Preventing scammers

[mmdolbow]

I'm pretty new to eBay, only made two successful sales but trying to learn and grow. Seems like I'm getting targeted by scammers since I'm new - they make an offer, I accept, then they write me saying "they have a question" and give me a number for me to text them. I know I'm a n00b at eBay, but please. I know better than to do that.

I've found several useful posts in here about preventing this, like blocking buyers from countries you don't ship to, so I followed that advice. And I saw a post about blocking new buyers - the person was asking if they could block folks with less than 50 positive reviews, and the answers were "you can't", and honestly, I get that - I'M that new and I wouldn't want to be blocked just because I don't have reviews!

What I want to know is if there's a way to block accounts that have been created in the past week or something like that. Two or three of the scammers I've encountered are like that. When I don't fall for it, they just pull their account.

I'm guessing not, and that's fine, just trying to find ways to avoid wasting my time.

[ckimodog]

Glad you were smart enough to steer clear of it. So many do not.  I know where messaging is concerned that the bots pick up on certain words like someones email.  You cannot enter it in your conversation as it sends a message you are perhaps trying to do business outside of ebay.  I would think the word "text" would come into play.  The programmers could set it up that way and when it's entered into the message, it's immediately blocked.  A second time would get them  suspended.  It's just my thoughts and would be pretty proactive where new sellers are concerned.  Good luck to you. 

[nkmipgolf]

Not much you can do, they open another account when eBay shuts them done. repeat,repeat,repeat. And yes they pick on new sellers hoping they do not know how things works. scammers use VOIP free numbers, never a cell phone is used.  eBay says new accounts deserve a chance so not much you can do.  At least you caught on to the scams others have lost laptops, $2500 diamond ring, etc. The 'text me/question' is to get you off eBay to send a fake PayPal email. If the item is low in price they ask to add a $300 gift card in another city for a relative and will pay $50 extra.   All they really want is the card  # info they will ask for in an email.

[richard1rst]

Being new I am sure you are anxious to male sales. But as you have obviously seen you are a target. So the first thing I would do is respond to the offers "Sorry can't do it".

It would help if you also added "Immediate payment required"

That will tend to deflect some (but sadly not all) scammers.

DO NOT ever communicate outside of eBay.

[evry1nositswindy]

Communicating outside of eBay messages is against the rules and can lead to no good.  Many new sellers do this and then fall for emails claiming they have been paid when they haven't.  You will see many threads here about new sellers shipping before they've been paid (or paid for real).  

[soh.maryl]

When an "offer" is recognized as a scam attempt, why bother to respond?  

[gwzcomps]

You can also setup your buyer requirements settings.  I basically have everything checked.

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

[femmefan1946]

@soh.maryl 

The seller pretty well has to respond, because in the OP's scenario, the Best Offer has been accepted.

However, if the seller has set up her account to use eBay's automatic Cancellation after 96 unpaid hours, she would not have to.

The auto-cancel deals with the problem.

So now we have two possible helpful suggestions:

Only use Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required, although the IPR is cancelled by an accepted Best Offer.

Have eBay set up all listings so the 96hour Cancellation is the default and sellers have to opt out of it, which requires eBay to take action to protect (most newbie) sellers.

[soh.maryl]

Sorry -- assumed the person who posted was talking about replying to ANY offer, not an offer that's been accepted.  

[yng1998 · Accepted solution]

I would suggest taking out that you are new to selling on eBay.  I spotted that in one of you listings.  Maybe add in expectations for the sale as well right after the description.  You can include payment within a certain time,  how it will be sent,  info about returns.  It may seam redundant if you've already filled those fields out but I think it gives the appearance of experience.

[femmefan1946]

Good point-- but make those expectations consistent with eBay policies.

There is no point in insisting on payments within 48 hours if you cannot open a Dispute for 96 hours.

Personally, I prefer to set up my policies but not spell them out too much, since my marketing training emphasized that the customer should be focussed on all the things that will go right, rather than the things that might go wrong.

[luckythewinner]

---

@mmdolbow wrote:

they make an offer, I accept, then they write me saying "they have a question" and give me a number for me to text them.

---

The solution to this is right in your post. Stop accepting offers. 

[kensgiftshop]

@mmdolbow 

Do away with auctions and best offers and list as a fixed price with immediate payment required.

[chapeau-noir]

BTW, fixed price with immediate payment will NOT stop someone from pestering a seller to text them to 'discuss this item' or 'discuss payments'.  On another site I where everything is immediate payment I was pestered with these people until I had a few sales under my belt and got out of the weeds.  This may also trick a very new seller.  In this case, however, the only response is no response.

Just putting that out there as an added caution.

[mmdolbow]

Well, it's not obvious at first that it's a scammer, it's just an offer, then they message you after it's accepted. I think my new thing when I see an offer from a brand new account will be to counter with a very small increase, and include a note in the response that if they're serious, I'll negotiate.