What % of eBay transactions are fraudulent?

Answer 1

I would guess less than 1% of actual transactions - but it seems I'm always tripping over attempts (although you have to be real dumb to get caught by most of them).

Most of the scams are easy to spot ... people with 0 feedback trying to sell £1,000 Laptop / Sony PSP / 40" Plasma TV's (and when you check their 'other items', guess what ? they have a dozens of auctions for identical same item :- ) ).

What I find really upsetting is eBays 'computer generated response' system - I reported one guy with 0 feedback selling Intel Pentium 4 CPU chips - the photo's and description all stolen from Intel's site and what text he had entered was factually incorrect ! Anyway, he had about 20 auctions all ending within a day or two -and no other items for sale.

eBay's computer sent me the usual 'we will look into it' ... all his auctions completed OK and it was only a week or two later that his ID suddenly changed to 'no longer registered' - by then I would guess most of the winning bidders would already have paid ...

Answer 2

I think the % will differ, especially depending on what you're buying. I've had problems with new users and experienced users. Just depends. I think the more higher ticket items, and more wanted items, have more of the scams involved, like the gaming systems and such.

I've bought on ebay in the past and now mostly just sell. I had one problem, don't think she did it on purpose, got money back. I just bought another item, it was not as described, figured it wasn't worth the postage to return(was a large picture), gave her a nice lecture on how to sell on ebay lol (she was a new user). As a seller, I've really only had 1 person scam me. She "never received it", and further checking she scammed a few other people the same time as me. Learned my lesson, jacked up my shipping prices to include insurance & confirmation, and reported her. Just have to be careful, and if you're buying something, ask the seller questions. Don't assume anything.

Answer 3

I have a feedback of 200 or so, (so 200 succesfull transactions) and I've had two problems in that time. Not proper fraud, just people buying things and then not paying. One guy did try it on though, he asked me to send a Playstation to Nigeria and said he'd send the money when it arrived OK! The other guy bid nearly £20 for a Lionel Richie CD so there was no way he was going to pay!

Answer 4

I found this but don't know if it's true:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061205143326.htm
In a test analysis of about one million transactions between almost 66,000 eBay users, NetProbe correctly detected 10 previously identified perpetrators, as well as more than a dozen probable fraudsters and several dozen apparent accomplices.

Answer 5

Probably about 1%

Answer 6

most of them