Top scams that target
sellers
Although buyers are the
primary targets of scammers, sellers and
online business owners are at risk too. Most of those top scams are similar to
those you will encounter “offline”. Whether you are a company owner or
occasionally sell online, you are equally at risk.
Seller's guide to online
top scams
Being scammed is always a
difficult experience, and being scammed offline is just as damaging despite it
being faceless. There are many ways to avoid this, if you do a little research
on the Internet you will find good advice about how to react to every type of
cyber-attacks.
One of the keys to
prevention is information. If you know how and what scammers do, it will be
easier for you to spot them. Here are the 3 most common scams in the E-business
world:
•
I want my money back!
That one is the most vicious of the top scams online because it's very difficult and costly to fightback and just as difficult to prevent. They don't always come from professional
scammers either, so they probably won't be blacklisted on scam prevention
websites. Here is how it works: you publish an item on a website like Etsy or
eBay. The scammer buys it, pays for it, you send the item. All is well. Except
the scammer client will claim something is wrong with the package, or that the
package never arrived. You will have no choice but to reimburse the scammer or
replace the item.
•
Classifieds websites
The scammer sends you too
much money. Typically, you will get a message claiming that the extra money is
a deposit for you to remove the ad and reserve the item for the buyer. In other
cases, it will be a “mistake”, a typo.
You cash the fraudulent check you received, which won't be discovered for a few
days. The buyer then asks you to send back the cash difference often through
bank wire like the Western Union or
MoneyGram.
•
Phishing emails, one of
the top scams on the Internet
You get an email from
eBay, for instance. It looks official, it has the website's logo and sometimes mimics the style used in legitimate eBay
emails. Here you will get a story where they need to update their database or
confirm your information. There is sometimes a barely veiled threat to close
down your account if you don't do it within 24 hours. There is a link provided
to redirect you to a website that will look just like the real deal, except for
the address (“www.ebayy.com” or “www.ebay.cc.com” instead of the official
“ebay.com”). You will be asked to log in, but what you are really doing is
filling a form for the scammers, giving them your password as well as personal
information.
How to protect yourself
from top scams targeting E-businesses
Double-check any
information that feels fishy and bewary
of clients who insist on using a third party to complete the transaction. And
most importantly, leave a paper trail! Email confirmations, receipts, keep
track and document every step of the transaction. It may cost you a little
extra work but it will save you a lot of hassle caused by top scams.
