Buyers asking for contact outside ebay.

[chan552681]

I am a new seller and I have had several offers to buy items. I accept their offer and shortly after I will receive a msg. ask me to call them @ xxx-xxxx, when I say it’s not appropriate  for contact outside ebay, they just disappear.  Is this a common occurrence ?

[ebooksdiva]

---

@chan552681 wrote:

I am a new seller and I have had several offers to buy items. I accept their offer and shortly after I will receive a msg. ask me to call them @ xxx-xxxx, when I say it’s not appropriate  for contact outside ebay, they just disappear.  Is this a common occurrence ?

---

Nope, it's against eBay policy to conduct eBay business off eBay's site.

It was probably someone attempting to scam you, thinking you are nieve enough to fall for it. Scammers like to target new sellers. 

Good that you didn't. 

Kudos to you!

[lepke1979]

Scam. Stop interacting with them. And maybe put them on your block buyer list.

And just wait the four days and cancel due to non payment.

[mr_lincoln]

@chan552681   Yes, that is a very common occurrence that scammers engage in.  Stop using Offers, price your items so the sale price is the lowest you will accept and make a profit (or higher if you want), turn on Immediate payment required and those scammers will not bother you like they have.

[m60driver]

---

@chan552681 wrote:

I am a new seller and I have had several offers to buy items. I accept their offer and shortly after I will receive a msg. ask me to call them @ xxx-xxxx, when I say it’s not appropriate  for contact outside ebay, they just disappear.  Is this a common occurrence ?

---

Yes, it is a very common experience if you are a new seller.  There are people who scroll through the new listings looking for new sellers to scam for an item they think they can resell.

[southern*sweet*tea]

All contact should always be through eBay messages. Do NOT, under any circumstances, give your phone number or email address to a buyer. Do not send a Paypal invoice, either. Your email address can be found on the invoice. Do not click any link sent from a buyer claiming to have payment issues. There is no legitimate link for buyers to fix a payment issue.

Scammers will try to get you to take the sale off of eBay, or get your personal information so they can send you a fake payment email, hoping you are too new and naive to verify that you have actually been paid. No LEGITIMATE buyer needs that information.

Here are some red flags to watch out for.

1. Buyer asks for your email address, Paypal address
2. Buyer sends you a phone number to text/call him/her
3. Buyer asks you to buy gift cards to go with the order
4. Buyer asks you to send the item to a different address after paying
5. Buyer wants you to send the item overnight/express and will pay you a lot extra to do this
6. Buyers says that they cannot pay through the eBay website and sends you a link to click on so that the payment will go through
7. Buyer offers more for your item than the price you have it listed for

If ANY of the above happen, do not contact the buyer or respond to any messages from them. Block them here: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock This will prevent them from buying from you.

If they actually purchased, won an auction or you accepted an offer, after four full days do an unpaid item cancellation. You can do that here: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/cancelling-transaction?id=4136 Once you do that you can relist.

Also report the buyer: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/reporting-issue-buyer?id=4084 Use the reason "asking to complete a sale off eBay"

[hw.artbylisa.092421]

Actually, they will still bother you. As it has happened to me as a new seller, luckily I found the "blocking a buyer" tab, and have quite a running list even though it's been less than a week that I've been up and running. I find it odd that a company this size can't find an easy fix for this. It's time wasted, getting offers, or just having people winning bids only to have them say "Please only TEXT me your...." That's the tip off. So what if you kindly email back "Per eBay rules I cannot communicate with you outside the eBay site" It's just all wasted time. Disappointing. But, I'm hoping the sellers on this community are actual sellers who are making money, because judging from the overall comment on this subject, it is only a new seller problem and you will eventually make money selling, if you stick with it, put protections in place, and follow eBay rules. I hope. I'm giving it a month.  

[byrd69er]

Don't even reply to those requests. Let the person fail to pay, as they will, and then they get nailed with a nonpayment strike. It's a pain, but so is eBay's processes.

As Karine Jean-Pierre would say.....It's  a process. We're going through a process.

[byrd69er]

Here are some red flags to watch out for.

1. Buyer asks for your email address, Paypal address
2. Buyer sends you a phone number to text/call him/her
3. Buyer asks you to buy gift cards to go with the order
4. Buyer asks you to send the item to a different address after paying
5. Buyer wants you to send the item overnight/express and will pay you a lot extra to do this
6. Buyers says that they cannot pay through the eBay website and sends you a link to click on so that the payment will go through
7. Buyer offers more for your item than the price you have it listed for

8. Buyer wants you to send used panties to a different address, with a gift card from Walmart.

[flyingmvp]

You're not supposed to.

But I have heard before from a friend of a seller friend who was contacted the same way you were, by potential buyers who turned out to be their next-door/street neighbors, I only know that future  Snads/Inad/seller metrics scam and high Fee issues were avoided.

[wastingtime101]

---

@hw.artbylisa.092421 wrote:

As it has happened to me as a new seller

---

Follow the advice posted above about using fixed price format @hw.artbylisa.092421 - at least for now. Your will attract fewer scammers by using fixed price with immediate payment required, and until/unless you build up a following that seeks out your work (I suggest marketing through social media for your type of product) then the auction format will not serve you.

[ittybitnot]

There are people who scroll through the new listings looking for new sellers to scam for an item they think they can resell.

@m60driver 

While in the past the "text me" scammers were ALSO interested in the item, it does not seem like it is always the end game anymore.  Granted, a newbie seller selling a laptop is a primo scam magnet, the crooks don't seem to care anymore if the item is only worth $5.  If the scammer can get a "newbie" to start communicating off eBay,  they are more concerned with the "gift cards" they will pay extra for to include in the parcel.  These scammers don't pay, they are the ones that send the "fake" payment notices. 

@chan552681 

As suggested by others, DO NOT USE the BEST OFFER feature.  If they send a message to you with some other nonsense suggesting an offer or "wanting you to text them more pictures", please just ignore and block.   

You cannot report these people on the eBay site unless you have accepted their offer or they are a winning bidder on an AUCTION listing.  Use the "report the buyer" feature if that is the case choosing 'buyer wanting to take the sale off ebay' or whatever is close.   Otherwise, the 'cancel the sale for non-payment' will appear for you after 96 hours.  Use it. 

[soh.maryl]

For new sellers, yes, sadly it is a fairly common occurrence.

Why bother to respond? Ignore and block.  

[dbfolks166mt]

Follow the advice posted above about using fixed price format @hw.artbylisa.092421 - at least for now. Your will attract fewer scammers by using fixed price with immediate payment required, and until/unless you build up a following that seeks out your work (I suggest marketing through social media for your type of product) then the auction format will not serve you.

     All of the OP's current listings as well as the sold items are/were BIN, not sure about the immediate payment setting but what is causing the issue is the OP is using the OBO option which currently negates the immediate payment required. EBay is supposed to be fixing this but not sure where they are with the pilot running and getting any bugs worked out. 

     OP should stop using the OBO option at least in the short term. While using BIN will help eliminate non-paying buyers it does create its own share of problems. There is simply nothing a scammer cannot obtain off of eBay for free and with very little effort. 

[creativecrisis]

---

@hw.artbylisa.092421 wrote:

Actually, they will still bother you. As it has happened to me as a new seller, luckily I found the "blocking a buyer" tab, and have quite a running list even though it's been less than a week that I've been up and running.

---

It looks like you're running auctions. You can reduce scamming attempts by setting your listings to buy it now with immediate payment required, and no best offers.