When JOHN HARRIS decided to flog a dead printer on eBay, he got more than he bargained for as bad guys tried to steal his identity.

The eBay revolution was slow coming to my place.

I discovered how slow when talking to my friend Peter, who has been turning a nice trade on eBay selling antiques to wealthy Americans – the smaller and more obscure the item, the more likely it is to turn a pretty penny. Since Pete still writes notes to his family with a chisel and stone tables, this made me technically retarded in the online economy.

If you’re even more behind the times, eBay www.ebay.com.au is a global online auction service. People bid for items ranging from a purse signed by the Beatles (bid $6700) to a $6.99 zebra money box. In the States, you can even bid for a 1927 Model T Ford (for US$13,300).

So in December, I took the plunge and registered my details.My motivation was not to make money, but to avoid sending my old colour printer for landfill. I bought it for $8000 in 2001 and spent nearly half as much again repairing it. When it finally gave up the ghost, I was determined not to just throw it away.

A few lines on eBay and two weeks later, I received an email from a lady in Perth who had successfully bid $103.76 for my printer, aiming to use it for spare parts. She was even willing to pony up an extra $90 to ship it there. The cash turned up in my bank account, the courier picked up the printer and I paid eBay $6.72 for making it happen. End of story, right?

Wrong.

Within 24 hours, I started receiving emails, purportedly from potential eBay purchasers of my goods.The emails looked the real deal, so, if I hadn’t sold my printer, I’d have taken them as genuine.

Instead, I visited eBay’s Security Centre at http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/ which revealed that spoof emails often use the eBay logo and mimic eBay emails. It gave two bits of advice:

1. Don’t click any link in the email as this may lead you to a website that steals and your personal details in order to misuse them.

1. Report the email by forwarding it to spoof@ebay.com.

After forwarding the ersatz email to eBay, I received a useful autoresponse with tips about how to spot evil emails and wicked websites. It even offered a Spoof tutorial.

It said genuine eBay emails also appear in the My Messages section of your eBay account.  When I checked, the dodgy looking emails were nowhere to be found.

A quick Google search of the terms, “eBay spoof email” showed that my experience is not uncommon.

So, as with many things online, your guiding principle should be not only Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware), but let the seller beware as well.

John Harris is managing director of Impress Media Australia. You can email him at jharris@impress.com.au.

© 2007 Impress Media Australia

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