That is a big, ugly, unwarranted statement. "A lot?" Relative to what? There are more than 200 million users worldwide. I suppose if even .005% of them are "unscrupulous" that's "a lot" of people. But as a % of sellers, it's absolutely NOT "a lot." And probably magnitudes of order less than any other online site with individual sellers (i.e., craigslist, Amazon Marketplace, etc., etc).

The fact is that eBay is one of the safest places to do business anywhere in the world.

Not to mention the fact that it's super easy to get PayPal refunds from disputes (the burden of proof is always on the seller), or your credit card company, or eBay.

I would say that "buyer beware" applies less to eBay than almost anywhere else.