These days, buying online is becoming very common. Aside from the comfort of buying at home, it also saves time and effort of going to the market or shopping mall. With online stores such as Ebay and Craiglist, your stores are now just a click away. However, like any other technological developments, this way of shopping also has some disadvantages. The most risky disadvantage is that you are prone to scams.

There had been many reported online frauds—from body accessories worth $10 to even a car worth $20,000. Car ebay scams are very eye-catchy to scammers because of the large amount of money involved. It is very important for online buyers or bidders to be very aware on the modus operandi of these scammers, as well as on the precautions on how to recognize if your seller is a scammer.

First to note is that Online scammers usually offer their product at a very attractive price. This is an obvious sign that you are dealing with a scammer. They usually offer it by less than half the original price. You should always remember that no seller wants to sell his product at a loss (except of course for some circumstances like when the company is liquidating their assets).

A swindler, most of the time, will require you to send advance or partial payment. They will require you to send a percent of the total price. At first you will think twice if you will send the money because you are unsure if they will really deliver the product. However, they will reason out that they need security that they will receive the payment after delivering the product. So, all you have to do is send them an advance payment and that you have nothing to worry after sending the money because they will surely want to get the remaining balance.

They transact outside Ebay, Craiglist or other online store. You should start thinking that your seller is a scammer if he started asking you to transact via email, telephone, etc. There is nothing wrong when you transact within the online store so why would he ask you to break the terms and conditions of the store? Transacting outside the store is against its rules so you should report it immediately.