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The Great EBAY Feedback scam - buyer beware
Have you ever looked at peoples feedback scores on eBay and envied their large scores. How do you get a score of 1,000 feedback or more, or even higher?
The eBay feedback system works in a very simple way; you rate the buyer (Good, Bad, Neutral) and the buyer rates you. You each gain a point for all Good feedback left. The total feedback you see for a given user, is the total of all Good feedbacks (from different people) minus all the bad feedback. So a feedback of say 45, says that user has 45 Good transactions, as either a buyer or a seller.
Well dig a little deeper and you'll discover a whole scam going on underneath the community driven feedback system. If all you need to do is complete a transaction then it is of interest to both parties that the transaction goes without hitch and what better way to do that than to sell something for 1p and have no actual goods in the equation.
Let me illustrate with an example. Here is an example of an auction that is selling feedback. The value is 1p and the product is for an image for your mobile phone that is actually in the auction description. They even list in the description that positive feedback is always left. Do a search around eBay and you will discover literally thousands of auctions of this type. All effectively selling positive feedback.
So now that you have bought yourself a good eBay feedback, how can you now lure trusting buyers? Again, let us look at an example. How does a job lot of new PS/3 sound to you? Too good to be true you think. Of course it is. But look at the guys feedback, he even draws attention to it in his description. But look at the feedback and you will see none of it as a seller and its all for 1p items. Hopefully the more savy eBay user will steer well clear.
Technically speaking they are not doing anything wrong. They are playing the system since the system allows it to be played. It does however cross the spirit of the feedback system.
As always, the best advice is before you do any buying is to thoroughly check out the person you are buying from. Take some time to view their history and look at the items they have previously sold or bought. You can view their item history for the last 90 days.
Remember, the safest thing you can always do -- walk away.
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Comments (2)
An excellent post, Alan - love the linked examples. At my last count, eBay had over 1,000 employees dedicated to preventing fraud. Their failure to automate more fraud detection baffles me. Identifying users with an abundance of 1p purchases - clearly a simple task ripe for automation - should bring their accounts to the attention of eBay's "anti-fraud" staff for further investigation. What on Earth are those 1,000 fraud agents doing?
Thank you for the warnings ... no wonder a lot of big sellers do not give positive feedback for a quick sale! The two links provided no longer work.