eBay

dm_best · ‎02-13-2022

Hello

I am a new member. As I was studying on eBay, I heard that sometimes there are scammers. Can you suggest some tips to identify scammers when buying and selling items on ebay?

dm_best · ‎02-13-2022

It was heard that some of them were bidding falsely but did not buy them.

m60driver · ‎02-13-2022

As a new member the only way to avoid scammers is to avoid listing highly scammed expensive items such as electronic items that appeal to the "gamer" set which is largely a young male population, the same group that was always a shoplifting nuisance in my old brick and mortar store. Start by selling relatively inexpensive items. If you have a more expensive item you want to sell then sell it locally at 20% below what you would list it for on Ebay as you net about the same.

bbravo65 · ‎02-13-2022

1- scammers won't pay you through eBay's payment system, they want your personal information so they will send you fake payment...tag along with that will be some extra gift cards that they beg you in helping them to purchase since they are too busy (to scam peoples)...all the money they promise to pay you never exist...

2- scammers will file remorse returns and they will send you back not your original, authentic items but a box of rocks, dirty clothes, counterfeit goods, their own old and broken items...

3- scammers will directly contact their banking institutions to file Credit Cards Charge Back or Transaction Dispute without sending back your items, and eBay Manage Payment will take refund out from your selling funds or your bank account plus $20 extra fee...you will lose your money plus your items...

...these are the common scams...do I forget anything else...?

soh.maryl · ‎02-13-2022

In addition to other tips, may I suggest you read these Boards frequently?

If it were always easy to identify scams, there probably wouldn't be any, or at least not as many.

Just about every scam imaginable has been discussed here.

Also, be sure you read all you can about buying and selling.

It wouldn't hurt to make a few purchases first, just to see how eBay works.

caldreamer · ‎02-13-2022

This is a common problem....customers bid on item and don't pay. You can set your preferences to block bidders who don't pay.

inhawaii · ‎02-13-2022

If they have a pulse, they could be a scammer.

Highway Patrol - Junior Brown

ckimodog · ‎02-13-2022

That's true and happens a lot unfortunately. If you are in the process of becoming a seller, here is some advice:

List items at a fixed, buy it now price w/ immediate payment required checked off. Avoid auction style listings as well as best offers. Auction style listings from new sellers is what attracts these types. Accumulate some positive feedback buying as well as selling.

Do not communicate outside the ebay forum. If you get a "Text me", ignore and block. Only ship to the address that the EBAY invoice provides. Watch out for ones wanting you to pay with paypal...you can't accept payments as your payment processor from Paypal anymore.

Read all policies that ebay requires and learn what you can and CANNOT sell. Please avoid coconut items. They are not good products to sell and many countries prohibit them as well. No plants. No seeds.

Learn all you can by perhaps attending the seller school:

https://sellerschool.ebay.com/

It's a valuable tool with lots of good info as to how to become a good seller. Glad you came here to post your question. So many do not and wind up getting hurt financially. Good luck to you.

caldreamer · ‎02-13-2022

There is no way to protect yourself 100% against scammers. Any customer can "reverse credit card charges" after they receive your item (keep your money and item). This is the risk you take when selling online.

luckythewinner · ‎02-13-2022

@dm_best wrote:
Hello
I am a new member. As I was studying on eBay, I heard that sometimes there are scammers. Can you suggest some tips to identify scammers when buying and selling items on ebay?

There are many different types of scams, and each one has its own hallmarks.

One scam tries to trick the seller into shipping an item without being paid. These scammers often use auctions or offers to engage the seller without actually sending any money. Then the seller receives fake messages purporting to be from eBay or PayPal saying that the seller has been paid, or explaining some fictitious reason why the seller will not be notified about the payment until after it is shipped. (e.x. "You have been paid for the item. But the payment is being held for security reasons, and eBay will not release the payment to your account until you hip the item and post the tracking number".)

Another scam tries to hijack an item that another buyer has purchased or paid for. The scammer waits until he guesses that the real buyer has paid, and then sends a message through the eBay system asking the seller to ship the item somewhere else instead. "Hello, I am the buyer of the Rolex watch. I've recently moved, so could you ship it to my new address instead?" But this person is not the real buyer, he just saw the sale and is trying to hijack it.

Yet another scam tries to get the seller to buy a gift card and include it in the package "I am in the military am currently unable to buy a gift card. "Please purchase a $300 gift card and include this in the package, and I will send you $500 dollars extra for your trouble. Please send me the gift card number so I can verify it is real and then I will make payment."

In yet another scam, a scammer claims he is sending a shipping company to pick up a large item, and they are sending you a certified check so that you can pay the shipper when he arrives. "I am sending a certified check for the full amount plus an extra $1000 to cover the shipper's fee of $500. Can you cash the check and use service X to send a $500 online payment to the shipper, and keep the extra $500 for yourself?" The certified check bounces two weeks later, and you lose the money you forwarded to the "shipper" who was really the scammer.

Some scammer even double down on this one by claiming there is an issue with the shipper, and ask you to please refund the buyer using an online service, but you can "still keep the extra $500 for your trouble". So when the check bounces, not only do you lose the money send to the "shipper" but you lose the refund to the seller too.

Finally, the scammer could purchase the item normally and pay you legitimately, only to file a fraudulent "not as described" dispute and return an empty box - essentially stealing the item. There can be no warning at all for these.

eburtonlab · ‎02-13-2022

Common scams involving gift cards:

https://pages.ebay.com/giftcardscams/

Common vehicle scams:

https://pages.motors.ebay.com/buy/security/

General info about staying safe on eBay, identifying and reporting scams:

https://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/index.html

As a seller on eBay, the best way to avoid many common scams is to familiarize yourself with how eBay actually works, so that when a scammer asks you to deviate from standard policy -- to communicate off eBay, to ship to a different address, to get paid via a different method -- you can recognize what is going on.

As a buyer, you can avoid many problems by making sure you are doing business on ebay.com with established sellers that have a long track record of selling in the same category and delivering what is advertised, and by avoiding new or inexperienced sellers, or deals that are "too good to be true".