Did Scammers Find a Way to ID Sellers Brand New to Etsy?

by: Snapped

“ Link in message..”

There’s the big ol’ red flag, right there.  Don’t click unsolicited links.

As for the ‘target’ being ‘new’, it’s not really that hard (conceptually) to tell a ‘new’ account from an established one, especially if a day to day listing set comparison is made.  Cumbersome for a human perhaps, but AI can peruse 100K of them and do all that in literal microseconds.  From that, it’s just a matter of (nefariously) applied psychology and standard scam practices.

Like using links in messages and requiring credit cards to ‘confirm’ things that were already confirmed enough - or else there wouldn’t BE a listing to use in the first place.

by: Lisa

yes, etsy has sent more than one email on this scam, as well as a banner on your dashboard.And has been discussed in the forum and a kabillion times on reddit.

Newbies fall for this, a lot.

since etsy elevates new sellers in search for a 30 day period and posts your star average and number of reviews under your gallery, doing an autopopulated search or a popular keyword search using marmaleed or erank and tada. So a front pager with zero reviews is a new seller. easy peasy

by: Lisa

*marmalead

by: LDWCallsOut

I've read some of the topics about this in the Etsy Forums.  According to one poster, the scammers have somehow got permission to have messages from them show up at a link for ''messages from Etsy'' visible to signed-in shop owners.  

Yes, sellers need to be aware that scammers are all over Etsy these days, but Etsy itself is responsible if their site security is not preventing scammers from impersonating the staff using the site's internal communications.  

by: Stone Cutter

*** It’s called “bad security” ***

This problem sounds like an “inside job”. I haven’t spoken to an Etsy rep in many years, however, I wonder where Etsy, currently, gets their customer service staff. Or should I say, which country does Etsy have their customer service staff…..

Hiring low paid overseas employees jeopardizes our data.  

by: Ina

What struck me about these threads was that the sellers had just registered and had not yet posted any listings - so how were the scammers finding them?  

by: Lisa

like I told you in my post

it's pretty easy

by: Lisa

...and make sure you sign in using incognito mode or a VPN, so etsy doesn't use your search history to manipulate the algorithm.

by: Lisa

OR

just join an etsy FB group, or an etsy FB newbie group, or the under 10 group/team. This is how those etsy 'gurus' find you and market to you.

by: Lisa

They find you on reddit too, or on instagram when you say you are about to go live, scammers wait.

A lot of these people basically give themselves away on social media, and where huge red blinking signs that say "scam me i dont know what I'm doing"

by: Fruitylovesyou

Ina, did they already setup their payment info? If they did I would skip asking the marketplaces and ask the plumber Err processor Adyen.

The most fantastical thing about getting a banking charter is whenever there's a money issue, security concerns etc if ayden don't respond you can go straight to the mother of all regulators.... US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC),  remember y'all gave your info over to them!

im logging this as issue ET_24-00001

by: Lisa

It's an ID 10T issue LOL

seriously  though, Newbies don't know what adyen is.

by: Lisa

what about application program interfacing?

by: Loisaida

@Stonecutter said '' I wonder where Etsy, currently, gets their customer service staff.''

Etsy currently uses a BPO outsourcing company called PartnerHero (https://www.partnerhero.com/ ) for their forum, chat, email, and social media support.  The company is headquartered in Idaho but their outsourced workers are mainly from the developing world.  

by: Stone Cutter

@Loisada

Thanks for the info. …That’s good to know.

On a forum thread dated this past August, it was said that these scammers are from India,,,,what a shocker! (sarcasm).  

by: I_Fix_Dolls

Etsy has customer Service staff? Judging by what I see in the forums, they couldn't prove it.

by: LDWCallsOut

For a corporation that has well-defined rules for the customers using its services, using an out-sourced company to do various CS functions, like Etsy is doing with PartnerHero, could work.  But as far back as I can remember (I joined the Etsy community in 2007), Etsy has ALWAYS applied its rules unevenly.  What may be against the published rules may still be okay to do for some sellers -- and which shop owner is a ''pEtsy'' isn't always based on how much money they make for Etsy.  

The word needs to get out there in cyberspace to new, and potential new sellers, on Etsy that you have to treat every communication you receive in regard to your shop with the utmost caution.  No matter where it shows up on your shop management pages.

by: Groovy

Etsy has added a feature under messages "From Etsy" so while I too have had a few scammer emails (and I am not new to the marketplace) unless it comes into your Etsy Mail on the FROM ETSY account it's not from Etsy Admin.

by: Fruitylovesyou

re: what LDW said...
Something I don't understand, does Etsy messaging allow hyperlinks between users? Or are they saying there's a section in messaging that is for official messaging and that is where those messages with links originated from.