It's possible that these fraudsters steal a legitimate EBay account with a good feedback history and then run the auction with good feedback to try to fool the unsuspecting public. All they need to do is to get the payment in the USMail before the theft is discovered.
In many cases I insist on paying for auctions won with with a check. I feel that this insistence is at least as good as the PayPal guarantee. To accept a check, the seller has to give out a usable mailing address. If its a fraud one can often stop payment on a check, if done soon enough.
If it's a fraud the seller will resist giving out this address for the purposes of accepting a check. Once I have the address, I will verify the identity at that address with google or a white pages web site. At that point i may pay with a check or paypal, but I think it protects me to insist that the seller agree in principle to take a check.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA