Examples of what buyers should watch for:

• Emails claiming to be from eBay authenticating the seller. Some members have reported receiving emails claiming to be from eBay. Within these emails are claims that eBay has “verified the trustworthiness of the seller” and asked unsuspecting buyers or sellers to use an instant cash transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram. eBay will never email a buyer or seller with the promise of the trustworthiness of another member. We believe the feedback system is the foundation of trust on eBay and the single most reliable method for determining the trustworthiness of a member. Furthermore, instant cash transfer services like Western Union or MoneyGram are unsafe when paying someone you do not know.

• Fake Second Chance Offers. Although outside-of-eBay offers are not permitted, sellers may be able to sell items to underbidders by sending a Second Chance Offer. Before responding to a Second Chance Offer, however, be sure it’s legitimate. eBay will never send a Second Chance Offer email with the subject line "Question from eBay Member". If you receive an email pretending to be a Second Chance Offer with that subject line, please report to eBay.

• Instant Cash Transfer Schemes. Some members have reported receiving outside -of -eBay offers from sellers who insist that payment be sent using third-party instant cash transfer services. These services are designed to allow individuals to send money to trusted parties such as family and friends. Requests to send instant cash to an unknown third-party present a significant fraud risk, especially when the seller is offering to sell outside of the eBay Web site. If you have received an offer of this nature, please report it to us immediately.

Examples of what sellers should watch for:

• Fraudulent credit cards. Buyers who request that items be sold outside -of -eBay who wish to pay for the items with a credit card are also cause for concern, especially when the buyer requests that the items be posted internationally. These types of offers may indicate that the buyer is attempting to purchase an item using stolen funds. If you suspect that this is the case, you can report the member making the offer from the Receiving Payments page.

• Fraudulent cashier’s cheques. Some sellers of high priced goods receive requests from bidders in foreign countries (often in Africa) to accept foreign cashier’s cheques as payment for their items. Some of the requests offer to “overpay” for an item, and ask the seller to wire the overpayment back to the buyer through services such as Western Union or MoneyGram. We urge all sellers to use extreme caution when accepting foreign cashier’s cheques for high priced items, as such foreign cheques may take weeks or months to clear and may be counterfeit. Sellers should never accept overpayments from buyers for items where the buyer is asking to be reimbursed for overpayment.

Examples of what buyers and sellers should watch for:

• Fraudulent Escrow Sites. Some buyers and sellers receive offers to use an escrow service that is not approved by eBay. This can be risky as there are many complaints about fraudulent escrow sites. Use caution when considering an escrow service to pay for or sell your item. For eBay transactions, you should only use the following eBay approved escrow companies: www.escrow.com (US and UK); www.escrowaustralia.com.au (AU); www.escrow-europa.com (IT and ES); ebay.iloxx.de (DE); www.tripledeal.com (FR, NL, BE).

Note: It is acceptable for sellers to end a listing early in order to sell an item at the current bid price to the winning bidder. Bidders are permitted to contact sellers with requests to end a listing early; however, sellers are under no obligation to do so.

Potential Fraud Risk of Offers to Buy Outside of eBay

Although other offers to buy or sell off-site may or may not be made with the intent to defraud, there is always a significant level of risk involved. Please be aware that items purchased as a result of an off-site offer are not eligible for eBay services, including feedback, contact information requests, and the eBay Buyer Protection Programme.

Reporting Offers to Buy or Sell Outside-of-eBay

If you would like to report a user who is attempting to sell an item off-site through text in the item description, please refer to the Sales Outside-of-eBay page.

To report any other off-site offers, contact eBay with the item number that the offer refers to, the User ID or email address of the member you are reporting, and a copy of the email with the full headers attached. Information on how to send email headers can be found on the Sending Headers page.

• Contact eBay to report an off-site email offer from a seller

• Contact eBay to report an off-site email offer from a buyer

If you have received an unsolicited email offer to purchase an item that is not related to a specific item number, see the Spam page for information on how to report the offer.

Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers. These offers also undermine the trust and legitimacy of eBay’s marketplace and are not protected by eBay protection programmes. Additionally, these offers circumvent eBay's fees, which creates an unfair playing field for sellers who do not circumvent eBay fees.