Any time a buyer or seller provides or requests direct contact information prior to a payment or requests payment be made outside of eBay, that is a violation of eBay policy and very often the start of a scam of some kind.
Other scam warning signs: any kind of request involving gift cards, or a request for a shipment to another location after payment has already been made.
eBay makes it difficult for ordinary users to exchange such contact information through eBay messages prior to a transaction, but scammers are persistent and creative, and can often find ways to obscure their information to make it difficult to scan for by ordinary methods. Once a scammer finds a trick that works, it is quickly shared and copied by others. And once a scammer has obtained your contact information, the scammer can contact you directly and bypass eBay entirely. That is why so many scams begin with a request for a text or email address.
There is no single method that can be employed that will stop all scammers; there is no magic bullet. It is an arms race where each side must innovate or lose.
So all users must constantly be on guard for any other user that makes a seemingly innocent request that violates eBay policy.
