Sketchy offer?

[jerem-belli]

Hey all,

I am new to the community and am wondering about a sketchy offer I got. I listed an electronic item for 249 and received an offer for the exact same price...249. This buyer has 0 buy history (not that I have much seller history, to be fair) and the message just seemed a bit off.

What would you do here? Is there any risk in me accepting the offer? 

[mtgraves7984]

Is there any risk in me accepting the offer?

@jerem-belli 

There's always a risk. The best you can do is to minimize it. What kind of 'message' accompanied the offer?

[bonjourami]

Are you drop shipping or just using stock photos?

[lamber9347 · Accepted solution]

@jerem-belli Yes, you are correct. This is a scam and not a legitimate buyer. The reason is you have no experience as a seller, are selling higher priced electronics, and that makes you a great big target for scammers. Good on you for recognizing it and coming here first. 

Ignore this offer. They will not actually be paying you but will attempt to get you to purchase gift cards or some other way to get money out of you. They are presuming you are inexperienced and will not know better but be easily swayed by the offer of money. 

What you need to do is start selling some small cheap items in order to rack up some feedback as a seller. It's easier to sell small items, and I'm sure you can find things in your closet to get rid of. When selling online it's more about experience through feedback as a seller that will make scammers stay away from you. You can do this and sell your items to a good buyer, but you need to first invest a tad in your selling account. Best of luck to you....

[donsdetour]

Asked for gift cards yet??? Oh they will as well as send fake payment notice and so on.

If you send photo the gift card with back scratched off: that money is gone.

As for any notice of payment check and be sure it was payed...

[mam98031]

You have something listed for $229 and something for $399.  So if they offered $249, was that on the Air buds for $20 more than your starting bid?

I do not agree with the other posters that say getting an offer right away means there is something shady going on.  It is a possibility, but then even if the buyer pays for it after the auction runs for the full time you have it running for, you could get a buyer that will try to scam you.  There are many reasons and ways that buyers may try to do this.

But there are many ways in which a buyer will have a successful and painless transaction with you too.  Making this assumption because they are a new buyer and they made you an offer close to your starting price, to me seems like a pretty big leap to definitively state they will scam you.