eBay selling advice

On the programme on Tuesday 28 April 2026, we investigated an elaborate fraud carried out by a buyer on eBay. Arun Chauhan provided advice about how to avoid scammers when selling items on the platform.

• Make use of the feedback ratings on the site - while you can't look at a buyer's history, you can look at what feedback they've given on other sellers.
• Check for suspicious patterns, and look out for feedback where buyers have been dismissive or argumentative against sellers.
• Beware of requests from buyers to demand fast dispatch or other pushy behaviour – this could be an attempt to facilitate fraud involving the movement of other sellers’ items quickly, as seen in our film.
• Look at whether a buyer is also listing other items on the site – are they listing lots of similar items similar to the item you’re selling?
• Consider using a reverse image search on photos to check the buyer is not listing items for sale that they don’t really own.
• Report suspicious behaviour to eBay immediately and keep evidence such as messages and screenshots.

eBay told us it has “robust protections in place for both buyers and sellers” on the platform.