How to beat the scammers?

Paddymcc_2

I sell some highish value items on ebay every week and for each sale i have about 5 emails from various Nigerians saying they are based in England and will i post to Nigeria. Were all aware of the scam so ill not bore you.

My question is, is there any way to stop the scammers as i loose out on quite a few sales every month and then have to start disputes to get my listing fees refunded.

I have now started having to sell my items to people only with Paypal accounts but i am alienating quite a large proportion of my customer base.

Any ideas are much appreciated.

msdl28712

Id Suggest you mention it in your description IN BOLD that you will no way post to Nigeria and that you know about the scam and that any person asking for you to post to nigeria etc will be reported to ebay

angelcake

Do you sell worldwide or just to uk?

You can have various settings to stop certain people placing bids on your items.

Also nowadays I think most people use paypal as it seems to be the safest!

candys_kisses

If you do not post to outside the UK then change your buyer preferences to exclude non UK registered buyers - this can stop some of the scammers bidding.

State in large letters that you do not absolutely positively inever ship to Nigeria!

rjcb23

you can also set your preferences to
Block buyers who:
Are registered in countries to which I do not post
Have a feedback score of -1 or lower
Have received 2 Unpaid Item strikes in the last 30 days

If these scammer register and bid under new accounts all the time then they will have low feedback scores..... i wont labour the point, i am sure you know what i mean!!

ianonline

candys_kisses wrote:

If you do not post to outside the UK then change your buyer preferences to exclude non UK registered buyers - this can stop some of the scammers bidding.

Don't think this will stop very many scammers as it is a very basic form of defence and the scammers are obviously wise to it. This is why they usually register their eBay account with a UK address (and then make up an excuse for you to ship to Nigeria, eg they're working abroad). This is what happened to me recently. :mad:

Paddymcc_2

ianonline wrote:

Don't think this will stop very many scammers as it is a very basic form of defence and the scammers are obviously wise to it. This is why they usually register their eBay account with a UK address (and then make up an excuse for you to ship to Nigeria, eg they're working abroad). This is what happened to me recently. :mad:

This is exactly the type of thing that has been happening as i have all the limitations set.

As ive now set my account so that only people with Paypal accounts can buy my items and already this week im loosing sales.

Froggitt

If they do win the bid after all the above, post them a telephone directory or newspapers with a 21p stamp on it, preferably with some photos of mobile phones on the address label, and theyll have to pick up the excess postage on it.

richto

No they wont. You dont get charged excess postage on internationals, and I doubt you could fit a telephone directory in the post box.

If you are sure it is a fraud, here is what you do. Package a nice fresh turd in a sealed jiffy bag inside a cardboard box that could fit a mobile phone inside.

On the outside put a customs sticker on it saying 'commercial sale, $500 USD value'.

I leave you to work out the details.....

Paddymcc_2

richto wrote:

No they wont. You dont get charged excess postage on internationals, and I doubt you could fit a telephone directory in the post box.

If you are sure it is a fraud, here is what you do. Package a nice fresh turd in a sealed jiffy bag inside a cardboard box that could fit a mobile phone inside.

On the outside put a customs sticker on it saying 'commercial sale, $500 USD value'.

I leave you to work out the details.....

PMSL..... :T

Vic_980

Paddymcc wrote:

I sell some highish value items on ebay every week and for each sale i have about 5 emails from various Nigerians saying they are based in England and will i post to Nigeria. Were all aware of the scam so ill not bore you.

My question is, is there any way to stop the scammers as i loose out on quite a few sales every month and then have to start disputes to get my listing fees refunded.

I have now started having to sell my items to people only with Paypal accounts but i am alienating quite a large proportion of my customer base.

Any ideas are much appreciated.

I've sold a lot of high value items and have had similar trouble with scammers. The worst ones are those with zero feedback who bid in the last few seconds, wrecking your auction.

I now always put a large note in bold (and red) at the bottom of the auction saying - "UK bidders only please. I will not post to Nigeria, Singapore, etc. so please don't bother asking."

This seems to have done the trick for me and I've not had any problems since.

If you do still get auction wreckers at the last minute, always try a second chance offer to the next bidder down if the price is good. This sometimes works and you can still get a sale.

I only accept Paypal now as well as I've had trouble with almost every cheque payer - bounced cheques, people posting cheques a week after the auction and expecting item to be sent out straight away, etc. I doubt that you are alienating very many people as the vast majority of buyers use Paypal.