer?" If I am comfortable with this loss, if it happens, then I'll go ahead with the deal.

New Sellers should also be given a chance to build their reputation, just like Sellers shouldn't have the impression that all new Buyers are joybidders.

Posted by CyberPartyGal at 2:07 pm