Since my first story about selling a laptop on eBay appeared, I've learned a lot about the process. This week, I'm sharing some of those lessons learned, to help you reduce your chances of being defrauded by unscrupulous buyers.

Before continuing, you might want to read last week's Mobile Computing, in which I excerpted e-mail from readers who've had scary experiences selling laptops on eBay.

Be Wary of Inconsistent Addresses

A cardinal rule I've learned: If a buyer's eBay user ID location isn't consistent with the shipping address, you may be dealing with a scammer.

For example, one of my laptop's prospective buyers had eBay user ID location of New Mexico--but he wanted the laptop shipped to Bali, where he claimed to be currently living. (The buyer turned out to be a fraud.) Such address inconsistencies, particularly when they involve two countries, can be a tip-off your buyer isn't legit.

PayPal's Security Center puts it this way: "It's fairly common for shipping addresses to differ from billing addresses. However, be extra cautious when sending high-priced items, especially if payment is received from one country and sent to another."

Monitor the Auction's Close

The vast majority of bidding occurs within the last few minutes of an auction. As Mary Lou Arnold of Fountain Valley, California, pointed out in her e-mail excerpted last week, scammers using hijacked eBay user IDs sometimes bid up an item as an auction is ending.

You may be able to avoid this by scheduling your eBay auction to end at a time you know you'll be able to monitor its conclusion, such as a Saturday morning at 11 a.m. This may enable you to do a quick background check on high bidders before the auction ends. For example, if a high bidder has a poor feedback score or appears not to have been an active eBayer for a year or more, these could be warning signs. (Dormant eBay accounts are sometimes hijacked by crooks for fraudulent buying and selling.)

As you monitor bids, each bidder's eBay feedback score will be visible along with their eBay user ID. Another option is to search a buyer's profile and score using eBay's Community pages. Keep in mind that a legitimate eBay buyer may go months without making purchases. By canceling bids from inactive members, you risk ticking off honest customers. Consider adding a "fraud prevention" note to your listing's description. State that you reserve the right to cancel bids from long-inactive bidders or those with poor feedback scores.

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