1. Know more about your potential buyers by going to their website to find out more about their company. You should also search for their company name in the search engine to check their business reputation.

2. Pay close attention to big, urgent orders or government purchase orders. Use your own business experience and common sense to make a judgment.

3. Only use secure payment methods to protect yourself, such as L/C payment or a third-party payment service or an escrow service. Third-party payment services allow you to transfer money into an online account and make payments from that account without exposing your credit card or bank account information. Yoursquo;re recommended to use a well-known escrow service, such as PayPal to transfer your payment.nbsp;

4. Make detailed inquiries about any third-party payment company or online escrow service a buyer wants to use before you agree to use it. We have received reports of fraudulent buyers who will insist that the seller uses a third-party payment service or an escrow service that turns out to be fraudulent. The seller ships the item to the escrow service, but never receives payment or the return of goods. If a buyer insists on using a particular escrow or online payment service that yoursquo;ve never heard of, check it out by visiting its website or calling its customer service line. If there isnrsquo;t one, or if you call and there is no answer, donrsquo;t use the service. If the service claims to be affiliated with a government agency, thatrsquo;s the sign of a scam.

5. Be cautious of companies from countries which are often targeted by scammers. We have received reports of fraudulent buyers who are mainly from Nigeria, Benin, and other African countries.

6. Look out for Fraudulent Cheques or Money Orders. Sometimes, your bank may not alert you that a fake cheque or money order has been rejected until after you have shipped the merchandise. If you are suspicious about a cheque because it has been written by a third party or for any other reason, call the person who wrote the check to verify that they have authorized it. If you receive a cheque or money order for an amount that exceeds the successful bid, and the buyer asks that you wire the excess funds back to him or to a third party, do not wire the money. Instead, return the cheque to the buyer, and do not ship the merchandise.

7. Pay attention to buyers, who insist on paying by credit cards because they might be using stolen or invalid credit cards. If you choose to accept credit cards, contact the company that has issued the card to verify that the name on the card matches both the shipping information and the contact information you've received.

8. Be cautious of buyers who are not concerned with the cost, quality, delivery time of the product and donrsquo;t want to discuss more details about the product with you. Generally speaking, a serious buyer should be very concerned about such information.

9. Use tracking services when shipping. For trial orders, it is usually the buyer's responsibility to pay for shipping samples; however, the seller usually chooses the shipping method. To help ensure that your items arrive in a timely manner, and to help prevent fraudulent buyers from claiming that they never received an item (when, in fact, they did), use a shipping service that includes tracking, or consider paying or charging extra for tracking services.

10. If the buyer requests that you send payment to an address other than his registration company address, it could be a fraudulent request from a scammer. Be cautious of this kind of scam.

11. Never respond to unsolicited requests to update your account information. These could be scams that can lead to identity theft. Most legitimate companies never send unsolicited e-mail or Instant Message requests for a password or other personal information.

12. Donrsquo;t use an online escrow service that doesnrsquo;t process its own transactions and requires you to set up accounts with online payment services. Legitimate escrow services never do this.