Ebay: Recognize dubious offers - the 5 best tips

Every day, buyers fall for dubious eBay offers. You can usually recognize them very easily in the Internet auction house. We give you some tips on what to look for when bidding.

Restricted means of payment - indication of dubious auctions

The currently most secure payment method on Ebay is PayPal. The online payment service is not only an indication of serious offers, but also offers you other advantages:

• If you get to a dubious provider, you will usually get your money refunded directly from PayPal. Ebay then collects the money from the seller himself. You do not have to worry about anything else.
• Therefore, you will usually not be able to pay via PayPal for dubious offers. So if the seller only accepts transfers, you should be careful. These can usually not be retrieved and offer fraudsters the greatest possible anonymity.
• So make sure that at least one "cash on collection" is accepted as a method of payment.

Other user opinions - Pay attention to negative seller ratings

Seller ratings are one of the most meaningful tools on Ebay. And you should also use this:

• At every auction, go to the seller's account and read the last reviews. Ebay offers clear statistics on all ratings submitted in the past year.
• If more complaints arise here, you should rather keep your hands off the seller.
• Particularly trustworthy sellers receive various awards from Ebay: Seals such as "seller with top rating", "eBay guarantee" or "eBay buyer protection" speak for a serious offer.

For safety: In addition, consider the rating number

A perfect rating alone does not make the seller serious. Here you should always pay attention to the number of reviews at the same time:

• The more ratings the seller has already received, the more meaningful is the percentage of positive opinions.
• You can expect a reliable offer at the latest from 100 reviews and mostly positive feedback.
• Nevertheless, you should also show a certain basic trust to small Ebay members with little feedback. Serious sellers also start out small.

Too good to be true - Resist avoidable bargains

The sales price can also be an indication of dubious offers. This is particularly noticeable with expensive branded products:

• You should be careful with Rolex watches or current smartphones for 100 euros. Nobody offers such bargains without ulterior motives.
• Most of these goods are fake or even stolen. In this case, you will rarely see your money again. So you better stay away from extreme bargains.
• If there is no minimum price that you can use to orient yourself, you should look at the number of bids: If there are very few bids shortly before the end of the offer, you should definitely check the seller's reviews.

Indispensable: Read the article description carefully

Several hundred euros for an empty packaging? Many Ebay users fell for that. Therefore, you should read the article description very carefully.

• Pay particular attention to phrases such as "they only bid" or "only offered".
• You should also be careful if, for example, the seller never mentions the product without the "OVP" addition. In these cases, usually only the empty packaging is offered.
• In addition, you should never rely solely on the article image. Things are often placed here that are not for sale at all. After purchase, you can only refer to the item description.

A little bit of everything: Use all tips together

Auctions without bidders or new Ebay members do not have to be dubious. You should only become aware when several of the criteria described apply. Ultimately, it's better to be a little more careful and let one or the other auction end.

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Should you nevertheless receive a wrong or defective article, you can find out here how you can complain about the product.