What to do when an offer is made by a scammer?

[steph38240]

Hi all,

I received an excellent offer on an item, only to realize the person that sent the offer is definitely a scammer (they left a note asking me to kindly text them and left a phone number). 

My question is, should I decline the offer or ignore it altogether? I know certain actions affect the algorithm, I want to do whatever will affect the algorithm the least so that I can keep the algorithm as happy as possible. 

[simba6]

Place them on your blocked bidder list and don't reply to them.

[mega-ma-roo]

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@steph38240 wrote:

Hi all,

I received an excellent offer on an item, only to realize the person that sent the offer is definitely a scammer (they left a note asking me to kindly text them and left a phone number). 

My question is, should I decline the offer or ignore it altogether? I know certain actions affect the algorithm, I want to do whatever will affect the algorithm the least so that I can keep the algorithm as happy as possible. 

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1. Report the buyer for attempting to do an off-eBay sale. Use the button here:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/report-issue-buyer?id=4084&st=12&pos=1&quer...

2. Put the buyer on your blocked bidder list. Use the button here:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/blocking-buyer-ebay?id=4082&st=12&pos=1&que...

I would just ignore the offer and let it time out. I also would not get into any communications with the buyer.

[wesk_36]

You can do either, ignore it or decline, I would ignore them and block them too if they wanted a text to take communications off ebay.

You have a sale today that was an accepted offer, but that wasn't it, right?

[steph38240]

No that wasn't it, that was for a different item from a legitimate buyer

[wesk_36]

I'm happy you saw a scam in the making; some sellers "obey" the scammer and get ripped off!

spelling edit

[steph38240]

So I attempted to report this person but I can't figure out how. Technically they haven't purchased anything from me so they are not a "buyer" and thus are not in the list of buyers that ebay will allow me to report. How can I report someone that hasn't actually purchased from me?

[inhawaii]

What to do when an offer is made by a scammer?

That's a easy question. When an offer is made by a scammer, i ignore the offer or decline it.

[little*blackdog]

Take the advice juanmogamer gave and use those links to report the Ebay MEMBER. 

"Buyer" is just a term which also means "shopper" or "scammer" in this case!

[a_c_green]

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@steph38240 wrote:

So I attempted to report this person but I can't figure out how. Technically they haven't purchased anything from me so they are not a "buyer" and thus are not in the list of buyers that ebay will allow me to report. How can I report someone that hasn't actually purchased from me?

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You pretty much can't, although if it's any consolation, those messages are usually generated by a script via a throwaway account, and eBay will eventually detect them and delete the account. (The scammers will of course move on to a new throwaway account, but that is how the game is played.)