If you sell on eBay, Amazon, or Etsy, you’re probably aware that scammers target buyers. What’s less discussed — and arguably more damaging — is how frequently they target sellers. Action Fraud recorded over 360,000 cases of online shopping fraud in the year to September 2024, with eBay, Vinted, and Facebook Marketplace taking the largest share. Small businesses are attractive targets specifically because they’re more likely to be processing multiple orders, less likely to notice one suspicious transaction among many, and often more reliant on marketplace income than a hobbyist seller would be.
Understanding how these scams work is the practical starting point, so let’s go through them.
Account Hijacking: The Highest-Impact Threat
Losing control of a well-established seller account is catastrophic. Positive feedback history, account age, and selling limits are all valuable, which is exactly why attackers want access to your account rather than just your payment details.
The most common route in is phishing. You receive an email that looks like it’s from eBay, Amazon Seller Central, or Etsy Support. The subject line mentions something urgent: your account is at risk, a payment has failed, there’s a policy violation, or verification is required. The email links to a convincing fake login page that captures your credentials. From there, attackers change the payout bank account details, drain any pending balance, and potentially use your account to list fraudulent items.
On Etsy specifically, “Etsy Support” impersonators are a documented pattern in 2026. Messages arrive via the platform’s own messaging system (from recently created accounts impersonating support staff) claiming your shop has a policy violation and that you need to verify your identity by clicking a link outside the platform. Etsy will never contact you via messages from other accounts asking you to log in through external links.
Enable two-factor authentication on every marketplace account you use. This is the single most effective account protection measure, and it’s free. Use an authenticator app rather than SMS-based codes if you have the choice.
Chargeback and “Item Not Received” Fraud
Chargeback fraud — where a buyer receives goods, then disputes the transaction with their bank claiming they never arrived — is a persistent problem across all marketplaces. The buyer gets a refund while keeping the goods. You’re left out of pocket.
Marketplaces have their own dispute resolution processes, and these are the first line of defence. Always upload tracking information to the platform before an item is collected or dispatched, use tracked delivery for anything above £20 or so, and respond to any dispute or claim within the platform’s required timeframe. Documentation matters: order confirmation screenshots, dispatch confirmation, tracking details, and any communications with the buyer should all be accessible.
For high-value items, requiring a signature on delivery adds another layer of evidence. Photographing parcels before sealing, especially for items that might be claimed as “not as described,” is sensible practice.
On Amazon, a specific variant of this involves buyers claiming items arrived damaged or incorrect. Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee process can go against sellers if tracking information isn’t uploaded or responses are slow. Keep everything documented within the platform.
The Off-Platform Payment Request
You’ll get messages from buyers asking to complete the transaction outside the marketplace. They might cite lower fees, faster payment, or convenience. Sometimes they’re genuine. More often, this is a scam designed to bypass marketplace buyer protection, seller protection, and transaction records.
Once a transaction moves off-platform, you lose the dispute resolution mechanism that would otherwise back you up. Payment by bank transfer in particular has almost no recourse if it turns out to be fraud. PayPal Family and Friends payments are equally problematic because they’re not covered by buyer protection and can’t be reversed.
The rule is simple: keep all transactions within the platform you agreed to sell on. If a buyer is insistent about paying via another method, that’s a strong signal to cancel the order.
Amazon-Specific Threats: Fake Complaints and Listing Manipulation
If you sell on Amazon, account health attacks deserve their own mention. Competitors or fraudsters file false intellectual property complaints, counterfeit reports, or safety complaints against your listings. Amazon’s processes can result in listing suppression while complaints are investigated, and repeated complaints can trigger account suspension.
When you receive a complaint, act quickly through Amazon Seller Central’s appeal process rather than through any link or contact in the complaint itself. Verify that any communication about a complaint actually comes from Amazon (check the sender domain carefully) before taking any action. Third-party “brand registry agents” who contact you claiming they can resolve complaints are typically scammers themselves.
On the flip side, someone claiming to be interested in “acquiring your Amazon business” via an unsolicited message may be attempting to get you to engage with them off-platform ahead of a credential-harvesting attempt.
Etsy-Specific Threats
Etsy sellers face a distinctive set of social engineering attacks. Fake DMCA and copyright infringement notices threatening shop closure are common; scammers send these to sellers in industries where intellectual property is genuinely complex (handmade jewellery, graphic art, vintage clothing), banking on sellers panicking and paying a settlement rather than checking whether the complaint is legitimate. Etsy’s actual IP complaint process goes through the platform, not through direct payment to a claimant.
“Buy your entire shop” offers that seem too good to be true usually are. The typical structure involves an off-platform conversation, a fake payment confirmation email, and a request to transfer shop credentials — at which point the attacker has access to your account and your customers’ details.
Gift card payment requests dressed up as legitimate buyer behaviour have been documented extensively on Etsy. No legitimate buyer pays for goods with gift cards sent via message.
The Basics That Actually Help
Use a dedicated email address for each marketplace account, distinct from your main business email. This limits the blast radius if one account is compromised and makes phishing attempts easier to spot.
Check your payout bank account details in Seller Central, eBay account settings, and Etsy payment settings periodically. If you see unfamiliar bank details, change them immediately and contact the platform’s seller support.
Report fraud to the platform trust and safety team directly (through official channels, not a number in an email) and to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk. The Action Fraud reference number is useful if you need to pursue a loss through your business insurance.