AW Daily - Tips & Tactics - After the Auction: Dealing With Deadbeat Sellers

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After the Auction: Dealing With Deadbeat Sellers continued ...

If you sent payment through the mail (basically, any transaction except those involving credit cards), then you can file a complaint with the Postal Inspector's Office. Failure to ship merchandise is mail fraud, which is a federal offense. Mail fraud forms can be obtained by calling 800/275-8777. (The post office will even send you a postage-free envelope to mail it back.) When a mail fraud complaint is filed, the Postal Service will inform the seller that he or she is under investigation--again, this might wake up the seller and get him or her to finally respond. You can find your local Postal Inspector's Office address and phone number here.

You'll also want to get in touch with the Federal Trade Commission, which investigates cases of online auction fraud. To file a complaint, contact the Consumer Response Center by phone (877/382-4357), by mail (Consumer Response Center, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580), or via the Internet, using an online complaint form.

Help Is On the Way
A number of other fraud groups will be of assistance as well. You can file fraud reports and obtain information with the following organizations:

The National Fraud Information Center
The National Consumers League
International Web Police
The National Consumer Complaint Center

You can also submit complaints with the offices of your local area fraud group, your local district attorney and state attorney general, and the offices of the seller's local district attorney and state attorney general. Lastly, notify the seller's ISP of the charges and complaints you've filed.

Safety in Numbers
As you can see, there are a lot of options for recourse should you find yourself the victim of a fraudulent seller. Once sufficient evidence has been amassed, and once the proper complaints have been filed, an auction site can then suspend a seller's registration. By being proactive, you also help the authorities gather the evidence they'll need to build a case, file charges, obtain search warrants, and ultimately make prosecutions. Fraud is a concern for buyers and sellers alike, and the more people take a stand against true wrongdoers, the safer the entire online auction experience will be for everyone.

Contacting Sellers
Researching Sellers
Identifying Questionable Auctions