Can I get scammed on a legitimate marketplace like eBay?

eBay and similar verified marketplaces have substantial fraud protections, but scammers exploit their edges. Common tactics include: convincing a buyer to communicate and pay outside eBay using cash, bank transfer, or crypto (removing all protections); providing counterfeit items or sending an empty box; listing a genuine item but swapping it for a lower-value one; and shill bidding to artificially inflate auction prices. As a seller, buyers may falsely claim an item was not as described to obtain a full refund while keeping the item. Understanding the platform's dispute resolution process and never leaving the platform's messaging and payment system are the strongest protections.

Every off-platform invitation is the same decision dressed differently: a discount for paying by bank transfer, a request to 'deal directly and save the fees', a phone number slipped into a listing photo, or an email that looks like the marketplace asking you to confirm payment elsewhere. The platform's fees fund the dispute system, the payment records, and the account history that makes the other party accountable. Stepping outside trades all of that for a small saving — which is why the party proposing the step is so often the one planning to need the anonymity.

Account hygiene closes the remaining gap. Long-standing accounts with clean histories are hijacked precisely because their feedback scores disarm buyers, so treat a sudden change in behaviour — a phone accessory seller suddenly listing ten luxury watches, or a request to communicate off-platform — as more meaningful than the star rating. And on the selling side, dispute outcomes follow documentation: photographs, serial numbers, tracked postage, and in-platform messages decide cases, not good intentions.