There loads of scammers on Ebay, but there's a few signs of them which can be caught before you are caught out!

Follow this simple guide. Note: This is only a guide, there is always a chance that someone say, who is a new Ebayer with a 0 rating, is actually a real non scammers, but its only a guideline.

Scammers sometimes (Just sometimes) have a part of an African/Nigerian name in their user ID and often some numbers.

No feedback is another pointer, check when the Ebayer joined, if their profile shows that they joined just before they bid, then then that's a sign of a scammer - usually! Because i don't bid till the last minute, don't mistake a last minute Ebayer from a last minute, just joined scammer. I hear you say, "What if someone is an advanced Ebayer bidding at the last minute, how do i work those ones out?" If someone's an advanced Ebayer, they will have some feedback. Tip: Notice how i said i bid a the last minute? That's because the only thing you do when you bid before the last minute is inflate the price, making it much more expensive for the winning buyer no matter who wins.

Example of how i spot scammers (Real life scenario) The users postal address (You can search for a users address and details in Ebay, or is usually under the payment details) was an address in London which, when typed into Google was a company headquarters. I called them up and they didn't know anyone under the name. The telephone number in the profile was also wrong (Didn't follow any particular convention). They must have just taken a postal address from google and put that as theirs so it looked more real.

Sometimes if they bid and win, they have taken over someone else's User ID by Phishing (Where someone else's Ebay account is compromised/hacked by the scammer, this was it looks like there's good feedback etc). In this case there's not much evidence until they email you and say they want to pay by international money transfer, Western Union etc or ask for your home address and bank details, the best way to pay is always Paypal. Paypal is more expensive but you're usually protected.

Ebay doesn't have a function to stop people with a 0 feedback, quite understandably, but there should be the option to block this as most (Apart from the hacker ones who have Phished and the ones who have bought a few things first to make their ID look/feedback more real).

Hope this helps if you are ever selling, around 1 in 10 of my winning bidders are scammers, but i've never been scammed yet!

Useful scamming links: Scambuster419 : Federal Trade Commission top Ten Internet scams : PC Mag - Ebay Scams