In the last article we covered using PayPal to pay for items and how to build up your feedback rating very quickly.
If you read it, you may have a question such as:
“Why do sellers list items for such a low price, losing money with each item that they list this way?”
There are a few possible reasons.
1. First, they could be doing the same thing as you, but building up their feedback as a seller rather than a buyer.
2. The seller could be offering an ebook that promotes a higher priced affiliate product. If you go ahead and buy that product, the seller receives a commission.
3. It could be that they are hoping that you buy a higher priced item that they themselves sell. In other words, they hope to upsell to you.
4. To build up an email list that they can send future offers to.
Here is another possiblity:
The seller wants to acquire the email addresses of eBay users to send “spoof” emails to.
Spoof e-mails are made to look just like they came from the actual source, in this case eBay and sometimes PayPal, but are actually fakes that are used to lure you into submitting your login information.
I started saving eBay and PayPal spoof e-mails a couple of months ago in the e-mail account I originally used for one of my eBay IDs and I already have about 150 of them.
Don’t be tempted to open any of them just to see what they look like because the sender probably has some kind of tracking code that will detect when they are opened, and that will just open the floodgates to many more spoofs.
Because of these things, you should be choosy when buying the cheap ebooks. Try to buy from sellers that have been registered on eBay for at least 6 months and have preferably a 50 + positive feedback rating.
You never know, there could be Powersellers out there hoping to hijack your eBay or Paypal account, but I’d say that that likelyhood decreases with sellers with higher feedback and longer registration periods.
I don’t want to scare you away from eBay, I’m on their website every day. Just be aware that there are people online that don’t have the most noble intentions.
You can still use the method I described in the last article. Just do these things:
A. DO NOT open up any eBay messages in your e-mail account, go to eBay and look to see if there is a message there for you. Any message that comes from eBay will have a duplicate in your “messages” folder on eBay, where you can open and read it knowing that it is genuine.
B. After you have built up some positive feedback buying the cheap e-books, change your e-mail address that you use for eBay as soon as eBay allows it. Then, if someone is sending you spoof e-mails, they will be going to the wrong e-mail address.
Whenever you respond to a question that an eBay member sends you, always check the little box next to “Hide my email address from …”, shown under the field where you enter your reply that you want to send.
I have received messages before simply asking “what is your eBay e-mail address”, with the sender hoping I would willingly give it to them, or respond and not hide my e-mail address when I do.
Sellers more than buyers probably receive such messages, but I doubt that the con artists are too picky.
When you are initiating contact, sending a message to a seller that has a good reputation, do not check the “Hide my email address from …” box because they may then become suspicious of you.
Okay, now that you’re aware of that, Here’s a quick summary of what you’ve done to this point:
1. Scanned and Secured your computer Against viruses and other malicious programs.
2. Registered with eBay and PayPal.
3. Built up your feedback rating by purchasing cheap e-books that you found using the advanced search feature.
4. Changed your e-mail address that is associated with your eBay account.
5. Promised yourself that you’ll only open eBay messages from within your eBay account.
Now you have a solid foundation to work with. In the next couple of articles, will cover searching eBay, using an eBay sniper, and using an eBay misspelling search tool to help you find great deals on eBay.
Tags: buy on eBay, buying on eBay, eBay buying, eBay messages, eBay tips, spoof emails