What’s up with all the scammers?

[NoahsRose]

I’m fairly new to Etsy, so my shop has only had one sale. That’s ok. I’m slowly building up my shop. But my inbox is nothing but scammers telling me in broken English that I have to verify my account. Why and how is this so rampant? I know I had to go through numerous verification methods to create my account and set up shop. They should have to go through all of that prior to messaging sellers. 

Another issue I found is that there are hundreds of foreign wholesalers acting as local small businesses. They are obvious to find and it disappoints me that they can continue to sell. One account had over 42,000 sales, and I had reported this account to no avail. They pretend they ship from Texas. I messaged the seller, and they responded in broken English that they live in New Jersey and ship from Texas, but their About page says Turkey. The reviews are horrible and state that the sizes are way off, nothing like the stock photos and not shipped from the US. How can these proactively be removed so Etsy can be the awesome place it has been?

[MWLbyLorraine]

I am getting the same and because I don’t reply and mark them as spam it’s now affecting my star seller! It’s ridiculous. I am getting bombarded!! I feel your pain.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

You'll get used to Etsy!!  

As for the scammers they came out in full force before the holidays and are continuing.  I think Etsy is making some inroads to curb them but clearly  not enough.  They are particularly targeting new sellers hoping they will fall for it and many new sellers have gone ahead and "verified" their accounts by depositing hundreds of pounds to the scammers!!  It's truly awful.

[ButterflyFeetDigital]

Things to read:

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Announcements/Protect-Your-Account-From-Scammers/m-p/143158945#M1882

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/How-to-Spot-a-Scam-No-a-Buyer-Doesn-t-Need-Your-Ema...

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Announcements/New-From-Etsy-section-in-Messages/m-p/143722497#M1899

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000343128-How-to-Handle-Spam-and-Suspicious-Messages 

If you receive an actual order, you will see it in your "Orders and Shipping" section and you will receive an email from Etsy notifying you that you have a sale, and there will be a notification in your dashboard as well.

[BudroseDesigns]

I have the same problem with spammers bombarding me everytime I list a new item. I have noticed that some of them are now followers. How do I get rid of them ?

[CoquetteBath]

I don't know if reporting sellers like you mentioned in your OP...works...but I figure 'why not'.

I report a few egregious sellers every single week. Just because their shop is just clearly a lie (to me) but I just ask Etsy to check it out and move on.

Etsy should be concerned that it their name being trashed...not ours. While we know we are individual business, to the average buyer, it is just Etsy.

So bad actors hurt the site. It hurts us, too, of course, because 'once burned, twice shy' is the ruling game here.

but until they see a problem...they won't fix it. I gather, given the recent quarterly call with investors, that they are seeing some metric slips that they do not like. Problem...the issue is lagging behind the cause. But it may take them some time to really wrap brains around why/what...

not that any established seller is blind to it, but if the Etsy folks don't see it, they can't fix it.

in the long run, I run my own race, but (again) I do take a pit stop from time to time to go 'no whoa'...and send Etsy a little note about it. You do you. Good luck.