keep on getting scam attempts on my item.

[yehkr_21]

This is the first item i've ever tried to sell anything, and the item has only been up a couple days later, and 3 ppl have already tried to scam me by making some dumb excuse to take the sale off ebay and then trying to bait me into falling for their scam, what should i do?

[eburtonlab]

A message that says "I am interested in your item, kindly text me", an offer greater than your buy it now price, asking for your PayPal email address or a request for a gift card is generally the start of a scam where the scammer winds up sending a phony payment email that makes it look like the seller has received a payment when none has actually been received. Scammers like to target new sellers, particularly those selling expensive items.

Sending contact information (text or email) prior to a transaction payment is a violation of eBay policy; this policy is designed to protect honest buyers and sellers from this sort of thing, and to prevent off-eBay sales.

Never buy a gift card for anyone unless you are giving a gift.

As a seller you should always check your account directly (not following a link in an email) to see if you have actually been paid prior to shipping. If a user commits to a purchase but does not send an actual payment, after four full days you can cancel for nonpayment and give the "buyer" a strike. Be sure to set your buyer requirements to reject bids or purchases from users with two or more nonpayment strikes in the last year.

eBay will likely remove the scammer's account shortly, but the scammer will just create a new one or hijack an old one and continue sending scam offers and messages. Sellers must remain wary of any user that wants the seller to violate eBay policy.

You can avoid many common scams by listing your item for a fixed price with immediate payment required and by not accepting any offers. That way the buyer must complete checkout and actually pay in order to proceed.

[woodland_gnome]

You are a new seller trying to sell an expensive item. You are going to attract more scammers than legitimate buyers. To keep the scammers from committing to buy your item (and tying it while you go through the unpaid item process) don't use auctions or Best Offer. List as fixed-price Buy It Now only and set the BIN to Immediate Payment Required. You will have to use the Business Tool (link at top right of the Quick Listing Tool eBay pushes on new sellers) to get the options to choose Immediate Payment Required and no Best Offer.

eBay is experimenting with requiring pre-authorization for payment when a buyer makes a Best Offer but that's just an experiment and not applicable to all offerors. Otherwise auctions and Best Offer allow the buyer to promise to pay in order to scam you. Note that anyone requesting you to contact them outside the eBay message system (email or text or phone) is almost certainly a scammer trying to get your contact information (e.g. to send you a fake payment message).