Auction fraud

Always check out the seller before you bid. Some auction sites have feedback forums with comments about the sellers based on other people's experiences. Be aware that positive reports may have been "planted" by the seller and negative comments could be from a competitor. Negative information is a good warning sign, but a clean complaint record doesn't guarantee that your transaction will go smoothly.

Beware of "shills." The seller may try to raise the price artificially by making bids under fictitious names or recruiting other people to make bids. Using bogus bidders is illegal and a violation of online auction policies.

Get the name and contact information of the seller. Don't do business with anyone who refuses to provide that information! You should get the name, physical street address, email address, and phone number from the seller and you should verify the information.

There are many varieties of auction fraud. Here is an example:

1. Criminal claims to be selling a highly desirable object (laptop computers, motorcycles, and cars seem to be popular) for a price that seems too good to be true.
2. Criminal obtains sufficient information about victim to place an InExchange order (National Currency to e-gold) in victim's name using a legitimate exchange service.
3. Victim unwittingly remits payment believing the exchange service to be the entity selling the [laptop, car, motorcycle, whatever].
4. Exchange service unwittingly accepts remittance and fulfills exchange, not knowing that the individual who remitted payment is not the person who placed the exchange order.
5. Since e-gold Spends are non-repudiable, the exchange can't be reversed once fulfilled. This ultimately means that:

• If Remittance was also non-repudiable (like a wire transfer), the victim loses his entire Remittance.
• If Remittance was repudiable (like credit card, check, and ACH payments), the victim typically attempts to evade taking responsibility for his own actions, meaning that the legitimate exchange service is at risk of taking the loss instead.

The primary source for e-gold exchange.