Today internet is full of scams you buy some stuff and after purchase it looks like an complete different item.This is mostly due to unawarness of people.While buying any comodity you must ask for proper proofs which can prove that the seller is genuine.For example if you are buying Laptop online ask seller to keep a piece of paper on the laptop with some name and take its pic and send it to you.It will atleast prove that seller really have the laptop.Now if you are buying from Ebay do check previous review of the seller.If you find lots of positive reviews then you are on safe side.Do take model number of any item you buy online and Google for more info on it.
If you are buying any service i would recommend you to buy only if you are sure that the seller is an genuine person as most of the people i found online selling services ends up with disappointment as they pay completely upfront and seller dont cares for satisfaciton.In this case i would suggest you to use Forums like Digitalpoint where they provide Review system so if you are dealing with person A check all reviews given to them in Digitalpoint it is named “I Trader” if you find some good amount of positive reviews then you are on safer side.
If you are buying any costly product or service like Car or anything which is very costly for you to afford then to be secure i would suggest you to use Escrow.Com.
How Escrow works?
Escrow is a service which provides security to both sellers and buyers.Sellers are protected by fraudulent payments and buyers by proper product.In this buyer deposits amount in there Escrow account and makes an payment to Buyer but it is holded by Escrow then seller sends you product and if you find it proper then you can give green signal to Escrow to give payment to Seller or else they will cancel the payment and you will need to return the goods.Ofcourse it will cost littile extra but you will be on safer side.Loosing 10,000s of $ is really very bad just pay few $ extra and be on safer side 