How To Spot a SCAM

[vintage-car-magazines]

Hey eBay!!

Since we seem to have this question posted several times a day, can we have this post pinned to the top?

If they buyer wants to.....

• Pay more than the asking price .....it's a SCAM (Nobody does that. The scam preys on greed)
• Have you include gift cards for an extra fee....it's a SCAM (this is what they're after)
• Text you regarding payment and shipping....it's a SCAM (they can message in eBay)
• Email you regarding payment and shipping....it's a SCAM (they can message in eBay)
• Pay outside of eBay because they don't have PayPal and want to use a credit card....it's a SCAM (you don't need a PayPal account)

These scams a FULL of red flags. Did I miss any?

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

Yes you missed one word..."Kindly."..scammers love using this word esp in America.

[csbbct]

I have asked the eBay blues over and over again to PLEASE send examples of these incredibly common scam techniques to new sellers when they get their first ten or so sales.  It would be so easy for them to put this in their "your item sold" emails.  Their response is that proper seller instructions for how a sale should work is in their help pages.  eBay continues to keep their head in the sand over this issue and apparently would rather have sellers here and there get scammed, sometimes for hundreds of dollars, than to be open about it that this happens on their site and warn new sellers about it.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

That is a wonderful idea, I know I had a perfectly good topic a few days ago about a tragic scam and of course it was pulled and put into Ebays basement forums "Chat room" I mean, who reads that forum????? The OPs list should be given or sent to every new Ebayer that comes on board period!

[luckythewinner]

---

@silverstatetreasureboxes wrote:

The OPs list should be given or sent to every new Ebayer that comes on board period!

---

It would certainly be helpful if there was a "Don't fall for these common scams" page included in the "Getting started" area on the eBay site.  But I doubt that will happen for two reasons.

First, explaining how scams work would just provide convenient step-by-step instructions for new scammers. And second, giving new sellers that information would be admitting that scamming is a problem on eBay that eBay cannot figure out how to solve. (Please note that I did not say these are good reasons!)

Lastly, here's a conspiracy theory for you: Maybe eBay considers this to be a Darwin-like mechanism of natural selection. If a seller comes to eBay and can't recognize obvious scams, that seller will eventually leave eBay without any effort or expense on eBay's part 🙂

[1grandmashope_1]

That makes me uncomfortable.  I always use kindly.  Mostly because kindness matters, and not to procure anything.

Grandma 

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

Lucky, you have raised some good pointers, I have also thought that ...everything a scammer needs to know is on these forums, step by step, what they can get away with and how to do it.

[bearswatching]

Lucky, may I add a 3rd possible reason? I believe, and it is just my opinion, that under no circumstances does eBay want a seller or buyer know there is the potential for fraud (scams) to occur on the site. Not ever. IMHO

[eburtonlab]

@vintage-car-magazines 

Did I miss any?

Excellent list.

One other scam I can think of is where the buyer requests that the seller ship using the buyer's own shipping account. If the buyer controls the shipping account, the buyer can have the shipment intercepted and sent to an entirely different address, and then file an INR as the seller cannot prove delivery to the original address included with payment.

In general, whenever a buyer (or seller, for that matter) wants to deviate from accepted eBay policy, that is often the first step to a scam of some sort. By moving some part of the transaction off eBay in some seemingly minor fashion, many eBay protections no longer apply.

After all, a polite request for an additional photo to be texted to a potential buyer does not seem like such a big deal by itself, but once a scammer has a user's text number, they can often send a phony payment email directly to the victim's phone.

Unfortunately, some users that are new to eBay -- particularly inexperienced eBay sellers and folks that are responding to classified ads on other sites -- may not be familiar with eBay policy or how eBay is supposed to work, and may not stop to consider why someone is requesting that they purchase a gift card to complete a transaction, or provide an email address prior to a transaction.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

Dear Grandma, I know what your saying about the word " kindly" it's a pleasant sounding word isn't it? And no one would bat an eyelash if you use it because you are such a sweet caring Grandma, but evil scamming bottom feeders use it all the time to relax and invoke trust into their " prey".... Now when scammers start using " fuzzy bunnies" or warm puppies" someone's going to get hurt! 😆 take care Grandma!

[gwzcomps]

It would be less of a problem if eBay took more action against it.  Just had someone try to scam my fresh selling account.  Sent an offer of asking price with a phone number...  Wasted 20 minutes arguing on the chat with CS pointing out the scam.

Granted they are fast to shut down legit selling accounts...

[1grandmashope_1]

silverstatetreasureboxes:

It is clear that there are people that do things that are not only dishonest but plain ugly.  Not just here on Ebay, but in all of our lives, unfortunately.  My best advise to anyone and everyone is to take the time to read, ask those pesky questions, if in fact you are unsure of what you are reading, and most importantly, take responsibility for your choices. Pay attention to those red flags or your gut instincts. There will always be those that try and cheat or mislead, it is my journey to be the best that I can be and treat those in a way that I wish to be treated.  I am not interested in mean spirited discourse that leads us all nowhere. That is a waste of precious time.

With True Kindness,

Grandma

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

Good words and values to live by!

[vintage-car-magazines]

---

@bearswatching wrote:

Lucky, may I add a 3rd possible reason? I believe, and it is just my opinion, that under no circumstances does eBay want a seller or buyer know there is the potential for fraud (scams) to occur on the site. Not ever. IMHO

---

I agree 100%.

Unfortunately, ignoring it and pretending it doesn't exist does nothing to protect sellers. It's a shame.

[vintage-car-magazines]

---

@gwzcomps wrote:

It would be less of a problem if eBay took more action against it.  Just had someone try to scam my fresh selling account.  Sent an offer of asking price with a phone number...  Wasted 20 minutes arguing on the chat with CS pointing out the scam.

Granted they are fast to shut down legit selling accounts...

---

This is the part that I wish eBay would do a better job with.

If these types of scam are so easily spotted, it seems that eBay could put measures in place to detect them and block them or at least provide a warning.

We see a lot of these scams questioned on the Seller's Board. The ones that make it to the board are a tiny fraction of attempts and successful scams.