I have discovered, in the few months that I have been selling, that even BUYERS have tricks to rip you off, sometimes involving large sums of money, sometimes involving small ones...or involving items that you can never recover.

Knowledge is power so this knowledge will empower you NOT to be fooled!

I'm going to try to condense this as I noticed most guides are shorter.  I'll TRY. 

The first one was the worst one, in which I was faced with two different buyers who are STILL buying on Ebay.  The first time it happened, I checked the man's feedback FIRST....and discovered that 10 of the 30 people he had "purchased" from were no longer registered users and all were recent!

It went like this:

 SCAM 1. A person wants to buy my "lovely bracelet".  What will it cost to ship to Russia?  He is going out of town so can only check his regular email so please will I answer via email?  Of course, I answer via email with answer to shipping charges right away, conscientious me.  The buyer says he wants the bracelet, please remove it from my store.   The rub comes next.  He will buy the bracelet, pay for it via paypal and also will pay the large sum to ship to Russia.  But....he wants to surprise his sister, who is getting married or his cousin who is having a birthday.or whatever.  He wants me to ship with MY name on the box only, making the entire transaction anonymous.  Then it gets more ominous.  He doesn't want the other party to know that it came from him.  He'll pay all charges, including paypal and ebay fees for the purchase.  Then he will put $1100 dollars in my paypal account, once again paying the paypal fees.  He asks me to wait for his deposit to paypal then order a $900 Western Union money order online, placing the Western Union money order into the package, also with my name on it so that he can remain anonymous.  The extra $200 I am to keep for my trouble and for helping him out.  The scam?  I didn't do it either of the two times from either of the clients...but I highly suspect that the SCAM is to have you ship the money order, then he petitions paypal and ebay for his money back, as he did not recieve his merchandise or it was a simple mistake when he was inputting his figures for the item.  Leaving me $1100 in the hole.  NEVER send a Western Union to pay someone you do not know personally!  Western Union has had so many scams presented to them and I spoke with them at length on the phone just last week.

SCAM 2.  Also involves Western Union.  I've been searching for wholesale suppliers so that I can sell my items at better prices than I currently have.  I found one.  FABULOUS deals on cameras, etc. Yes, if it sounds too good to be true ( $5000 camera with all lenses, bag, attachments for only $580) then yes, it probably IS too good to be true.  He wanted to ship to me right away.  But...I had togo to Western Union, make a claim that I did, in fact, know him personally...and send him the money first.  NO, NO, NO!  Western Union said that this kind of thing happens CONSTANTLY and to never fall for it!  NOTE: PAYMENTS MADE VIA WESTERN UNION ARE NON-REFUNDABLE SO YOU JUST LOST A BUNDLE.

SCAM 3.  A buyer waits over a month then sends you a "money order" from a bank in Jamaica, even though you are shipping to Florida.  He's banking on the fact that you WON'T wait for the money to clear because it is going to take over 2 weeks to clear.  WAIT.  If it takes a month, WAIT.  He can complain in feedback if it turns out a good money order but at least you've not lost anything.

SCAM 4.  A buyer bids on ALOT of things from you.  She sends you repeated emails about how her husband has just died and these things remind her of things he picked up in France or elsewhere forher.  She no longer has ANYTHING because his low-life children have taken everything PLUS put a freeze on all her bank accounts but she will pay soon, promise.  Meanwhile, more emailsspouting how badly she needs these things around her as she has nothing left of her husband, the love of her life.  She is a doctor with plenty but can't even touch a dime of her own money and can' t work because, having lost the love of her life, it would not be fair to her patients to be so torn-up and distracted.  I felt so sorry for her, I shipped.  More fool me.  She never answered another email and the phone number she'd given me was non-existent.

SCAM 5.  For "Trading Assistants"...your contact information is in full view so that people who want you to sell for them can call or write or email you.  I received one really interesting call.  Uh huh.  A man called when I first signed up and, at that time, it was fairly obvious that I was new (feedback) and relatively inexperienced.  He wanted to meet me RIGHT THEN (6 am) or no deal.  He had "land" in New Mexico that he wanted me to post and sell for him.  Only a small plot of land but he had pictures and a full description.  Because the land was small, he didn't expect to make alot from it.  NO!  If meeting me at noon was not good enough (with my husband in tow) and he had no deed to the land, then this one was definitely fraud.  Besides...a realtor for a small property would be much less expensive than mine AND Ebay's fees!  So my new rule...if I can't see it, touch it, step on it or whatever, I won't sell it!

SCAM 6.  This one is not technically a "scam" but it IS grossly unfair to the seller.   You get repeated messages from buyers who claim they desperately want this item, PLEASE end the auction so that they can purchase now with a new ad you must place to put a "buy it now" on the item or to go to the site map to insure that they are the only preapproved bidder for the item.  After much pleading, you do so, costing yourself money when you do NOT hear another word from them and you have to relist all over again, not to mention the cost of the 'buy it now'!  Also...the buyers who question you repeatedly, sending message after message which you must answer, saying they are going to bid...and then they don't, having wasted several hours of your time.  I can't make special allowances for buyers anymore asI have had far too many ask me to relist - and then I did not sell.  I can't afford to continue paying all those fees for no reason.

SCAM 7.   Do I trust you or not?  This one is TOUGH.  Woman asks you to take a bracelet offline because it is simply IDENTICAL to one her daughter lost and is heartbroken over (FIRST she haggles with you for days over the PRICE so of course she is sincere!), that she is sending you a money order, at which point you can relist then mark it paid.  You wait 8 weeks, no word.  That one, use your best judgement.  But I find that, 9 times out of ten, they are full of it and you never hear from them again and you've lost money not being able to sell all that time AND cancelling your listing.

As a fairly new seller, those are the only "scams" I have come across thus far, with the exception of the phishing emails that claim you must update your information or the credit card you have registered is about to expire.  Don't even open those up, they are just tricks to get into your account.  Forward them to spoof  at ebay  and they will tell you whether or not the email came from them.  The same with paypal, sending the email again to spoof but using paypal in place of the word ebay.

For every other scam I come across, if Ebay will allow me, I will add it to the list.

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!

And please vote for my guide if you've found it useful in any way!