FAKE BUYERS-SCAMMERS

[jthompson845]

Hi everyone,

been selling on eBay for over 10 years. Lately I have had so many buyers bidding on my items and have no intention to pay. I'm sick of relisting items that were never paid for.  I check their feedback and they are a continuing non payers. These kind of people keep opening up new accounts. It's very frustrating especially when they purchase 500 dollars worth of items.  Today again non payers. eBay lets sellers send out offers to watchers which I do on a regular basis. eBay introduced this for sellers which had been working great. Now you get these non payers all the time they accept and never pay. eBay is not doing enough to protect sellers from scammers. eBay should know and follow these people that continue to open up new accounts.  If a seller does something we are soon told. I am now going to check buyers with new accounts and checking feedback. If they have a new account I'm blocking them. This is the only way I can protect myself and my business.

[padi*0409]

Use the link below to set up the "unpaid item assistant" then after 4 days of non-payment the sale is cancelled, you can also set it to automatically relist the item as well.

I take it you have your "buyer blocks" in place as well.

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/getting-paid/resolving-unpaid-items-buyers?id=4137&st=12&pos=2&...

[imastawka]

All of your listings are BIN.

Make them all Immediate payment required and eliminate NP buyers for good.

How immediate payment works | eBay

[steilus51]

I’m not a frequent seller on eBay but having listed some camera gear this afternoon I get a live one allegedly from California wanting to purchase for his friend in Nigeria ? EBay it seems have no way of controlling dodgy accounts . I’m outta here ! When I told him via a gmail email to **bleep** off his reply was thank you for your response? Is this a bot working? 

[oddsandendsoz]

It would not surprise me if there were bots able to do this these days. AI is so advanced these days that anything is possible. It happens to many of us; especially a newer account. I was once offered more than the item was listed for, back when I first started selling. I wonder if the people behind this believe that it mitigates their karma if a seller is greedy. 

There are ways to lower your risk of selling on eBay so I would not be put off, but you need to learn how to lower that risk. One is to not sell Internationally which is fraught with higher risks.

[countessalmirena]

Set your buyer requirements to exclude buyers in countries to which you don’t post.

Set your postage options to exclude countries to which you don’t post.

That will sort out that issue.

But… if you haven’t sold recently and regularly, are you aware of the hold on funds until eBay seems you are no longer new?

Make sure you are fully verified for Managed Payments (including having uploaded photo ID and also having verified your bank account as eBay now require). If this isn’t done, you’ll never get your payment.

Don’t list on eBay unless you have read the eBay Help pages on Selling. It’s all very different since Managed Payments came in.

Requiring immediate payment will also weed out some scammers.

[davewil1964]

I doubt that padi cares, given the elapsed time.

As said, don't sell internationally.

Also make sure you have properly signed up for Managed Payments.

Given your infrequency of selling and your seeming inability to recognise a Nigerian scam, I doubt you have any idea of how eBay works in 2023.

[funky_monk_74]

I’ve had this happen multiple times and a few times on the same item which was relisted. I spoke to someone from eBay and they guided me through the steps of setting my account to not allow people to bid on my items if they have a zero feedback score. I have only just set this up and let’s hope this is the end of those annoying scammers!

[repentatleisure1952]

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@funky_monk_74 wrote:

I’ve had this happen multiple times and a few times on the same item which was relisted. I spoke to someone from eBay and they guided me through the steps of setting my account to not allow people to bid on my items if they have a zero feedback score. I have only just set this up and let’s hope this is the end of those annoying scammers!

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As usual eBay have you given you incorrect advice. I f you read that setting again you will see that it only applies to buyers who have purchased from you before etc.

There is no way to block buyers with zero feedback.

[sandypebbles]

No use hoping, the script they read from is incorrect

Nor do all scam buyers have zero feedback in the first place