Suspicious message from buyers ''I need YOUR e-mail for finishing the purchase''

[Creixenturri]

Hey shop owners,

we've recently received some suspicious messages from people seemingly interested into buying from our shop, the message is always the same: ''I would love to buy this item from you but at the payment time etsy asks me YOUR e-mail, please, can you send it to me so I can finish my purchase?''

Has anyone received the same kind of messages?

For one hand, if we don't answer the message etsy will take the customer service star, which is unfair. Well, it has already taken it, in our case. On the other hand, what happens if we respond? could anyone hack your account by us just replying to their message?

We hope Etsy finds out the way to resolve this problem and protect us shop owners from this kind of people, maybe if we could report/block them? We want our customer service star back, we do our job the best we know and always respond customer's messages way before 24h. 

Thank you, would love to hear from your experiences and advice.

[DesertChains]

This is a scam. Don’t respond or provide any personal or financial information. Send it to spam.

I have seen well more than 100 posts about this topic over the last 3 months. If you want to stay safe from scams, your responsibility is to stay informed.

Make it part of your daily routine to visit the forums. You can learn so much about ongoing concerns, problems, glitches, and scams.

For the full discussion about recent scams, see here: https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/How-to-Spot-a-Scam-No-a-Buyer-Doesn-t-Need-Your-Ema...

[FallenAngelBrass]

Etsy has posted an announcement about phishing scams.  This forum is a great resource for all of the latest that sellers need to know about. 

[Creixenturri]

thank you

[FallenAngelBrass]

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@Creixenturri wrote:

could anyone hack your account by us just replying to their message?

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Absolutely not possible.   

[dianedowgill]

Just send the messages to spam. Then they don't affect your Star Seller Status. Some scammers are very clever, so never click any links. There should be a notification on your dashboard about how to protect yourself from scammers.

[Creixenturri]

Thank you! I usually use the sellers app on the phone so I've not seen yet how to send them to spam, I can just delete them. I will search on the website from the computer

[FallenAngelBrass]

@Creixenturri 

Don't just delete spam messages or else you'll get dinged for them.  Respond to them or mark them as spam. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@Creixenturri: "I will search on the website from the computer" You can also use your mobile browser.

[DesertChains]

I still think Etsy needs a way to mark messages as a possible scam attempt, not just spam. In the meantime, mark them as spam.

[Creixenturri]

thank you!

[VintageRescueSquad]

It's a 2-part scam. When you provide your email to the scammer, they then send a fake email masquerading as etsy and asking for your credit card or bank account information—which etsy already has!!!! Do not fall for it.

[Creixenturri]

Thank you so much, I've not responded any of these messages fortunately!

[michellepatterns]

Yes, these are super common here. Scammers are attracted to etsy because it's easy to find their prey.  

[ZehOriginalArt]

It's good you posted this because every day sellers come to the forum asking the same thing. When you post, it brings the topic back up to the top of the forum list and people are more likely to see it. Glad you did not fall for it.