Popular scams and how to spot them

As a crocheter, I see a lot of posts in the community asking if they have encountered a scammer. As a small business owner, I have encountered many of them myself. So what do they want? How do you spot them?

potential customer

One of the most popular scams I have seen is a person pretending to be a customer asking, "Is this product available?" with a picture of one of your items. This is the first red flag. Some of them will describe the item if you ask, but most of the time they won't. They will then ask how much the item is and usually will want more than one of the item. They will be interested no matter the price, and then send you their address, asking how much the item is with shipping. Once you think you're getting a sale, and it comes time to pay, they will ask for your email attached to your payment info. You think you're in the clear and made a sale, but then all of a sudden, they say there was an issue and to check your spam folder for an email. The email looks as if it's from the payment method and seems legit, but says something along the lines of this:

Due to having a business account, you must pay [insert a large amount of money]. Once this amount has been received, you will be refunded the amount and collect the money from your customer.

In case you couldn't guess, you're not going to get that money back. You click the link, pay the money, and they keep it along with the money you were supposed to get from the sale. Anytime you get an email from your payment method, always check the email it was sent from. They will never use a Gmail account to email you, and it won't have a bunch of random numbers at the end. If you get this email, delete it and report it as spam and block the "customer". Do not click any links.

Sometimes this can be avoided if you send them a link to your website or the link to your payment method. Most of the time, you can usually tell if they're a scammer because they will refuse to click the link and tell you they need your email. 

New account

You just opened a new account, likely on Etsy or Shopify, and all of a sudden, you're flooded with emails, DMs, and other messages reaching out asking about your shop. Some are asking for the link to your shop, some said they came from your shop, but they all claim to be business owners interested in your business. I've gotten some that ask what you use to fulfill orders, and I've gotten ones pretending to just want to be friends and connect with another small business. I'm not sure what the actual end game is here, but they all talk about Fiverr and talk about things being wrong with your business. This one comes across as less of a scam and more of a pushy door-to-door salesman who likes to degrade others. None the less theyre equally as annoying and disrespectful. 

Unfortunately, there really isn't a way to avoid these. They'll find your email and reach out at all hours of the day and night, and they usually come in packs. How I deal with them is I report the email as spam and stop all communication once I realize they are not a customer. 

Over paying

This one doesn't happen as much anymore, but it typically happens like this: You have a customer who wants an item but pays more than the amount you charged them. They reach out and request that you send the difference back, and once you do, the amount they originally sent is also refunded to the customer. This is usually a bounced check, chargeback, or cancellation of some sort. The end goal for them is that they didnt actually send you any money, and they ended up with your money. 

To avoid this scam, do not send any money back, no matter how much more they sent. Reach out to your bank and let them know you believe the person is trying to scam you, and watch your account for a few days to see if the money comes out. 

Account shut down

Since I started on Shopify, I have been getting emails that my account is being shut down or suspended. Upon inspection, the emails are coming from Gmail accounts, not Shopify. They also don't have any of the correct displays that Shopify usually has in their emails. At the end of the email is a link to "reenstate" your shop. I can only assume clicking this link will give the sender your login info or other info. As always, don't click the links. What I did was check the email, go to my Shopify, and make sure my account was still active and visible. which it was. I then blocked the sender and sent it to my spam folder. 

Scammers are getting more and more clever and coming out with new scams every day. Some of them I probably am unaware of, some of them I get daily, and some of them I've never personally seen. This is in no way me telling you something is 100% a scam or not a scam. Please use your own discretion when dealing with things like what you read above and make your own decision. Please stay safe out there and comment if you've encountered another type of scam and how you like to handle them.