How to prevent fraudulent bids

Question

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had advice or thoughts.

I listed something for sale, waited a week and received a couple bids. One eventually won the auction. Immediately after winning, he messaged me a couple questions which I thought was strange since he already won the auction. Then he ghosted me, won't respond to any messages, won't pay.

So I dug into this person's profile and noticed that all of his feedback were the same. "Great communicator! A++++". Then I looked at the other person who placed a bid and he had the same pattern.

So the question is, what kind of strategy do you use to prevent fraudulent bids that waste your time and put your auctions at risk? Is eBay's community flooded with people trying to rip you off? Is this common here?

Thank you.

jacbarcollectibles · Answer

There is little you can do to prevent fraudulent bids other than to make sure that your buyer requirements are set to require bidders to provide payment information at the time of their bids. eBay would then charge their payment method immediately if they win the item.

You can use this link to set this requirement at the bottom of the page if eBay is offering this to you: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

Keep in mind that eBay supplies automatic feedback choices for sellers and buyers to use so seeing the same feedback message used is not uncommon.