Non-Delivery Scams

A non-delivery scam is the most fundamental form of online shopping fraud. The buyer pays, and nothing ever arrives. No goods are shipped, no service is provided. The seller may disappear immediately, or may maintain contact for a period to delay the buyer from taking action — feeding excuses, fake tracking numbers, and promises that the item is on its way.

Non-delivery scams operate across every online selling format: fake stores, marketplace listings, ticket resale platforms, social media shops, and classifieds. High-demand and hard-to-find items are common targets because buyers are more motivated to overlook warning signs when they have been searching for something and finally found it.

The outcome is always the same: money is lost and nothing is received. The variation is in how long the seller maintains the pretence before the buyer realises what has happened. The longer the buyer can be kept waiting and reassured, the more protection windows expire and the harder recovery becomes.

The scammer lists an item or creates a store that accepts payment. The payment method is often chosen to minimise buyer protection — bank transfer, payment app friends-and-family mode, cryptocurrency, or gift card codes. Card payments may also be accepted, banking on the buyer not disputing in time.

After payment is received, the seller's behaviour typically follows one of two patterns. The first is immediate disappearance: the seller goes silent, the listing is removed, and the buyer never receives any communication. The second is an extended stalling process: the seller claims the item has shipped, provides a tracking number (which may be fake, invalid, or for a different parcel), then responds to enquiries with reassurances and delays.

The purpose of the stalling pattern is to run down the buyer's protection window. Most payment platforms, marketplaces, and banks have fixed windows within which a dispute must be opened. Sellers who know these windows will time their communication to keep the buyer waiting just long enough that filing a successful claim becomes difficult or impossible.

Non-delivery works because the gap between payment and receipt is a normal feature of online shopping. Buyers are conditioned to wait. This creates a window during which the scammer can maintain the appearance of legitimacy through reassurance and delay. The desire to avoid conflict, to give the seller the benefit of the doubt, and to believe the item will eventually arrive all work against timely dispute action.

For ticket and high-demand item scams specifically, the emotional investment of having finally found something hard to obtain makes buyers more willing to be patient — and scammers exploit this patience precisely.

A buyer purchases event tickets from a classifieds listing. The seller is friendly and communicative. After payment via bank transfer, the seller says the tickets are being sent digitally and asks for an email address. A few days pass. The seller says there was a technical delay but they are being resent. The event is in two weeks. The buyer grows concerned, the seller stops responding. The buyer contacts the classifieds platform, which explains it cannot assist with off-platform transactions. The bank explains bank transfers are difficult to reverse.

Item posted, sorry for the delay — courier is behind. Please don't open a dispute yet.

Your item shipped today, tracking will update in a few days. Really sorry for the wait.

There was a problem at the post office — it is being sorted. Please hold off on escalating for now.

I can see from my end that it has been dispatched. Can you give it just one more week?

Your order is confirmed. Delivery estimate 3–6 weeks. Please be patient as we are a small business.

Before purchasing from any seller, confirm that the payment method you are using includes buyer protection and a clear dispute process. Know the dispute window length and note it from the date of payment.

If delivery is running late, verify any tracking number on the official carrier website and confirm the delivery address shown matches yours. Do not rely on the seller's verbal updates. If the seller repeatedly asks you to wait without providing verifiable evidence that the item has shipped, treat this as a warning sign.

Open a dispute before the window closes. You can always close a dispute if the item genuinely arrives. You cannot retroactively open one after the window expires.