Scammers

[kimla_52]

Our ebay account keeps getting offers but all have been scammers.  This morning we got 3 offers from the same buyer.  Seems like these scammers are targeting our ebay account.  How to tell if it's a scammer or reall buyer.

Every offer we have had so far which is about 10 have all been scammers.

Thanks

[reallynicestamps]

Go through your Fixed Price listings and remove Best Offer for the time being.

If you don't want to do that, Revise the BO to automatically accept or reject Offers. You can set your parameters a penny apart and only deal with those high enough to be worth considering.

Ignore any Offer that mentions texting or gift cards.

Check the feedback of thecustomer.

New accounts with 0 FB are obvious, but also accounts with highFB that have apparently not been used for over  a year or which were buying or selling wildly different items that you carry.

This morning we got 3 offers from the same buyer.

On the same item? They may be trying to find your sweetspot.

I've got one who keeps offering and retracting. But I have my parameters set, so it doesn't really affect me.

[38e_avenue]

How do you know they are scammers? 

After I get an offer, I ALWAYS check the buyer's history. I got offers ffrom "0" feedback people and the transaction went smoothly, no problem at all. 

The scammers target mainly electronic stuff sellers, I doubt they want to scam you with a Vonnegut's book .... 

[ricarmic]

It isn't clear (to me at least) how you know all the offers have been scammers.

Folks buying books may be used to negotiating the price (unless they are offering the actual price then yes that's going to be a scam) which is why they are making offers.

As a note, to the buyers being a seller with zero feedback to them you might appear to be a "scammer seller" as well....

[msau4301]

As others have said not sure how you know they were scammers but assuming most scammers have tried more than once you could have bad buyers blocked under your Buyer Requirements.

If you don't already have it set up go to your Account and go to Selling Preferences then Blocked Buyers List. In addition to blocking buyers by name (if you know the ones that dealt with you are you can add them there by user name) but also if you go to Buyer Requirements you can check off "Block buyers who caused cancellations or unpaid purchases withing last 12 months". You can also (just below) "Block buyers whose primary shipping address is in a location I don't ship to". Not sure if these blocks may help.

Since you sell a number of high ticket items you may attract some undesirables but you may also have attracted someone just googling your book name (a collector who really wants it) and it brought them to you even though they haven't bought on eBay before.  eBay has made many changes which has upped our being seen in general searches outside of eBay, some could be those!

[38e_avenue]

---

@kimla_52 wrote:

Every offer we have had so far which is about 10 have all been scammers.

---

You need to provide more detailed info, if you are looking for help here. You say all offers you got were from scammers? I don't know how many offers I got, but NO ONE seemed to be from a scammer. Many were just weird (for example $1 offer for a $120 item), but I would not consider any of them as a scammer's offer. 

Just today I got a $4 offer for a $20 item. I verified buyer's feedback and I discovered almost all feedback he left recently was negative, all for shipment delay or similar. I immediately BLOCKED the buyer and will let the offer expire. 

[pjcdn2005]

You've gotten some good responses to your original post. There are scammers in every country in the world but you definitely should not be attempting to ship anything overseas until you get some experience and  know more about the shipping options.  

eBay requires that you send any transaction that is $750 and higher with a signature required.  To the US you need to use a Canada Post Xpresspost to get a signature,  you're shipping with expedited which does not have a signature option.  Keep in mind you will need to purchase insurance as well which is expensive.

 You are shipping overseas with small packet ground which is by ship, takes months to arrive and does not have a signature and has no delivery confirmation.    You would be giving your item away sending it with a ground service as people will file an item not received claim and you would close. 

Is there an auction house or local site where you can sell that book?  It can be risky to sell any high priced item like that online.  I know many sellers who have been here for years that would be uncomfortable selling anything that expensive,

wBay can be a good place to sell but it is best to start slowly with lower cost items in as there is a learning curve to doing it right.