Be aware that from the moment you start publishing on online listings and marketplaces not only the traffic to your stores probably is going to increase but also you will get contacted a lot directly by “customers” who are looking for an opportunity to scam you. If you come to think of it, these listings are perfect for online schemers who are lurking for victims, they will reach with an e-mail saying “I want to buy this/how much does it cost etc. and then they will trying to scam you. How? well I guess the sky is the limit but we can check here some of the most common scams.
The Bogus Check: someone contacts you and offers to pay you with a check with the price of your product plus more (ex: $500 check) and will tell you to cash the check send the difference minus a commission for you “for the trouble” (ex: $450) so you deposit the $500 and send the $450 thinking you made a good deal only to find out a couple of days later that the $500 check is returned since has no funds, so not only you loose the the product you sent but also $450 and a piece of your pride.
How to avoid it: personally I would not take checks as form of payment, but if you decided to do so make sure that:
1. Don’t accept more money than the price of the product thinking that you could take a commission transferring the rest of the money elsewhere. It´s make no sense no matter what explanation, It is a scam.
2. Do let know your buyer that you are going to wait to cash the check and only once the check it´s cleared you will send the goods.
Receive & Reship: “customer” contact you explaining that wants to buy the product but needs help sending the goods to a relative living in another country such as Nigeria or elsewhere. In these cases the scammer buys the goods with a stolen credit card number and wants to send it to you so you can send it elsewhere leaving no track of the “buyer”. In most cases, not only you ended being part of a scam but also the real owner of the credit card disputes the charge and you end up with no product and no money.
How to avoid it: If your site ships internationally well, it´s make no sense that a “customer” contact you which such request, That´s how you know for sure some crook is trying to scam you, if not I still recommend you not to take any part in personally send something to a foreign country when the buyer can perfectly have sent by the print on demand webpage he is buying your product.
PayPal Scam: PayPal is a very common and safe tool to do business online, in this case Pay Pal scammers send to PayPal users and “official e-mail” asking to verify account information, the e-mail will look very real as most likely would have the logo and page format. Inside the e-mail the story will vary: it could say something went wrong with the account or for security reasons your info is needed and of course you will be asked to provide such information, could be in a form attached or a link to a page. The goal here of course is to get your personal and credit info, and once this is done your are a easy target for identity theft and therefore your pockets are going to suffer.
How to avoid it: Don´t follow any link provided over the e-mail.
To get more info about preventing PayPal frauds you can go directly to PayPal link:
OK so the list is endless and by the time you are reading this some crook already founded 100 more new ways to scam you, so bottom line is that the best way to avoid being scam is to play safe in doing business and make sure you remember some basics:
1. Don´t post personal info in your online account profiles such as home address or bank account.
2. Try to set up you business in a way that payment is received and shipments are made automatic when someone place an order. That way when someone contacts you directly with a request that makes no sense or is not really necessary you know is most likely a scam.
3. In general, use common sense. If something looks shady don´t play along thinking that you are going to lose a sale, you may end up losing way more.
Finally, here is a link to a list of common general online scam & internet fraud by Wikipedia if you wish to check it out: