Anyone who wants to buy or sell a coveted smartphone or other popular goods on Ebay classifieds will sooner or later come into contact with scammers. Against the background of a current scam, the star tells you how to trade more securely on the marketplace.
Another scam is making the rounds on Ebay classifieds. The police warn against misuse of the “Secure payment” function in connection with Whatsapp messages to sellers. It works like this: Supposedly interested parties strike without lengthy negotiations and want to complete the purchase with the platform’s own payment function. Messages then follow via Whatsapp, which is often stored in the advertisement, which should confirm a payment and ask you to enter credit card details via a link so that the money can be paid out.
Behind this link is a live chat in which alleged Ebay classifieds employees want to take care of the payment process. If you now give out the credit card data there, the fraudsters will inevitably debit you – and certainly no incoming payment.
This is how you protect yourself as a buyer
To prevent scams like this – and many other attempts to steal either goods or money from honest buyers and sellers on Ebay Classifieds – there are a handful of golden rules that will avoid the worst without much effort.
For buyers, if an offer is too good to be true, it probably is. Particularly low prices for very popular items, such as a Playstation 5 or the latest iPhone, serve to create pressure and provoke unwise decisions. In the case of such offers, pay particular attention to the following details:
You can do that as a seller
Basically, the same advice and rules apply to sellers. However, since you become a kind of magnet for fraud attempts with good offers, there are also a few helpful tips:
By the way: Sellers can also check the buyer’s profile by clicking on the chat symbol or the three dots in the app. Again, new accounts don’t hide scammers per se, but veteran accounts are more likely to have honest intentions, provided they haven’t been hacked.
Help when it’s too late
If the child fell into the well and you passed on your credit card details, contact the blocking hotline 116116 immediately. Reporting to the police can do no harm, but is rarely successful. If you have passed on login data for your account but still have access, change the data as soon as possible.
If your mobile number has fallen into the hands of scammers, there is not much you can do. Remain skeptical even after the initial contact with the scammers when unknown numbers text you and block contacts that you cannot identify.
