Archive for January, 2011
January 22nd, 2011 | 
Author: Countless people have been scammed and defrauded on ebay . ebay is a fun place to bid on items and to sell items ‘ but you must know how to recognize a fraud, and how to avoid them, or you quickly join the ranks of those who have lost their money to ebay frauds. Of course, if you are scammed, there are some actions you can take the correct the situation ‘ but in many cases, the scammer does indeed get away! The best option is to avoid being scammed.
You can easily avoid many frauds with the payment method that you use ‘ whether you are a buyer or a seller. ebay owns Paypal, and in most cases, Paypal is the payment method you should use. First, as a buyer, if you are scammed or less than satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can dispute the charge easily, and demand a refund. The seller must reply and show proof that the item was shipped, and that it arrived in the condition that you expected, or Paypal will return your funds to your account.
As a seller, you can protect yourself by only accepting Paypal . This will eliminate the chances of receiving a bad check or having the buyer dispute a credit card charge. Instead, they must dispute the charge through paypal, and you of course will be able to prove that you shipped the product. You cannot, however, prove that the product arrived in the condition that was expected. In this case, you should demand that the product be returned to you before the refund is issued.
Another common fraud that buyers use is the bidding fraud. This type of fraud is run either with two separate ebay accounts ‘ with one person in control of both of them, or with two friends with separate ebay accounts. A very small bid is placed on your item, using one account. This is followed by a very high bid, from the other ebay account. Right before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid. This bid can only be avoided by setting a reserve price ‘ the lowest bid that can be placed is the same as the reserve price that you set.
If you are an ebay seller, you can further protect your auctions by placing a notice on your auctions page, declaring that you have the right to back out of the sale if you suspect potential fraud. As both a buyer and a seller, also beware of spoofed emails. These emails appear to be from ebay . The email may claim that you need to verify your information, and ask you to login to your ebay account, using the link provided. If you follow that link, the site looks exactly like ebay, but it is actually a fraud to get your ebay login details, as well as your credit card details! ebay will never ask you to do this. If you suspect a spoofed email, report it to ebay immediately!
Don’t let scammers ruin your ebay fun! Just use good common sense, and a reasonable amount of caution, and everything should run smoothly. Report suspicious activity to ebay, and if a deal doesn’t feel right, simply back away from it and move on to the next auction.
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Are you looking for legitimate home business opportunities, but can’t figure out how to determine them from the scams? There are some important things that you need to do to be able to decide which are scams and which are legitimate.
Here are the most important things that you need to do.
One: It is always a good idea to research each business opportunity thoroughly. To help you find information about that opportunity use any major search engine.
Look at all of the information that can be found carefully to be sure what it is saying. Don’t just read a few things and assume that an opportunity is legitimate.
Two: It is always a good idea to contact the people behind the business opportunity. If they answer your inquiries in a short period of time, then they are usually legitimate.
Always contact them more than once to be sure that you will get an answer each time. Use email, the phone and a contact form to contact them. The more ways you use the more you will be able to tell about the opportunity when they do answer you.
Three: When people discover scams on the internet they will usually visit home business forums to let others know about it. Go to as many home business forums as you can and read everything about each opportunity you are interested in.
If you can’t find information about a particular business opportunity, then you want to post a question about it. If someone in the forum knows about it, they will be more than happy to answer your questions.
Four: Always check with the BBB to be sure that there are not any complaints against a business. You may want to move on and find another opportunity to start your home business with if there are complaints.
Five: Read review articles and blogs because there are many reviews being done for a lot of different opportunities. Reviews will give you a more accurate picture of a particular opportunity.
Just be sure that you read more than one review. This is the best way to get an accurate picture of any business opportunity.
These are the best ways to use to learn if home business opportunities are legitimate or a scam. Don’t start with any opportunity without first doing these things or you could find that you have joined a scam business.
Tags: The media is a powerful thing — the average person spends an enormous amount of their life consuming it in one form or another, and will spend a significant percentage of that time looking at, listening to or watching advertisements. If you want to use the power of the media, though, you need to know what you’re doing.
Advertising in Newspapers and Magazines.
There are two kinds of advertising you can get in newspapers and magazines: classified and display. Classifieds are the small ads towards the back of the publication, while display ads can be almost any size, from a small corner of a page to a massive double-page spread.
If there’s a publication you’re interested in advertising in, either go to its website (the rate card section) or call its advertising department to find out the rates it charges. Now pick your jaw up off the floor. Yes, advertising in the print media really is that expensive, and for most home businesses it probably just won’t be that economical.
There is, however, an exception: niche and trade magazines. If you’ve ever looked around in a newsagent, you will have seen just how many magazines there are out there, filling every conceivable gap in the market. You need to find the magazine that people who are interested in your services might read. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, look for a magazine called ‘Your Wedding’, ‘Bride’, or something similar. Advertising in these magazines will be far cheaper than placing an ad in a general-audience publication, and far more likely to actually get some responses.
Advertising on the Radio.
Wherever you are, the chances are that there’s a local radio station. Once your home business grows to a decent size, you might consider buying some time on it.
Really, though, the only kind of home business that can benefit enough from radio ads to justify the cost is one that does anything to do with cars. Since radio is almost entirely limited to use as in-car entertainment now, you know that almost everyone your ad reaches will be a car-owner, and so might be interested in what you’re offering. If you offer something that people need cheaply or even for free, you can get a big response.
Unfortunately, that response could be a little too big — thanks to the time-sensitivity of radio, you’ll get mobbed the next day, and then everyone will forget you again. Radio advertising offers the listener no opportunity to keep your ad and refer to it later, or to find it again in the future. You will find that any ads involving a phone number are spectacularly useless. Read the rest of this entry »