Best way to NOT get scammed?

[artdiablo]

I don’t sell on eBay often , but when I do , it is normally photo equipment with $500 plus  value. 
I am getting lots to do f dodgy messages asking me to : pls rush the shipping , ship to my mothers address , I just bought a house and my address changed , etc . I know these are most provably scammer.

what is the best way to protect myself as an eBay seller? Can someone send me a payment and then pretend they never received my package ? Would I have to return the money ? 
Any comments would be greatly appreciated! 

[downunder-61]

Research what your item is worth - list as a Fixed Price and enable Immediate Payment Required.

Do not offer Best Offer and ignore any messages sent with offers via the messaging system.

Never reply to any buyer requesting you call them, text them or email them off eBay - only ship once eBay advises the buyer has paid and to ship item now.

Never believe a buyer who asks to pay you directly to your Paypal account - all the buyer has to do these days is hit BIN and Pay - Never ship to any address other than the address eBay provides.

Other than that, ship with tracking and insurance.

You should be in managed payments, [linked a check account to eBay] and you can use Pending Funds to ship the item to the buyer before your funds clear.

[iamalwaysright]

There's a few things you can do. But if I had to shorten them to the more important ones, it's to

-Only ship it to the address the buyer has as their shipping address on the payment to you. No exceptions

-Make sure you use tracking and anything over $750 have signature confirmation. No exceptions.

Someone can still pretend to not receive the package. They could file a claim against you for this. But as long as you have tracking that shows it's delivered (and signed for with ones over $750), by policy ebay CANNOT take that money from you. If ebay wants to keep those buyers happy and refund them, they'll have to do it out of their own pocket and not yours.

One last thing I'll personally do for piece of mind for items as expensive as $500, I'll google their shipping address to see if the address exists. Many times too buyers don't put their unit numbers. For someone that expensive I don't want them coming back as undeliverable or god forbid anything else might happen to the package while in transit both ways. You want to minimize the risk by not letting pass hands too many times. If the address is incomplete or invalid, I'll cancel the order or at least reach out to the buyer about it.

[espresso_warehouse]

First of all, be careful of what advice you take here. There are a number of accounts that are advocating sellers act against their best interests. A lot of excuses made, but not every poster is motivated to actually help you, in fact most posters are doing the opposite.

Google addresses for expensive electronics. Look at the buyer account and see what kind of reviews they have left for other sellers. Immediately block any buyer who asks you a strange question, especially cheaper prices or to do anything at all outside of the norm. ANY complaints prior to a sale is an immediate block. It's just not worth it.

If you have tracking, it will be hard to 'pretend they never received' your package but they could claim it was not accurately described all the same and send you back a box of rocks or a swapped out item of some sort. Happens all the time. With such frequency that you have to be on your guard about it. There are things you can do, eBay will sometimes back you up but all the buyer has to do now is file with their credit card company and eBay will force you to refund. It's easy for people to fire up zombie accounts to run this scam.

But you never know. Sometimes a zombie account with zero feedback will complete a transaction with no issue. It's hard to tell, so just be on your guard. If you are able to sell elsewhere, I would advise you do so.

[iamalwaysright]

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@espresso_warehouse wrote:

First of all, be careful of what advice you take here. There are a number of accounts that are advocating sellers act against their best interests. A lot of excuses made, but not every poster is motivated to actually help you, in fact most posters are doing the opposite.

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Sad but true here. And yea, I totally forgot about the Credit Card Chargebacks. But to be clear, this is true for any online selling channel, not just ebay. Heck it's even true when you have your own physical store.

So I'll add my most common best foolproof method to never get scammed. To never sell it. Again, sad but true. Nothing is without risk.

[downunder-61]

First of all, be careful of what advice you take here. There are a number of accounts that are advocating sellers act against their best interests. A lot of excuses made, but not every poster is motivated to actually help you, in fact most posters are doing the opposite.

Wow, them's big words and an unwarranted attack on the members who post here to be helpful.

If you see a poster giving incorrect or blatantly false information, or you feel they are being disruptive and just jumping in to any thread they can find to post rubbish -  feel free to report those people, but pease do not make a broad statement that you can not back up just because you may be disenchanted with the replies you may have recieved in the past that you did not like.

[espresso_warehouse]

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@downunder-61 wrote:

unwarranted attack on the members who post here to be helpful.

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Come on. You know exactly what I am talking about.

[soh.maryl]

No, I don't believe I do know exactly what you are talking about.

Furthermore, I (and probably hundreds of others) resent your implication.  

[luckythewinner]

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what is the best way to protect myself as an eBay seller?

On eBay, any buyer can steal any item from any seller at any time by filing a fraudulent dispute. As a seller there is way to completely protect yourself on eBay.

Can someone send me a payment and then pretend they never received my package ? Would I have to return the money?  

You are asking a loaded question.

If you have tracking that shows delivery confirmation within the proper timeframe and you provide it to eBay in the proper manner, then you are protected from an "item not received" dispute. 

HOWEVER, if that same scammer filed a "not as described" dispute and returned a paperback book  instead of the photo equipment, you would be forced to refund. 

I'm not saying that it will happen, but I am simply saying that it can happen. There is a risk to every eBay transaction. 

[espresso_warehouse]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

No, I don't believe I do know exactly what you are talking about.

Furthermore, I (and probably hundreds of others) resent your implication.  

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It is not an implication. It is a fact, there are people here who spread falsehoods. I don't know exactly what their motivations are but it's obvious their motivation isn't to 'help' the OP.

Anyway, why are you getting defensive? Shouldn't bother you if you aren't doing it, and I wasn't talking about you as far as I know.

[luckythewinner]

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@espresso_warehouse wrote:

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It is not an implication. It is a fact, there are people here who spread falsehoods. I don't know exactly what their motivations are but it's obvious their motivation isn't to 'help' the OP.

I think some people just post misinformation by accident, or because they were rushing, or because they leapt to a conclusion that wasn't really stated. 

For instance I recall someone recently posted that they had to wait three weeks to cancel a transaction. But when that was questioned they later admitted they chose to wait three weeks. 

I don't think that person was intentionally misleading anyone; they just did not choose their words carefully enough. 

[espresso_warehouse]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@espresso_warehouse wrote:

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It is not an implication. It is a fact, there are people here who spread falsehoods. I don't know exactly what their motivations are but it's obvious their motivation isn't to 'help' the OP.

I think some people just post misinformation by accident, or because they were rushing, or because they leapt to a conclusion that wasn't really stated. 

For instance I recall someone recently posted that they had to wait three weeks to cancel a transaction. But when that was questioned they later admitted they chose to wait three weeks. 

I don't think that person was intentionally misleading anyone; they just did not choose their words carefully enough. 

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I wasn't talking about you either, but it's interesting you 'had to' fabricate a story in an effort to demonstrate how 'honest' you are. Or perhaps you misread my post in the first place? Did you leave a helpful comment?

People who don't sell making tons of unhelpful comments here should probably be ignored. I don't know about you, maybe you have this 'posting id' and you aren't willing to post from your seller account, but you look like a prolific BUYER. Either way, some of these people on this thread are literally not sellers and have admitted as much.

[dbfolks166mt]

     You have been on this platform for quite awhile but as an infrequent seller you are probably going to draw a few more scammers than a larger more active seller. You seem to be aware of most of the well known scam attempts so that is a start, many are not. While there is no 100% method to protect yourself from all the scammers out there there are a few additional steps you can take. 

     1. While not required by eBay except for items over $750 the addition of delivery signature required provides an added layer of protection although it is not 100% effective.

     2. I notice you only sell domestically, (not sure why you exclude Alaska and Hawaii) which is both good and bad since the foreign market is very lucrative but adds an additional layer of risk. Since you sell infrequently and have the time to do so be cautious of foreign buyers using freight forwarders as a way around the domestic only shipping setup in your listing. When an item sells check the order details to see if the buyers address is different than the shipping address or if you were hit with an international fee for the transaction. Most of the FF's are legitimate but there are those that have a bad reputation for being part of scam attempts, DE forwarder is pretty well known. Google the shipping address and see where the package is actually going. 

     3. Since you are selling higher value items make sure you add the additional insurance since USPS only covers the first $100 in value of the package. 

    4. Never just drop the package at the PO without obtaining a scan and a receipt. Not only does this ensure the tracking information is entered into the USPS tracking system, usually within the hour, but the receipt also has the weight of the package when USPS took possession of the item. 

     5. Read and understand both the MBG and the Chargeback policies eBay has posted and understand both the buyers protection(s), which are heavily weighted, and the seller protections. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy... 

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/payment-dispute-seller-protections?id=5293 

     6. While an added cost you can purchase several types of security tape that can be used to seal your package. Use a sharpie to add a mark on the seams that would have to be cut through to open the package. Following is one type of tape  that can be obtained. 

[bugsy989]

RE: Checking on buyers.  I like to use Zillow or Google Earth to actually take a look at the buyer's home.  I've been selling a coin collection on ebay (about 40 auctions), always use tracking and offer signature required, and have had only one buyer renege and not pay.  He was fairly new to ebay.  I took a look at his address and saw a dirty, tiny, rundown shack, and decided not to make any issue out of it.  I always contact buyers as soon as the item is paid for to confirm shipping details.  I have fortunately had no shipping problems - knock on wood.

[maxine*j]

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@espresso_warehouse wrote:

First of all, be careful of what advice you take here. There are a number of accounts that are advocating sellers act against their best interests. A lot of excuses made, but not every poster is motivated to actually help you, in fact most posters are doing the opposite...

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I'll go along with that as long as you include yourself and your advice, and I'm not trying to be cute or snarky in saying that.

What I mean is that anyone who asks a question on any public forum must think about and evaluate (and verify, if it's a factual matter) all answers received before accepting and acting on any of them.  

Since all prudent and intelligent people do that, and there's little hope for the others, I guess I don't see a reason to start every answer I give with, "Please do not accept my answer until you have... blah, blah, blah."

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