Over the years, Poshmark has gained popularity as one of the world’s leading reseller marketplaces. It’s a digital marketplace that provides buyers and sellers, or ‘Poshers’ as they’re called, to create a community whereby they can sell brand new or used items. A common question people often ask is: Can you get scammed on Poshmark? and How to avoid Poshmark Scams?

Unfortunately, the site has also gained attention from scammers. If you’ve been cheated out of your money or trade – you’ve been scammed or phished and these practices are not rare.

A scammer will use deceptive tactics such as misrepresentation or misinformation to establish trust. Once a buyer or seller goes through with their end of the bargain, the scammer will pull out and the other person would face a loss.

Scamming can go both ways: the buyer might be scamming the seller or vice-versa. It is virtually impossible to track down every single scammer on a website especially a community guided one such as Poshmark. However, there are several ways to avoid falling prey to their scams.

Common Poshmark Scams And How To Avoid Them:

It is important to understand that Poshmark in itself is 100% authentic. If you buy an item from Poshmark itself, listed as ‘Poshmark Tools,’ the item will be original. However, when it comes to buying and selling within the community, Poshmark operates more so as an intermediary.

Whether you’re buying or selling, there are several ways you can avoid getting into a bad deal and losing money.

Buyer Beware – Poshmark Scams From Sellers:

Poshmark Scam #1: Selling Fake Products Marked as Original:

When it comes to apparel and accessories, there are two broad categories of items: designer and affordable. There’s an intermediate category known as ‘knock-offs’ or ‘dupes’ that are affordable versions of luxury items.

It is completely legal and okay to sell a knock-off provided that it’s mentioned as such. A common scam involves sellers selling an item listed as an original product on a price slightly higher than an affordable range, but low enough to be categorized as a steal.

If it’s too good to be true – it probably isn’t.

To avoid scams like this, Poshmark authenticates items listed higher than $500. If it has Poshmark’s seal of approval, safe to say it’s 100% original. However, if it barely missed the price mark to be authenticated by Poshmark, it might be a scam.

How To Avoid:

Always check the seller’s selling history mentioned in their profile. This provides a gateway into their past transactions and reviews from other buyers.

In case a seller has no past activity on his or her profile, he or she could be a scammer looking to cash in on one sale before deleting the profile and moving on to another one.

Poshmark Scam #2: Misrepresenting Items:

On Poshmark, you create a user profile with up to eight images of your items and describe each one of them. Buyers are often caught up when a seller misrepresents an item and later claims it matched the description exactly.

How To Avoid:

When you go onto the seller’s profile, you can find ‘love notes’ from other buyers they’ve dealt with. These ‘love notes’ are detailed reviews and ratings on how their interaction with this particular seller went.

Another useful tip would be to avoid buying from a seller who only posts stock images. This indicates that the seller probably themselves are third-parties in the trade and can’t provide proper information on the product.

Poshmark Scam #3 Refusing To Refund A Product:

Let’s say a deal has gone through and you’ve received the item, but it wasn’t the same item you ordered or it’s defected. If you’ve ‘Accepted’ the parcel on the app, your money’s gone and the scammer is less than likely to refund your payment.

How To Avoid:

Always check the product thoroughly before accepting it. You can also take it up a notch and make a video of yourself unboxing the unopened parcel.

Poshmark withholds payment for a period of 3-days before releasing it to the seller. This is your window to open up a case with Poshmark and demand a refund. To open up a case:

• Go to “My Purchases.”
• Select your order.
• Select “Problems/order inquiry.”
• Follow the prompt to open a case.
• You can send Poshmark the unboxing video you made for more concrete evidence.

Selling Guarantee – Poshmark Scams From Buyers:

Poshmark Scam from Buyer #1: Canceling A Product:

More often than not, a buyer will display an unsettling amount adoration for your listing. He or she will want you to send them the product ASAP. When you comply, they’ll end up canceling their order over several excuses.

However, since you’ve already sent them the package, your product is now at their disposal. If they weren’t scamming you, they’ll return the product. If they were, they’ll refuse they ever accepted the product even if it shows up on your USPS tracking code as ‘accepted.’ With no way for you to get it back.

How To Avoid:

Poshmark’s guidelines state that when a deal has been finalized between a buyer and a seller, there ought to be a three-hour ‘canceling time.’ This canceling time is essentially a gray area for the buyer to make up their mind. Alternatively, this is also the time frame within which the seller can demand to have the payment transferred to Poshmark before sending the product.

Poshmark Scam from Buyer #2: Sending An Over-drafted Check:

When you set up an account on Poshmark, the site asks for your credit card information as a way to ward off scammers. However, the workaround is to contact the seller on their email address and finalize the deal from there.

Note: Poshmark is not liable for any sales made outside of Poshmark.

Scammers know this and will try to come up with every excuse manageable to get you to sell them the item outside of the site or app. Additionally, they’ll send payment through a cashiers check with a twist – it’s an overdraft.

When they send an over-drafted check, they’ll demand that the over-payment be made back to them. While it might sound reasonable enough, the scammer takes the over-payment and then ends up canceling the check altogether.

The seller isn’t just out their money, but they’ve also already sent the item.

How To Avoid:

If anyone contacts you outside of Poshmark to make a deal there, do not listen to them. It’s more than likely someone trying to scam you out of your money and items.

Poshmark has its system of payments in place for a reason. It’s reliable methods and sellers shouldn’t look for other means to make transactions.

Poshmark Scam from Buyer #3: Unjustified Returns:

In case there’s a dispute between a buyer and a seller over an item where the buyer claims the seller misrepresented the item and wants a refund, Poshmark will act as a mediator between the two trying to work up the case and give a verdict.

If the buyer makes the claim within three-days, the payment is still with Poshmark and hasn’t been transferred to the seller. These three-days are usually when a scammer hits you. They can argue faulty products, misrepresented items, and so forth.

How To Avoid:

If the buyer claims an item was defective, Poshmark will ask for proof. Since its a scam, the buyer won’t feel any remorse in poking a few holes here and there to further their claim.

To avoid such a situation, always make a video before sealing a package displaying every inch of your product. Submit this video as proof to Poshmark.

Scammers are prevalent in every marketplace – especially digital ones. While it might be impossible to have a site without them, it’s easy to avoid fraudulent buyers and sellers.

To boost up your Poshmark experience and free-up space for necessities such as managing your business, you would need a Poshmark bot to handle community guided tasks for you.

With Poshmark Pro Tools, you’ll automatically like, share, follow and unfollow within the Poshmark community to have your listings come up on top. This gives you an edge to manage work better and more time-effectively.

Poshmark Pro Tools takes over community guided operations such as generating likes, following and unfollowing to keep your items at the top of the search list. This frees up time from an otherwise monotonous routine of having to keep up with the community and focus on business critical tasks.

This bot will help you generate sales, free up space, and keep your listings at the top. With all that free time, you can focus your energy on other critical tasks such as researching products and making sales.