Second chance offer : eBay Guides

A little while back I had been bidding on a rather high end item, a projector at about the $700 range. I didn't make the reserve and was outbid and basicly forgot about it and searched for an alternative item to buy. At the close of the auction I received an email, not through the ebay mail system but to my hotmail account which normaly recives all my ebay corespondence reporting to be a second chance offer for the item. The email had all the normal features of ebay emails and linked to a webpage on the ebay server about the legitamacy in select situations for which 2nd chance offers are acceptable. The one thing that I failed to clue in on immedietly was that on ebay emails it states in the upper hand corner, "eBay sent this message to Full Name (Username). Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay." The email I received had that phrase word for word, except only had my screen name, not full name. The email informed me that as the reserve was not met at auction, the item was offered to the highest bidder who rejected it and was now being offered to me at my highest bid if I wanted it. I did want it so I responded asking for further instructions and costs and they agreed to sell it to me at the cost of my bid including shipping and all I might have to pay above this would be customs to ship to Canada. I was eager to get the item and had allowed a few lapses in judgement, but when they asked me to pay via Western Union, the alarms went off. Closer review of the instructions and the shipping info made it clear that someone was aiming to scam me. The US address in the item listing had changed to a British address, all the billing emails "from ebay" were not originating from ebay, the seller instructed me to address the money payment as gift, not for sale of goods, etc. From all that I summed up from the incident, I think the following could help others from falling for a few tricks that nearly got me:
10) When in doubt, report your situation to ebay and they will advise you.
9) If you recive an email from ebay, it will have your full name, not just your user name.
8) If your screen name is the same as your email adress using a hotmail/yahoo account, mail sent to it might not be authentic, even if you have never told anyone on ebay your email address.
7) Avoid anyone that demands you pay via Western Union
6) Ensure that the payment address (country) relates to the address (country) in the original ebay listing
5) Always take that extra time to look over high cost purchases
4) An email covered with ebay logos may not have come from ebay.
3) The email might have the address aw-confirm@ebay.com in the from line... and still be a fake.
2) When replying to offers relating to ebay, send them over the ebay mail system, not just for security, but to keep a record that ebay can access if things go sour.
1) Most importantly, if it looks to good to be true... It is.