How to spot a scammer...

[sin-n-dex]

Every day I come in here and see questions people are asking if they are being scammed. I thought I'd start a thread on how to spot a scammer and we can add what we know from our experiences in selling. (I'm also adding based on things I read in the forum too).

I'll start..

1. They want to take communications off the site

2. They offer you more money than your listing

3. They want it shipped somewhere other than the confirmed address on check out

4. They have a long period of inactivity and suddenly take up an interest in buying certain items (my last scam attempt was an account that liked gardening and stuff for his pool, it got hacked, and the hacker took up buying very expensive coins over a few weeks, many transactions)

5. They offer money to compensate for things like "gas and stress"

6. They want a gift card to be added to the purchase

7. They tell you they're buying it as a gift (this usually happens along with the gift card request, not all "gifts" are scams)

8. They file their chargebacks in Paypal (because they don't have MBG on eBay anymore)

9. They tell you how long the mail is supposed to take (and I quote, "the mail from your city to mine is only 2 days") as their reason for the INR - this kind of thing happens on small items that are best shipped without tracking (or in my case, mail traveling within Canada)

10. They ask for an email address to send payment (this goes along with "I have problems checking out on eBay")

11. They try to get you to sell it to them directly instead of through the system (I had one person attempt to scam me by offering me more money to sell directly, and he refused to purchase through the site... I smelt a scam)

12. They try to get you to ship without tracking or to a country that doesn't have tracking (this is a concern for more valuable items, not all inexpensive shipping requests are scams)

Anyone else?

C.

[wastingtime101]

They're not your actual buyer - they're using a different ID posing as the buyer and asking you to ship to a different address.

[shevey55]

The payment is pending in Paypal (e-check), but they want you to ship quickly as it's a gift. Of course, the e-check bounces.

[gamersbaystore]

All good points!

Someone just tried to pull one of the address scams on me yesterday. I received a message from someone requesting to send their item to different address, this happened right after a sale.

Too bad it was 2 different accounts. The person messaging me was not the person who made the purchase. I just blocked them, and of course there is no way to report them without contacting ebay, which I don't have time for.

Its laughable they tried to swindle me for get this, an $8 video game! lol. Some people truly have no lives.

[vkjfau-0]

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@gamersbaystore wrote:

All good points!

Someone just tried to pull one of the address scams on me yesterday. I received a message from someone requesting to send their item to different address, this happened right after a sale.

Too bad it was 2 different accounts. The person messaging me was not the person who made the purchase. I just blocked them, and of course there is no way to report them without contacting ebay, which I don't have time for.

Its laughable they tried to swindle me for get this, an $8 video game! lol. Some people truly have no lives.

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It is sad however because that request could've made an unaware seller cancel the transaction, your post and ones like it have made it clear we really have to pay special attention to User ID's now.

..............

Here's another:

- Asking to pick it up local for an item that does not offer Local Pickup (usually since they live in the same city).

This one's particularly tricky, some even offer to pay cash on pickup which also takes the transaction off ebay and can result in the seller receiving a policy violation, not to mention if that buyer picks it up (which will cost us more time than if we had just shipped it) and then files Item Not Received the seller loses as they have no tracking proof of delivery.

..................................

[sin-n-dex]

I forgot one.

They express a great urgency for having the item as soon as possible (which is suspect when it's something people don't really *need*).

C.

[wastingtime101]

They refer to it as "the item" or they use a greeting like "Dear seller"

[magsmg101]

@vkjfau-0 

I have only done one local pickup sale and it went through fine.

Buyer met me at our local library, lots of CCTV and other people around.
My question, would eBay accept library video as evidence that the sale successfully completed in the event of dispute later?

[reallynicestamps]

@magsmg101 

Odd- your post shows as #8 of 7.

No. CCTV footage will not be viewed by eBay. EBay looks on itself as an enabler, an advertising venue like the Pennysaver (remember that?) or a classified ad.

Nor will videotaping packaging, sealing, stamping and taking the package to the psot office. After all, you could have packed and sealed, shut off the camera, unpacked the good stuff, replaced it with a rock, and taken that to the PO.

Both eBay and Paypal work only with Proof of Delivery, which leaves non-US sellers like @sin-in-dex  and I in the difficult position of choosing between amazingly expensive tracked shipping (starting at $12 for Canada Post) or going commando and actually making sales.

[magsmg101]

@reallynicestamps 

And you are 9 of 8??? glitch 

I realize sellers/buyers taking their own videos at the post office can be doctored.

But independent library...or even the CCTV areas of most  (my PA area) police stations for online transactions?

I ask because I have some heavy pottery items that would hit size and weight limitations.

[reallynicestamps]

EBay is  no more a court than Judge Judy is a judge.

They can mediate but they have no weight of law behind them.

CCTV footage might work in a Small Claims court.  DD had a Small Claims dispute with her neighbour over a fenceline tree and won on the basis of photographs, but eBay will only act on "electronically viewable" proof of delivery.

Not shipping. Delivery.

[vkjfau-0]

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@magsmg101 wrote:

@reallynicestamps 

And you are 9 of 8??? glitch 

I realize sellers/buyers taking their own videos at the post office can be doctored.

But independent library...or even the CCTV areas of most  (my PA area) police stations for online transactions?

I ask because I have some heavy pottery items that would hit size and weight limitations.

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The issue is with items that do NOT offer Local Pickup as a shipping option.

So long you DO offer Local Pickup in shipping (or if that's the only option) it's a whole different story.

[sin-n-dex]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Both eBay and Paypal work only with Proof of Delivery, which leaves non-US sellers like @sin-in-dex  and I in the difficult position of choosing between amazingly expensive tracked shipping (starting at $12 for Canada Post) or going commando and actually making sales.

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I was going commando, but it seemed like every time I shipped a silver coin worth about $20 (with not much margin), the mailman knew what it was and kept it instead of delivering it... (at least that was my joke about lost packages). I paid a lot for tracking on more expensive stuff, and things in the $50 I didn't sell because it was too expensive to just ship, but not expensive enough to sell and ship with tracking and still make money.

I used Chit Chats Express (the cross border courier I often refer to). My packages go FedEx to their depot, they process customs paperwork (which I entered on their portal, it's time consuming but worth the results). It costs me US Postage from New York, plus a 65 cent fee (or more) on FC mail. And every week I spend $18 CAD for one box of packages (but if sales are good, a second box will follow a couple of days later... sometimes my box is full by Friday night, and I ship every Monday morning).

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@magsmg101 wrote:

@reallynicestamps 

And you are 9 of 8??? glitch 

I realize sellers/buyers taking their own videos at the post office can be doctored.

But independent library...or even the CCTV areas of most  (my PA area) police stations for online transactions?

I ask because I have some heavy pottery items that would hit size and weight limitations.

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Do you think any of these independent sources are concerned with eBay transactions?

I think we have to accept that some amount of fraud is going to happen. How much might depend a whole lot on what it is you sell. Coins are high scam - but only some coins are high scam. Silver dollars would be at the top of the list, just under any kind of "bullion".

The odd ball tokens I sell are very low scam (even if the token is worth $50). They come into the store en masse for a very low price, and I search the bins to find ones I think will sell. Usually the person buying wants it for a specific reason, like the guy who bought the token I had from his town so he could donate it to the library. Or the British guy that was making a presentation on a specific subject and wanted one of the 1700's half pennies. These transactions don't concern me.

C.

[magsmg101]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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@magsmg101 wrote:

@reallynicestamps 

And you are 9 of 8??? glitch 

I realize sellers/buyers taking their own videos at the post office can be doctored.

But independent library...or even the CCTV areas of most  (my PA area) police stations for online transactions?

I ask because I have some heavy pottery items that would hit size and weight limitations.

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Do you think any of these independent sources are concerned with eBay transactions?

No I don’t.
But… the fact that they are an impartial “witness”? to a sales transaction, should lend some weight to an eBay local pick up dispute.

I think we have to accept that some amount of fraud is going to happen. How much might depend a whole lot on what it is you sell. Coins are high scam - but only some coins are high scam. Silver dollars would be at the top of the list, just under any kind of "bullion".

OK, so pottery most likely does not fall into a high scam category like bullion.
I do still wonder how sellers of high $$$$ items manage the transaction on eBay. Insurance, signature on delivery (over $750.00), registered mail, and if all else fails, law enforcement?

The odd ball tokens I sell are very low scam (even if the token is worth $50). They come into the store en masse for a very low price, and I search the bins to find ones I think will sell. Usually the person buying wants it for a specific reason, like the guy who bought the token I had from his town so he could donate it to the library. Or the British guy that was making a presentation on a specific subject and wanted one of the 1700's half pennies. These transactions don't concern me.

Ditto that last bit ^^^^^^

C.

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So having figured out that you have a potential problem on your hands, how do you protect yourself from the problem and eBay?