If you’ve been selling used goods long enough, you may have received fishy messages in your inbox from scammers. Or… god forbid… you’ve fallen victim to a scam yourself. You’re not to blame because the criminals who carry out these scams sound very believable.

They rely on believable storytelling to lure you in!

Listen, I nearly got caught out by an online scam myself — just a few days ago — I had an item listed for sale over at Facebook’s marketplace. And someone messaged me pretending to be interested in what I have for sale. The buyer offered to send out cash by FedEx and then the courier would collect my goods and deliver them right to him.

All I was to do is this:

1. Pay a small insurance fee (in case money gets lost or stolen in transit).
2. Send over my name, address, and phone number.

Now, you’d be wrong to think they use personal bank accounts for collecting payments. No. They’re smarter than that! What they do is more sophisticated — masterminds behind these scams use a website that is an exact copy of FedEx’s.

You can’t differentiate it from the original; they use the same colors, logos, and layouts. If you were to put both websites side-by-side, you couldn’t tell a difference. They make it look like the original.

… So, anyway, something told me to call up FedEx and just explain the situation. And lo and behold — I was told it was a scam.

Why am I telling you all this? I want my experience to serve as a cautionary tale. And needless to say, scams take on many forms… so scammers are ready to scam with new types of methods.

It is what it is, unfortunately, online auctions and sales sites have become a contact method of choice for these people. So, it pays to recognize, avoid and take action against their wrongdoings.

Let’s look at how we could do that.

Be Alert If You Hear THIS!

One of the first ways how you can spot a scammer is by their communication style. Right off the bat, they come off as overly enthusiastic, ready to close a deal with you.

More often than not… a typical buyer would ask you a series of questions: ‘’Does it come with a warranty?’’, ‘’How long has it been used for?’’, and so on. The conversation feels more natural is the best way I can put it.

Where’s con-artists take the bull by the horns. There’s no time to waste — they want to take your money in the shortest time possible. And to do it they obviously need a process that’s optimized and has a great success rate.

That’s why they use a pre-written script to trick you! At least that’s what my experience shows; they stick to a word-for-word script to carry out the scam.

So, if you sense anything weird like that from the person on the other end, just stop the conversation and report them to the authorities if need be.

Swap Safely

It’s not always that you NEED to sell your stuff — sometimes you can swap the thing you don’t want anymore for a thing you do. And I’ve done it myself multiple times. But, one day I didn’t get so lucky. To cut a long story short, I ended up getting scammed.

… I had a printer laying around that I no longer used. So, I listed it on Facebook’s marketplace with the intention to swap it for something else. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for me to get hit with all kinds of offers. I got offered anything from electronics and furniture to useless accessories.

But one of the offers caught my eye immediately — it was a 15’’ Dell laptop, packed with serious power; we’re talking about the latest and greatest of technology inside of it.
Now, because the ‘’owner’’ of the laptop lived far away… he proposed we send out the items to each other using a self-service parcel terminal. It seemed convenient to me so I packed everything up and posted it off to receive the laptop.

Three days had passed… *silence*… then a few more… *silence*. Two weeks had gone by and neither have I received the laptop nor have I heard anything from the ‘’owner’’. I was scammed.

This experience taught me a couple of things. First, to be more careful about who I trust online. Second, to meet in person whenever possible. And lastly, watch out of the ‘’too good to be true’’ offers.

Always Use A Trusted Resale Platform

If you want to be completely safe, use a trusted resale platform! At Quipdealio we pride ourselves on being a safe and secure platform for people to buy or sell their used apparel decorating equipment.

The secret, the solution lies in the seller’s rating system — on our platform — each seller has a rating associated with its profile. So, you have the opportunity to take a closer look at their user-profiles and read previous reviews.

Plus, each user account is email verified. So, it virtually guarantees a legitimate identity, credibility, and trust. All these things combined protect you from online attacks or scams.

What to Do When Things Go Wrong?

When things do not go as expected, the first thing you need to do is collect yourself; take a deep breath, and calm down. Then, try to turn back the time and understand what has happened exactly. It’s important to piece everything together (from A to Z) of what had happened exactly.

So, when the time comes to speak to authorities, you can effectively communicate your problem. It’s the only way to get to the bottom of it.
And rest assured, you won’t be the first and you won’t be the last to reach out for help.