Safely Using The Online Auction

Added: 10/31/2007

Over the years the popularity of online auction sites such as eBay have grown to monumental proportions. Sites like eBay, Yahoo, and Ubid are starting to become they way people shop online and with this new retail culture comes some rules you should know. There are a lot of ways people can deceive you and even try and steal your personal information from auction sites so always be careful and always be on guard.

In the last 10 years or so the predictions that the internet would become a large source of international commerce have started to become true. More and more people are looking to the internet as a place to buy their retail goods and some are even buying their essentials like groceries and medication online. But this surge in internet commerce really did not start to happen until the advent of the auction site eBay. EBay, which is a combination of the term e-commerce and San Francisco Bay which is where it was created, is a online auction site that people from all over the world can go to buy and sell items. People with relationships with manufacturers and wholesalers soon began to realize that the millions of people that regularly shop on eBay could be the next way to retail and soon eBay stores began popping up and soon thousands of people were making their living selling on eBay. Over the years the popularity of eBay continues to grow as the auction site now services foreign countries like England, France, and China. International commerce is made much easier now that people from all over the world have one central place to go to buy and sell the things they need. It now looks like the internet auction sites are beginning to take over.

Inevitably the success of eBay spawned copycat sites like Yahoo auctions and Ubid and initially the copycat sites had a hard time getting in on the online auction action that seemed to be monopolized by eBay. But eBay soon began to change its policies and many of the users that supported eBay when it started are beginning to feel that the pricing structures, and rules for selling, in eBay are beginning to reflect an arrogance that could topple the online auction giant. Yahoo and Ubid are using this opportunity to advertise their services on television in the hopes that undercutting eBay’s fees will bring more users. So that battle rages on but the reality is that online auctions are a great way to not only save money on the things you need but they are also a great place to find things that you cannot find anywhere else. Looking for something you owned as a kid in the 1970’s? Chances are it is on eBay or any of the other online auction sites. But like any other commerce site eBay has its share of hackers and there are things you need to be careful of.

At least once a quarter eBay users get fake emails from criminals disguising themselves as eBay and telling customers that they need to confirm their personal information by clicking on the link in the email and logging into the site. It was eBay that invented the email security rule that you should never click on a link in an email and log in to a site that way. Criminals use these ploys to get you to enter your personal eBay information and then they hack into your account. They can steal your personal information from there and begin to conduct illegal auctions on your account. So always be vigilant in checking your online auction account and never, under any circumstances, log in to any website from a link in an email. EBay, and other legitimate auction sites, will never send you an email asking you to do that.

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