1. The thief sets up multiple fraudulent eBay accounts and buy and sells to himself, in order to build up quickly build up positive feedback.

2. You can only use the Advanced Search features on eBay if you are an account holder, so the thief then searches for high dollar eBay auctions that have recently ended. Or the seller might find high-end auctions that are about to end and follow them through to the end.

3. He then contacts a winner and requests payment for the auction that recently ended.

However, there is a problem with step 3 because although eBay supplies a list of the winning bidders, it doesn't give their contact information. The only way to reach a seller is to go through eBay under a pretense of legitimate contact. So the thieves find buyers of any expensive items who also have something for sale themselves. They then contact these individuals under the guise of asking them a question about an item for sale – and then asking for payment for the high dollar auction:

“Dear superseller: I would like to know the publishing company of the book in your auction 123456788. I am also requesting payment for the plasma TV you bought in my auction 987654321.”

There are a couple of variations of this sorry scam. In another scenario, the thief will offer the seller a “Second Chance” item. This is eBay's program to help seller with those rare non-paying bidders by offering the merchandise to another bidder who lost.

Or these dishonest losers will follow buyers of expensive items for weeks, writing to them over a period of time with fake questions, simply to get their direct email address.

How to protect yourself:

Sellers: get those payment emails out FAST! Don't let days, or possibly even hours, elapse until you invoice your buyer. If you are selling expensive items, you can afford to have an automatic system in place that notifies buyers as soon as the auction ends. In that case, even if these losers contact your buyer, they will be alarmed at getting two invoices and will check to find the correct seller – you.

Buyers: be certain to verify your seller, especially if the item is expensive enough for thieves to care about.

If everyone followed these two simply precautions, these losers would have nowhere to go with their nasty scams!