eBay

witychiksells · ‎12-15-2020

Hello!

I am a very new seller on Ebay. I am sure this has been addressed before, but I cannot find answers to the question. Everyday I receive offers from people wanting me to text them because they have questions. I am told this is a scam and they are trying to lead me away from communicating thru the website. What I don't understand are the how's and why's of this scam and how I can prevent from getting these offers. They continue to waste my time on a daily basis.

comics-scifi-collectibles · ‎12-15-2020

@witychiksells wrote:
Hello!

I am a very new seller on Ebay. I am sure this has been addressed before, but I cannot find answers to the question. Everyday I receive offers from people wanting me to text them because they have questions. I am told this is a scam and they are trying to lead me away from communicating thru the website. What I don't understand are the how's and why's of this scam and how I can prevent from getting these offers. They continue to waste my time on a daily basis.

@witychiksells

This is a lot of information so if you have any questions please let me know.

You're a new seller selling a popular scam magnet item

1) You should list it as a FIXED PRICE immediate payment required, only NO auctions and NO best offers

To have the immediate payment required option you will need to use this listing form and check the IPR box:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/using-advanced-listing-form?id=4159&st=2&pos...

2) If you have offers from suspicious buyers then add them to your blocked buyer list:

https://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BidderBlockLogin

3) If a bad buyer won an item and has not paid then after 48 hours from close of sales file an unpaid item case to get your sellers fees back and give the non payer a strike on their account. At least 96 hours after you open the case you must return and close it as not paid to get your fees back. THEN you relist.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/resolving-unpaid-items-buyers?id=4137&st=3&pos=1&quer...

4) Have you set up your account blocks:

Go to My eBay > Account > Site Preferences or Seller Hub > Shortcuts > Site preferences.

Set up your buyer requirements:

Have received 2 Unpaid Item strike(s) within 12 Month(s)
Have a primary shipping address in a location I don't ship to
Are currently winning or have bought 5 of my items in the last 10 days and have a feedback score of 5 or lower

Also, make sure that all the locations you do not wish to ship to have check marks in Shipping Preferences:

Click the Edit link next to Exclude shipping locations from your listings. Put a checkmark next to locations you do NOT want to ship to.

Select the states, territories, countries, or regions you don't want to ship to.
Click the Apply button to save your selections.

Comics-scifi_collectibles Volunteer Community Mentor
Member since 2003

bonjourami · ‎12-15-2020

As a newbie seller, you cant prevent them, you are a scam magnet. You can list your items as fixed price, with immediate payment required, that weeds out a lot of scammers. They want you to text them to get your email so they can send you a fake invoice that they have paid. Or to ask you to enclose a $500 gift card with their purchase that they will pay you for.Always go to PP and make sure your funds are there before you ship anything, and never respond to these criminals via text messaging

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“Never pick a fight with an ugly person. They don’t have anything to lose.” ~Robin Williams

grasscarp · ‎12-15-2020

You can "BLOCK" these folks and receive no more message from them.

Only message your legitimate buyers thru ebay messaging.

Never-never buy gift cards and send with a purchase!

Good luck!!

candd205 · ‎12-15-2020

The way the scam works is they get your e-mail address and then send you a fake e-mail that you have been paid for the item. They are hoping you will send the item to them before you check your Paypal balance to make sure you were actually paid. You can't prevent the scammers from messaging you. Just ignore and block. An additional part of the scam is they ask you to include an eBay gift card to send to their "nephew", which they will send you extra money for the trouble, very tempting, but you never actually get a penny.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎12-15-2020

Here is how the scam works:

When the fake "buyer" has your contact information, they can send you messages that seem to be from PayPal, telling you that you have been paid. The messages look real and they manage to trick many new sellers.

The easy way to avoid these scams is to just not reply to any of them. A real transaction will be done through eBay, not through your personal contact information such as text messages or email.

There is no way to block these offers. Blocking potential buyers from contacting you would block not only the scammers but also real, sincere buyers who have reasonable questions about the items you are selling. So you should only reply to questions that are about your item.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎12-15-2020

@candd205 wrote:
The way the scam works is they get your e-mail address and then send you a fake e-mail that you have been paid for the item. They are hoping you will send the item to them before you check your Paypal balance to make sure you were actually paid. ....

As a bonus twist, sometimes the scammers' fake PayPal messages will describe an odd escrow system in which the payment has been received by PayPal but it won't show in your account until you provide proof of shipping.

luckythewinner · ‎12-15-2020

@witychiksells wrote:
What I don't understand are the how's and why's of this scam

As to the "hows" of this scam, they takes a couple different forms.

But they all have a couple things in common: (a) they want to get your email or phone number outside the eBay system so that eBay cannot detect their attempts to scam you, so that (b) they can trick you into giving them something for nothing.

In one variation, they send you a fake email that looks exactly like the notification that sends after you get paid. In this case, they are trying to trick you into thinking you have been paid so that you will send the item to them for free.

In another variation, they offer to send you extra money so that you can buy gift card to include in the package along with the item (sometiems offering an extra $50 or $100 for your trouble, which appeals to your sense of greed.) Then they send you a spoof email stating that PayPal has held your funds and will release them as soon as you send an image of the gift card with the code scratched off , so they canb "verify" that the card is good.

In this latter case, they really do not care about your item, they are trying to trick you into giving them the gift card code, because that is all they need in order to spent the gift card balance online.

Some of these scammers are pretty sophisticated - some have even included a "cUstomer support" phone number to call "PayPal" to discuss the transaction, but that phone number is just a pre-paid cell phone owned by the scammers and they pretend to be a support representative and tell you anything you want to hear in exchange for the gift card number.