Here are some basic tips you must remember when selling items online:
1. Online scammers adore expensive stuff. So if your item is something valuable and expensive, you can be sure that your e-mail replies will surely be filled with more scam inquiries than real ones. As per my experience, I've yet to find a real sincere buyer inquiry whose intention is to really purchase your item. The ration of scammers is about 9 out of 10 email inquiries.
2. More often, these scammers will immediately ask for your sensitive information such as name, address, contact phone numbers, etc. Never never give out your sensitive information to strangers online. These personal information will be collected by these scammers and may be used fraudulently without your consent and knowledge in some other dubious dealings online.
3. The scam inquirers wil give you the impression that they have a sense of urgency in purchasing your item. This is to solicit you cooperation in expediting your action to assist them in their bidding. These could either be an urgent need to have the item shipped out to meet a deadline or after the receipt of a counterfeit money order to refund them with a certain amount via Wester Union. Just ignore these "urgent requests".
4. The way to easily spot a scammer is the fact that they normally use a publicly availiable email address that is easy to secure such as yahoo.com, fastermail.com. It is easy for them to secure multiple email addresses which they can alternately use to hide in different identities to make it difficult for them to be traced.
5. 100% of the time, a scammer will not give you his real personal information. If he/she refuses to give you their real names, address and contact phone numbers, then you can be 100% positive that they are genuine scammers out to scam you off of your merchandise. Since scammers are so protective of their own personal information, so should you.
6. The most common method these online scammers employ is the use of so called Western Union Bid Pay Online Money Orders. They will volunteer payment procedures to entice and convince the unsuspecting seller that they are "sincere" in making payment so as to later demand from you the immediate shipment of your item. The scammers are able to spot a willing victim if you immediately provide them with your personal information for purposes of money order placements. By responding to their demands, they literally have held "captives" their target victim which could be you.
7. The most common form of Western Union Money Order scams are initiated with a fake e-mail advise purportedly coming from Western Union complete with all the Western Union logos and trademakrs. "DON'T BE FOOLED BY THIS". Genuine Western Union Money Orders are isuued by Western Union with a MTCN (Money Tracking Control Number). So if you request for a Western Union Money Order payment for your item, make sure that you ask for the corresponding MTCN. This Money Tracking Control Number can even be verified for authenticity online via the Western Union website which must also contain the real name of the issuer and the issuer's contact address. It also helps if you call the issuer's contact number to verify his identity as this will also ensure that you can confirm the correctness of his personal details which must match his shipping information. Calling him is a small fee to pay rather than lose out your item to a scammer. This will also enable you to verify with the buyer that the money order is of the correct details such as amount, date item and shipping information.
8. Always remember that a scammer needs to do their scam in the shortest possible time it takes since time is of the essence. This is the reason why the scenario of a scammer is to insist a sence of ungency for you to cooperate and give into their demands. So before you ship your item always make sure that all details, payment and shipping verification have been carefully scrutinized by you to be thoroughly correct and foolproof so that after the transaction is done, you would have safely ensured that a sale was made and not a scam.
9. Finally, you don't have to reply to all email inquiries that come your way. E-mails that don't divulge the complete name and address of the sender are usually suspicious and up to no good. So go sell your items online, but take care to beware.