Allseeingeye
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- Jul 17, 2010
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The virtual world is huge, opportunities are endless, and information is overwhelming. Every year more and more people/business turn to the internet to maximise profit, this constant growth has also seen a barrage of attacks from scammers and other nasties trying to steal from you.
Here is my list for staying safe, consider this your inspector morse spy kit.
1. Ebay; Is pretty much like marmite, you either love it or you hate it. Sometimes I love ebay and other times I dread it, the fees, the late payers, the non payers and the lack of customer support from ebay can drive you insane.
2. Casino & Roullete Scams; If anyone here is a gambler, I urge you to stop. If anyone here is promoting these unlawfully, or unethically I urge you to also stop. People are loosing their homes, their lifes, and their familes to gambling, it is no joke! Dont promote unfair or dishonest schemes for the casinos, they make enough money.
3. sGumtree and Craigslist; As the saying goes, there is nothing for free in life. The principle applies for these sites as well. There is way to much risk involved in buying or selling on these sites, unless your are selling or buying goods of low value and dont mind taking the risk but bear in mind at all times, thats just what it is, A RISK!
4. Wholesale Scam; A true beast when it comes to scams, the scammers of these sites have started to bespoke build their sites in order to catch out those looking for clues. Be very careful, but remain humble in your approach. I have seen some of the ugliest sites owned by wholesalers, who stocked the finest of goods when I was searching online.
5. Shopping Online; Many people still fear using the internet to shop online, I say this is stupid. Firstly if you use your credit card and you find yourself in a fraud situation, all you have to do is file a fraud complaint form, or reverse the charge. Do not despair, the internet is here. The prices online are always going to be cheaper, no middle man, no extra expenses, and most the time great business ethics. As much as I love the internet for shopping, I never put my guard down.
6. Emails; I was considering not even covering this subject, but as times have moved on so has Augustus the nigerian prince and his withdraw 10 billion dollar proposals.
Blessings:sleep:
Here is my list for staying safe, consider this your inspector morse spy kit.
1. Ebay; Is pretty much like marmite, you either love it or you hate it. Sometimes I love ebay and other times I dread it, the fees, the late payers, the non payers and the lack of customer support from ebay can drive you insane.
- Buying: When buying on ebay the first and most obvious is to check the persons feedback, actually read what the negatives are as some buyers can be a little fussy.
- Always check the postage costs
- When buying something from abroad, check first to see if customs and other charges are included & be patient as sometimes customs can hold the package for anything up to 3 months.
- Reread the listing before placing a bid, the amount of nearly rushed buys I have had which would have ended nasty is uncountable.
- Never send money to a paypal account which is not linked directly with your purchase through ebay, some scammers will entice you by sending you an email to tell you their paypal account is not working so you have to use another one.
- If you recieve an email from paypal or ebay and something, no matter how little, looks out of place, beware! It could be a phising email.
- Some ebay accounts get hijacked from hackers, if the offer sounds to good to be true, be cautious, check the persons feedback, and compare to their current listings.
- When buying branded goods especially electronics like SD'S, cameras, phones, etc. Always ask for a serial number, put them under a little pressure, I can safely assume that 80% of sellers are selling fakes, even fake Canon Cameras.
- Stick to your budget, you will always find what your looking for on ebay, just be patient.
- Even for the smaller purchases like books, you will be suprised how much you can save even if it is second hand. I recently purchased The Riches Of Babylon for £3 including delivery, the book is in perfect condition and retails for approx £10.
- Selling: When selling on ebay, be careful of mass buys from the same account, again this account could be hijacked.
- Ignore all emails from chinese wholesalers, they email you all the time, do not respond as they will have your email address by responding, just ignore them.
- You are better off selling expensive items at 0.99p start and having a reserve rather than BIN's, this way you save money on listing fees
- If you are a shop and selling lots of stuff, get a shop as it will save you alot of money in the long run.
- Honesty is the best policy, list the items fairly and take good clear pictures
- Always send a little note, this will make any unhappy customers think twice before leaving negative feedback
- When selling expensive goods, just trust your intution, if something does not feel right, find out more.
2. Casino & Roullete Scams; If anyone here is a gambler, I urge you to stop. If anyone here is promoting these unlawfully, or unethically I urge you to also stop. People are loosing their homes, their lifes, and their familes to gambling, it is no joke! Dont promote unfair or dishonest schemes for the casinos, they make enough money.
- The Roullete System: You cant beat roullete, nore can you beat the casinos without the use of discrete and unlawful technology. Its just not worth trying.
- Dont fall for any system promoting a way to beat the casinos, they do not exist! These internet marketers cloak their affiliate url's in the links that you click after you buy the system, this is how they make their money.
- Always limit yourself, and if you cant, "The best way to double your money, is to fold it in half and put it in your pocket"
- Research the casino first and make sure they are accredited by the lawful bodies of gambling.
- STOP GAMBLING!
3. sGumtree and Craigslist; As the saying goes, there is nothing for free in life. The principle applies for these sites as well. There is way to much risk involved in buying or selling on these sites, unless your are selling or buying goods of low value and dont mind taking the risk but bear in mind at all times, thats just what it is, A RISK!
- Never, Never do a direct bank transfer
- Always if possible go and see the product first, and go with no money
- Be careful of buying/selling big items like cars, it has been recorded before that people have been held at gun point for the money
- Always check the freebies section
some nice things have propped up! - The job section is also a great place to look for jobs, HOWEVER, there has been times where random people posted fake ads for companies in exchange for my Juicy CV
- If the person tells you that the car or piano is in scotland, but their in ireland, tell them to get stuffed.
- Be careful of rented properties on these sites, again there is massive scam involved which I dont have or can understand the details of.
- My advice is not to use these sites unless you really desperately want to, but you have been warned.
4. Wholesale Scam; A true beast when it comes to scams, the scammers of these sites have started to bespoke build their sites in order to catch out those looking for clues. Be very careful, but remain humble in your approach. I have seen some of the ugliest sites owned by wholesalers, who stocked the finest of goods when I was searching online.
- The first little trick might not always work, but it has proven to be succesful at times. Even when the scammers site has photos, these are sometimes stolen from other scammers. If you "right click" the photo and get the name of the photo as saved from the camera, or edited by the scammer, do a search on google, you will be suprised to see how many other sites are using the same photo, BE careful
- Ask for a VAT number and the name they trade under, do a search on the relevant sites to find out more.
- Google search the domain to see if other people have had or are having problems, a few bad reviews is not always doom and gloom, it could be a few lost packages or customs holding them, which leads me on to the next point.
- Check to see if they cover loss of packages.
- Live chat is usually seen a safety net, I would disagree, to have 10 scammers working on the site 24/7, would bring alot of money in. Send emails or try to ring them, you want to make sure you will be able to contact them in an emergency.
- Ask for the address of their business, if they are willing to respond, do a "who is" search on google with the url name of the site, check to see if the locations match. Though some companies might have their sites hosted at a different location, so this is not full proof.
- You dont need to purchase lists, these are always outdated, useless lists. Use your brain, if you want to find wholesalers in China, go to your local China Town and pick up the magazines.
- If you have a serious business model, your seller should have no problem sending you a sample, its the best and safest way to see if everything will be OK
- Many people hate the idea of Western Union transfers, but some companies will only trade this way when outside of their country. If you feel confident that they are not a scam, then you should be fine. I have used western union before and have had no problems. Just be careful.
- Always stay safe, trust your intution, and dont get lured into anything last moment.
5. Shopping Online; Many people still fear using the internet to shop online, I say this is stupid. Firstly if you use your credit card and you find yourself in a fraud situation, all you have to do is file a fraud complaint form, or reverse the charge. Do not despair, the internet is here. The prices online are always going to be cheaper, no middle man, no extra expenses, and most the time great business ethics. As much as I love the internet for shopping, I never put my guard down.
- Once you have found what you are looking for, lets say its a Sony 26 inch flat screen, find the model no So26xyz and google search this no. See what comes up.
- Ayways research the name of the company your buying from, a 2 second search could save you alot of hassle
- Check to see if they have SSL security installed on their site, check the bottom right of your Internet Browser for a padlock.
- If your buying electronics or similar items, enquire or read the terms on their warranty. Some electrical online companies buy from abroad and sell in the UK, these products are commonly known as grey imports which dont always spec up as advertised and in some cases dont have a full international warranty.
- If you have the slightest doubt, do your research first and use a card that you have insurance or are covered for in such losses. Dont use a debit card, unless of course its through paypal
- Be careful of these so called comparison sites, they make their commisions somewhere and I have never found anything cheaper than through organic searches on google.
6. Emails; I was considering not even covering this subject, but as times have moved on so has Augustus the nigerian prince and his withdraw 10 billion dollar proposals.
- Ignore any email telling you to withdraw money from their african Uncles bank account.
- No banks online send you emails asking you for personal information, always check the senders URL to see where the emails coming from. Unless you have requested a password change or similar, just add these to the junk mail and dont open them at all.
- Your email address should be looked after just like any other personal information, dont just sign up for anything because they are claiming to give you a free "make money system", your email equals more profit for them. Email lists is big business.
Blessings:sleep:
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