Help & Support Centre

Know who you are dealing with

It is best to deal only with Address Verified members. Such members are known to have a true, confirmed address, and can be easily contacted.

Recognizing scams

Most scams involve one or more of the following:

• inquiry from someone far away, often in another country
• Western Union, Money Gram, personal cheque, unfamiliar escrow service, or a "guarantee"

Examples of Scams

1. Someone claims that they are a certified buyer/seller, OR claims that eJay will handle or provide protection for a payment
   • These claims are fraudulent, as eJay does not have any role in any transaction.
   • Scammer will often send an official looking email that appears to come from eJay, offering a guarantee, certifying a seller, providing payment services -- all such emails are fakes!
2. distant person offers a genuine-looking (but fake) cashier's check
   • you receive an email (examples below) offering to buy your item, or rent your apartment, sight unseen.
   • cashier's check is offered for your sale item, as a deposit for an apartment, or for just about anything else of value.
   • value of cashier's check often far exceeds your item - scammer offers to "trust" you, and asks you to wire the balance via money transfer service
   • banks will often cash these fake checks AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE WHEN THE CHECK FAILS TO CLEAR, including criminal prosecution in some cases!
   • scam often involves a 3rd party (shipping agent, business associate owing buyer money, etc)
3. Someone requests wire service payment via Western Union or MoneyGram:
   • Often claim that an MTCN or confirmation code is needed before he can withdraw your money - this is FALSE, once you've wired money, it is GONE.
   • Scam "bait" items include laptops, plasma TVs, cell phones, tickets - but could be almost anything
   • common countries currently include: Nigeria, Romania, Ukraine, Spain, UK, Italy, Netherlands - but could be anywhere
   • deal often seems too good to be true
4. distant person offers to send you a money order and then have you wire money:
   • this is ALWAYS a scam, in our experience - the cashier's check is FAKE
   • sometimes accompanies an offer of merchandise, sometimes not
   • scammer often asks for your name, address, etc for printing on the fake check
   • deal often seems too good to be true
5. distant seller suggests use of an online escrow service.
   • most online escrow sites are FRAUDULENT, operated by scammers
   • for more info, do a google search on "fake escrow" or "escrow fraud"
6. distant seller asks for a partial payment upfront, after which he will ship goods
   • he says he trusts you with the partial payment
   • he may say he has already shipped the goods
   • deal often sounds too good to be true
7. foreign company offers you a job receiving payments from customers, then wiring funds
   • foreign company may claim it is unable to receive payments from its customers directly
   • you are typically offered a percentage of payments received
   • this kind of "position" may be posted as a job, or offered to you via email
   
   
   

Example Fraud/Scammer Email

With practice, you'll know how to recognise which messages are scams. Often, the writer has poor spelling, grammar and punctuation. They almost always want the item to be sent to an overseas location (with a short story to justify it).

Dear seller, 
I;m so happy been the winning buyer of this
lovely item(3Com SuperStack 3 Switch 4900 12 port
Gigabit (#1043)) I bought this items on behave of
a friend currently on a business trip to west
africa.
so kindly get back to me with the total cost of
the item including the shipping and handling
charges through australia speed post to him in
west africa.

Thanks and hope to read back from you soon.
Best Regards.
Cathie George