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| Offers
to Buy or Sell Outside of eBay |
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Offers to buy or
sell listed items outside of the eBay site are not permitted.
Offers of this nature are a potential fraud risk for both
buyers and sellers and circumvent eBay's fees.
Some examples of offers outside of the eBay site include:
- Using member contact information obtained from eBay
or using any eBay system to offer to sell any listed item
outside of eBay
- Canceling a listing to sell to a buyer who became aware
of the item through eBay
- Ending a listing early to sell the item at a higher
price to the winning bidder
- Offering to sell an item to a bidder in a Reserve
Not Met listing without going through Second
Chance Offer
- Offering to sell duplicate or additional merchandise
to under-bidders without going through Second Chance Offer
- Sending unsolicited
(without prior permission) commercial email offers to
bidders for the same or similar products that they have
bid on in the past
It is acceptable for sellers to end
a listing early in order to sell an item at the
current bid price to the high bidder. Bidders are permitted
to contact sellers with requests to end a listing early and
sell at the current bid price; however, sellers are under
no obligation to honor the request.
Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions,
including:
- Listing cancellation
- Limits on account privileges
- Account suspension
- Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
- Loss of PowerSeller status
Guideline: How to tell if you�re buying or selling
on eBay.
The best way to tell if you�re actually transacting on eBay
is:
- Open a new browser and type www.ebay.com.
- Click on My eBay and sign in.
- Check to see that the transaction you have either bid
on or completed appears in Items I�ve Won
or Items I�ve Sold and that the buyer
or seller of the item corresponds to the user in the email
transaction.
Note: If the transaction does not appear
in My eBay, then the transaction is outside of eBay and is
unsafe.
See �Additional Information� below to learn more about how
to spot an outside of eBay transaction and how to trade safely
on the eBay platform.
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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
it 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 shipped 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,
please report it to us immediately.
- Fraudulent cashier�s checks. Some sellers
of high priced goods receive requests from bidders in
foreign countries (often in Africa) to accept foreign
cashier�s checks 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
checks for high priced items, as such foreign checks 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:
Note: It is acceptable for sellers to end
a listing early in order to sell an item at the current bid
price to the high bidder. Bidders are permitted to contact
sellers with requests to end a listing early; however, sellers
are under no obligation to do so. |
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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 Program.
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.
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. |
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| Why
does eBay have this policy? |
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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 programs. Additionally, these
offers circumvent eBay's fees, which creates an unlevel playing
field for sellers who do not circumvent eBay fees. |
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Related Help topics |
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