And please... if you buy something high dollar on ebay... use a credit card so you are protected. The CC company will get your money back.
All these ideas are great, but none of them address the primary issues. The CC company does usually not get your money back, they pay for the loss of their pockets. In turn they up your annual fees or the interest rate to cover their losses.
At some point eBay and others have got to take steps to prevent the scams, not just compensate the buyer who is scammed.
Why not buy from trusted sources? Adorama, B&H, KEH and others all sell used equipment, fairly rated.
I've sold a few non photo things on Craigslist, for buyer inspection, pickup and cash. Even then I get all kinds of scam emails, e.g. my "movers" will pick up the item and pay with bank check (yeah, right).
I've bought a few items from the FM B&S list as well as the Leica list with no issues.
You're not even always safe if you buy from a highly rated seller. I won a 70-200 2.8 IS about 6 months ago and payed promptly through paypal. Shortly there after I received an email stating that the listing has been removed from ebay? This was something I was bidding on for a couple of days by the way. Thanks for removing it after it's over, woohoo! Anyway, story goes on, I tried contacting the seller, nothing. Long story short, I never got the lens. I did, after a month, get my $1400 back. But, what a hassle! In the end, I don't buy anything from ebay anymore. You can't even trust highly rated sellers unless its something like a well known seller that you've done business with in the past.
I had bought a Mac on ebay and after I won the auction the seller said he would ship it in 2 days, never happened then ebay contacted me that the account was stolen and it was fraud. I called paypal and because I have a consumer managed account they refunded me in 1 day after I explained the situation, I do alot of business with paypal so they like me!
? This was something I was bidding on for a couple of days by the way. Thanks for removing it after it's over, woohoo! Anyway, story goes on, I tried contacting the seller, nothing. Long story short, I never got the lens. I did, after a month, get my $1400 back. But, what a hassle! In the end, I don't buy anything from ebay anymore. You can't even trust highly rated sellers unless its something like a well known seller that you've done business with in the past.