Recent Fraudulent Transactions - Suggestions?

[grammaticon]

First time poster, but I've been selling small amounts of items over the  year on eBay with a very good overall experience.  In the last four transactions I've had three issues with fraudulent transactions.  The first buyer deleted their account - I don't think there was actually fraud.  The second buyer paid and then eBay warned me that their account was compromised after I had shipped.  FedEx was able to return the item to me.   The third after selling I received a message from the account saying it was fraud, then a follow up saying it was their son who was joking, and then finally eBay formally cancelled the listing.   The latter two took place on accounts with significant positive feedback.

This morning - before the official note saying that the listing was cancelled in my third instance - the agent said that as long as I followed eBay's procedures  I "Would be protected"... but I kind of doubt that.

I'm not a big seller, I just am trying to keep my small apartment clutter free and make some money for the items that I don't use anymore.  So, I guess I have a few questions for the wider community of sellers.   

Have you noticed more of this recently?  

Would eBay really protect me in these cases or would I likely be out my money and my item if I had shipped and FedEx would not have returned the item?

What are your standard practices to protect yourself?

Thanks for your feedback!

[kensgiftshop]

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@grammaticon wrote:

What are your standard practices to protect yourself?

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There isn't any.

I stay away from electronics and don't sell anything over $20 -$30.

[american-photography]

It's probably the category you're selling in.  Electronics and computers have high amounts of fraud and scams.

You might want to sell in lower risk categories like books, music, collectibles, etc.

You can also restrict certain high-risk buyers from bidding or purchasing your items by going into your seller preferences.  Go into your site preferences, then down to buyer requirements, and then you can block high-risk buyers by feedback, strikes, shipping location, etc.

[grammaticon]

Dang.  Yeah, unfortunately those are a lot of the items that I'm looking to sell.  I have way too many medium to high end headphones and needed to clean house.  

After the first instance I made those buyer requirements as stringent as I could, but they still don't seem to be very restrictive or like they would protect anyone from the kinds of issues I've been dealing with (Accounts with good feedback that were compromised.) 

Long term, I think I need to be more discerning about adding to my collections knowing how risky this really is.   Short term, I'll probably just increase my shipping / handling times and hope that an account that was compromised would be noticed by eBay or the owner.

Thanks for the input!

[mam98031]

1.  Buyers can not "delete" their accounts.  They can close them but if they have active bids or purchases Ebay will require them to wrap those up first.  So was this buyer the winning bidder or just a bidder on an auction?

2.  These types of notifications happen from time to time.  It is NOT conclusive proof that your buyer was actually a problem.  Sometimes Ebay does this but then at a later date find out they were mistaken, Ebay was mistaken.  I've gotten many of these over the years I've been selling here and I've never been burnt on one.  I have never tried to retrieve a shipment.  The entire transaction went off without issues at all except for that email from Ebay.  As long as you ship in a way that allows you to keep your Seller protections, as few as they are, you should be just fine to allow the shipment to go through and not spend more money getting it retrieved.

3.  Do you mean Ebay cancelled the order not listing?  That is a bit strange.  I've never had that happen before.  I've had the excuse or similar excuse from a buyer, but I've never had Ebay step in as there was no need for them to do that at all.  But in a case like this, I would voluntarily cancel the order and refund any payment made if the buyer notified me before I had shipped the item.  Then that buyer would be on my BBL.

You do have to always have your guard up when selling in Electronics.  It is likely to be the highest risk category on Ebay.  But not everything is bad about this category.  If it were to be that, no one would sell in it at all.  You just need to stay on your toes, but take things on a case by case basis as some very good buyers come across issues in life too from time to time.  So don't ever auto assume something is a problem.  Look at everything first.  But what I shared regarding your current issues is what my experience on Ebay has taught me.