Scammers!!

[lcwalker_03]

I’ve been selling on eBay a month & have already had at least 8 scammers try to scam me!! Anyone else have this problem? I mean, it’s like 2 per week. They’ll send me an offer or accept my price and then at bottom, they’ll say something like “kindly accept my offer but text me on this number (then give phone number) so I can pay you immediately” Then, eBay holds my “earnings” accountable for these fraudulent buys that eBay would HAVE to know the actual sell & payment were neveR made!!  How do I stop these scammers and how can I get eBay to take this ridiculously outrageous amount off my earnings? Do they seriously NOT monitor sales? ???? 

[bonjourami]

Because they believe in giving the buyer a chance to pay...

[a_c_green]

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@lcwalker_03 wrote:

How do I make it Immediate Payment Required? 

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It's a little ways down the full listing form in a slightly non-intuitive spot, not by the Price field, but a bit further down in the Payment Options area. Look for the checkbox labeled "Require immediate payment with Buy It Now" and click that.

[a_c_green]

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@lcwalker_03 wrote:

I’ve reported almost all of them, I’ve learned it isn’t worth my time. They still haven’t credited the non sells to my earnings. They did refund 1 fee. And, know good & well no payment has been made within 3 days so not sure why eBay doesn’t take care of it right then & there! 

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You are filing the Unpaid Item dispute for each of them, right? You need to get it closed out properly in order to recover your Final Value Fees on the failed sale. This is not the same as phoning eBay and asking for a one-time credit.

You can file the Unpaid Item dispute as early as two full days (48 hours) from the time of sale, after which the buyer gets a full four days (96 hours) within which to pay. Once a full 96 hours have elapsed since you opened the dispute, you will be able to close it, the deadbeat will get an Unpaid slap on their account (as if they care), and you will get your Final Value Fees credited back to your account.

[bargainnation]

There are always going to be scammers trying to get something for nothing or free. Scammers are probably more likely to try to run their scams on new sellers because they think they are an easier prey. Although even experienced sellers can fall victim to scammers.

When you get "offers" like these block those buyers and notify eBay because those scammers posing as buyers should be banned.

[powell-memorabilia]

I'm always amazed at how often some sellers encounter scams.  Personally, after selling around 800 items in the past six months, I've encountered zero scammers.  Maybe two or three difficult buyers, but no scams, no outright nasty people.  

[lii_69]

I'm a newbie seller as well; what I have found is that when someone offers a price "way better" than the one that I am asking I offer a price EVEN HIGHER and 11 out of 10 times they decline the offer. It may be a little petty but I get a chuckle out of it.

[lii_69]

I have been selling for about the same amount of time as well, and the scammers I have gotten - man. A good 20 the very first day. It's a good thing you didn't get more than that. I don't get the point of scammers - you're going to get caught on top of no one ever really taking you seriously, so what's the point?

[ittybitnot]

It's too bad that ebay won't let members report the messages from the message box itself. Then, if ebay did anything at all, they could stop the fraud cold and delete the scammer after seeing the message first hand.

Yes it is annoying that they removed a way to report from the eBay message system.  Probably sent some server into overload..LOL So you can't report on the site at all either.  

What I have noticed the past few weeks is that they scammers are using the "Make Offer" feature....Unfortunately, a seller does not know that they are "accepting" an offer from one of the "text me" scammers in advance.  One would have to decline them all, or take their chances they have an offer from a real buyer. 

Of course they are never going to get paid, after the offer is accepted and the scammer is the "buyer of record" so it is either UPI or the cancellation option.  I don't know if you can use any "report the buyer" feature that would indicate the phony crook without getting payment first.   The cancellation is faster, but there is no "choice" for cancelling that says "Obvious crook, text me scammer"...LOL...Perhaps "problem with buyer's address"?   Probably in Delaware...???

A seller would need to file something in order to get their final value fees back. 

[ittybitnot]

Get rid of the Make Offer option and list it as Fixed Price for the amount you want to get for it. Set the Immediate Payment Required option in the listing form when you upload the listing (it's a checkbox on the full listing form), and that way no one can snatch your item off the market without actually paying you for it first.

Of course, that is excellent advice.  It would take some cooperation from ebay though who has an annoying  habit of putting the "Best Offer" feature on your listing even if you did not select to use it.  Shoot, ebay sticks it on auction listings, too.  

[kensgiftshop]

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@lcwalker_03 wrote:

They did refund 1 fee. And, know good & well no payment has been made within 3 days so not sure why eBay doesn’t take care of it right then & there! 

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Unless you file the unpaid item, they don't know if you've been paid or not, all they know is you sold the item and they want their fee's.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

You are probably one of the smartest newbies I have read on this forum in a long time. Listening to all these seasoned eBayers with excellent advise will only make you a better seller down the road! Pat yourself on the back!

[femmefan1946]

@lcwalker_03 

@fashunu4eeuh  has the simplest solution.

Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required.

No Best Offers.

KISS

Stick with that until you have at least 10DSRs, know what DSRs are, and understand their utter unimportance.

The scammers look  for naive newbies.

Fortunately you are not one of those.

[eburtonlab]

@ittybitnot 

[S]cammers are using the "Make Offer" feature....Unfortunately, a seller does not know that they are "accepting" an offer from one of the "text me" scammers in advance. One would have to decline them all, or take their chances they have an offer from a real buyer.

If you want to use Immediate Payment Required and still receive offers, you may be able to do that if you are willing to lower the item price to the acceptable offer amount once you receive such an offer (rather than simply accepting the offer). That would require the buyer to go through checkout and pay immediately. If the buyer does not pay, there is no transaction, and you can decide whether you want to raise the price or leave it at the lower amount.

[myescape]

No ebay does not monitor sales.It is up to you to report unpaid items(by completing unpaid item case on each transaction) to get your fees credited and give buyers account a strike(basically that is reporting the buyer to ebay).Otherwise ebay does not know transaction did not complete

[ittybitnot]

If you want to use Immediate Payment Required and still receive offers, you may be able to do that if you are willing to lower the item price to the acceptable offer amount once you receive such an offer (rather than simply accepting the offer). 

Is there a place in the accept/decline offer flow to post text to discuss and arrange all that?  If so, it sounds like an alternative, but sort of a convoluted time suck...????    

For those that get the "best offer" added to their listing against their will, I suppose you could simply set the auto decline for one penny under the asking price??? (Real buyers get angry about this, however, and wonder WTH is going on.  Why have best offer if you are going to decline them all? ) Just thinking this over since the "text me" creeps are on to the "best offer" sales now.