Mercari, the self-described “selling app” is an open marketplace where anyone can sell just about anything. It’s a pretty good app that I’ve had some success with it – see how I sold about 10% of my Mercari inventory in 24 hours. Given it’s popularity you might think Mercari scams aren’t really an issue, and that’s mostly true…
But it’s not without its problems. Like most marketplaces (and really anything in general) there are some bad actors looking to take advantage and scam you out of your time, product, or money.
So, can you get scammed on Mercari? Yes. So here are 3 Mercari scams you should look out for on one of the most popular selling apps.
1. Buying fake or damaged items
This one is pretty obvious and not a problem unique to Mercari. Sellers will be motivated to make some extra cash by trying to market high-end items that are fake or damaged. Selling fakes lets them charge premium prices for cheap products.
It’s not always easy to identify a fake but you should really do your research before committing to any product, but especially those that are designer or other high-end brands. Does the selling price match the product’s value? If you see brand new Gucci sneakers selling for $20, they’re probably fake. A general rule of thumb is that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
One way to avoid this scam is to check seller reviews. Make sure the person you’re buying from is legit. Now there are honest people out there who are just starting out and don’t have any history yet, but it’s probably not worth the risk with expensive items.
2. Trying to move the transaction off-platform
Again, not a problem unique to Mercari. Scams like this happen often on sites like Airbnb or even Rover. The person you’re trying to buy from doesn’t want to use the platform and will ask you to send them a personal text or email, or just send the money off-platform using Venmo, PayPal, or the Cash App. It happens all the time.
Most of the time, these people aren’t trying to scam you per se – they just want to save on the fees that most platforms will take off the sale price (Mercari takes 10% if you’re selling btw).
But other times, they most certainly are trying to scam you. See, Mercari (and Airbnb & Rover for that matter) offer protections to both the buyer and seller in case something goes wrong. We won’t get into the specifics right now but you can learn more in their Help Center.
One protection I will mention though is that Mercari will auto-detect if sellers are providing any contact details like phone numbers and email addresses in their messages to you. If they find contact details in the message they usually just delete the conversation. After repeat occasions, the sellers could get suspended or even banned from selling on Mercari.
Moving off-platform puts you at risk to get scammed. They could just take your money and run and you would have almost no recourse to recoup your money. Just don’t do it.
3. Triggering a return and sending back a completely different item
Okay this one is for the sellers out there but basically how it works is like this:
- Someone buys your item. They probably don’t haggle that much and everything seems normal through the process. So far so good.
- You, being a responsible seller, ships them said item promptly. Nice one!
- The buyer receives the item. The tracking info says it was delivered. Mercari updates the status as delivered too. Sweet, almost there.
- Boom! The buyer triggers a refund. That sucks but hey, at least they have to send your item back.
- A couple of days later you get the return package. Phew! You were really anxious for a while there.
- And then the hammer drops. You open the package and it’s not your item. In fact, it’s probably a bunch of bullshit like a can of soup or something.
That’s exactly what happened to this one person who posted their story on Reddit. They sold a Kate Spade purse and when the return came back, instead of their Kate Spade purse, inside was literally a can of Campbell’s cream of chicken soup. What?!
From some of my research, this isn’t that common (and it’s never happened to me) but it does happen! The scammer will make sure the return package weight (with the bullshit inside) exactly matches the weight of the shipment they received. That way, it’s really impossible for anyone to validate that you didn’t in fact just mail them a can of soup and not the Kate Spade purse. It’s your word against the scammers, and unfortunately, it seems like Mercari usually sides with the buyers.
Can you protect yourself from Mercari Scams?
Well, there is no perfect solution but the best thing I recommend is to just take a video and/or pictures of you shipping your item to the buyer. I know, it’s a pain in the ass, and it’s probably not worth it for most things because again, this probably doesn’t happen that much. But if you’re selling something expensive, spend the extra few minutes and record yourself packaging it up and placing the tracking label on the box. You’ll thank yourself for that little extra insurance against these Mercari scams.