Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Still Available? A Popular Scam Targeting Social Media Sellers and Small Businesses

Buzzz....

"Still Available?" 

The message on your phone screen stares at you, while you try with great futility to scroll down.  Surely, there must be more to this message. 

Nope.

Insert the proverbial sigh and eye roll from everyone who has ever tried to sell something online.

Now those words alone aren't enough to discredit someone as a potential buyer. I get it, it's an easy message. It's easy to send, and people are busy.  It auto-populates on nearly every selling/buying app or website as something that can be sent with one click when you see something you might like to buy.

However, it's also how every fake transaction and potential scam seems to begin. 

I have endured a few too many conversations with people who were just out to relieve me of my hard earned money in nefarious ways.

I think it's time I vent about it, partially because it's more productive than, like, punching a wall about it or something, and also because I hope to help my fellow online sellers and small business owners protect themselves from this scam.

Usually if you respond, even with something just as generic, like, "Yes, it's still available," the conversation continues, where the other person seems like a serious buyer.  They may ask you about other varieties of the item you have listed, request more photos, ask how soon you can ship, and other very normal questions. 

They often give you a real address, that you can look up on Google maps or type into the USPS website, as they would if you were going to ship them the product they are inquiring about.  

At some point, they will ask you if you accept Zelle, Venmo, PayPal, or another form of payment that DOES NOT include them purchasing the item direct from your website, or another website that accepts and processes payments, like Etsy or Ebay (no matter how many times you send them a link to these sites to make their purchasing experience simple and efficient).

Let's say you finally give in and accept that they arent going to go to your Etsy shop, browse your Ebay listings, or visit your website.  You give them your handle/name/email/etc so they can send you payment.  

Remember, it may seem like a real buyer still, and you may be thinking youre making a precious sale, depending how convincing the conversation has been. 

You may be skeptical by this point though, thinking this is probably a scam.  Something about the wording of those sentences didn't seem right... but you didn't want to scare away a potential customer based on a language barrier or an auto-correct mishap.  

Now is the important part!  What happens next will tell you for sure this is a scam and not a legit sale.  

You will get an email (if you gave them your email address) that looks like it comes from PayPal or one of the other apps, the same as you would when someone really sends you money.  It will say that the agreed upon amount has been deposited in your account.  

This email then goes on to say the money is on hold, that your account isn't set up to receive payments from a business account, or some other semi-convincing story about a problem with your account.  

Always double check the sender of this email!! It IS NOT from PayPal / Venmo / Zelle.  It's from some random Gmail / Outlook /other account that might have PayPal in the name. Look in your Venmo / Zelle / PayPal account to make sure the payment is really there. It won't be if this scam is happening.

The email will go on to state that you need to click a link to do something to fix your account problem in order to get the customer's payment to process.  

There may be ridiculous terms, like you need to pay a $200 fee to upgrade your account, they will reimburse you for something, give you extra money back as some promo or deal, or something else that seems off. 

Do not click the link! I have never clicked the link, so I can't give you any advice on what happens next, but that is the whole goal of wasting all your time up to this point, to get you to click the link.

Report the email as spam / phishing.  If you feel it necessary, report the person or block them.  

Be safe out there! 

I hope everyone is as thankful as I am for their real happy customers.  We want to do everything we can to give the best possible service, because our business is like an extension of ourselves.  We pour our heart, soul, time, and effort into what we do. That is why it can be so hard to spot or call out someone who is just out to do harm.  

If this blog rant helped you identify a potential scam, share it with someone else who might need to hear about it.




 


No comments:

Post a Comment