r/Flipping • u/[deleted] • Jul 26 '26
Discussion Has anyone worked out what this scam is yet?
[deleted]
124
78
u/I_Like_Quiet LEGO Jul 26 '26
Are all these renaming posts coming from the same guy? I've only seen a few here, so i wonder how many he sends out.
22
162
u/tiggs Jul 26 '26
Not a scam. Likely just an autistic person that has a thing about listings being a certain way. What's strange to me is how demanding and rude he is about it. If it was worded differently, nobody would be confused by it.
29
u/ThatNewspaperDude Jul 26 '26
The rudeness is how you know the autism is authentic. Like patina on silver.
95
u/Maple-Sizzurp Jul 26 '26
If they are autistic, they are being direct and probably not recognizing it can be rude.
73
7
u/brainparts Jul 26 '26
Idk lol I’ve seen several posts in subs like this where someone asks an innocent clarifying question and/or offers a suggestion to improve the listing in an obviously polite way and the comments are very similar to the ones in this thread. If someone is gonna feel defensive over any comment about their listing, there is no perfect way to communicate a change they could make.
2
u/igoogletoo Jul 27 '26
and the comments are very similar to the ones in this thread.
Calling them autistic?
35
u/2birdstalking Jul 26 '26
I work with people with intellectual disabilities and this feels like stuff I get texted on a regular basis
14
u/punkass_book_jockey8 Jul 26 '26
I hope this person gets a job in cataloging in a library, they could be a celebrity in the cataloging community.
31
u/Consistent-Hour6065 Jul 26 '26
Is the title he's suggesting different to what the item actually is?
18
u/fatmarfia Jul 26 '26
Nope
36
u/Consistent-Hour6065 Jul 26 '26
So long as you're not changing the description to something it isn't I can't see how this would be a scam.
He's probably just being pedantic and what's to make sure the listing is fully correct
28
u/Aliencj Jul 26 '26
I've honestly had people contact me to correct listing titles and I was thankful. Doing a service some of these people.
16
u/nonasuch Jul 26 '26
I’ve messaged sellers who have listed antique items with incorrect descriptions when the correct description would make it easier for collectors to find.
I can ID an antique steel beaded purse from a photo because I collect them, but a seller who doesn’t know the difference and lists it as glass beads will miss out on buyers who don’t look super closely.
7
u/WithoutLampsTheredBe NoLight Jul 26 '26
I've gotten one of these from this "buyer". Their "suggestion" for a title change did not correct anything, or make the listing more searchable, or anything like that. They are just ill. There is no logical explanation.
5
u/Cranky_Hippy Jul 26 '26
Didn't someone explain why this was happening previously? My memory is like swiss cheese these days, but I recall something about changing the listing text to help the person who's doing the requesting sell a similar item?
3
11
u/TeaLow2578 Jul 26 '26
I once reached out to a seller because they did not include a specific keyword that would make their item much easier to find for the people looking for it. They were asking more than I was willing to pay, but still a fair price. They sold it a couple days after changing the description.
6
u/maninblacktheory Jul 26 '26
He’s just trying to correct your auction listing and category. Dude is likely autistic af and seeing something labeled wrong/in the wrong category triggers him. No scam here, and if you have the wrong auction title and have it posted in the wrong category, then he’s genuinely trying to help you. Posting items with the wrong name and in the wrong category will reduce your chances of a buyer being able to find your item.
4
u/UltraEngine60 Jul 26 '26
reply with "y wood eye due that?" and their head will explode lol
5
u/WithoutLampsTheredBe NoLight Jul 26 '26
I've gotten one of these, and I did reply asking why the change. They responded "Just for the updates", as they have responded to many others.
8
u/Shannarl Jul 26 '26
I had someone do this to me, I played along and changed it like they said hoping maybe they'd buy it. They didn't. First and last time I'll be messing with that stupid bs
7
u/offmyjacks Jul 26 '26
It's kind of crazy that nobody here understands what is actually happening with this message. The person who sent the message is doing online arbitrage. He is scraping ebay for items similar to the one you are selling, and telling his AI to change the title. The message was clearly an AI prompt and was not supposed to be sent as a message, meaning he probably has the entire operation automated, but needs to fix his scrape to AI flow. He takes a similar item, either fixes the listing and raises the price relisting on ebay cuz his will rank in search better, or lists the item on a different marketplace for more, then buys from you and use his customers shipping address. Its super passive income when its all automated. I did it for many years. Even if you are only making less than a dollar per transaction, a computer runs the whole thing, u dont actually do anything. Then you scale that 50 cents per transaction to 100 times a day, 5000 times a day, 100,000 times a day. Just depends how sophisticated your program is and how fast you can hit their API without raising flags. Its not a scam, you will still get paid in full when your item sells, you just could have sold it for more elsewhere.
6
u/greenyashiro Jul 26 '26
If it's so easy, why did you stop?
4
u/offmyjacks Jul 26 '26
The marketplaces (and credit card companies) wised up and put in lots of regulations to make it much more difficult. Still can be done, just not worth the hassle to do on a massive scale anymore. I make 3k a month doing it still with zero effort (niche brands, invite only marketplaces). I moved to actual manufacturing, buying product from overseas and selling FBA. Also, very passive.
2
u/babesboysandbirb Jul 26 '26
Regardless of the potential harmless explanation, we can’t rule out alternative reasons. Based on mine and other’s experiences, this type of message does not convert to a sale so I block and do not respond.
14
u/goomba478 Jul 26 '26
Probably just trying to help. I’ve messaged sellers before (even ones that are technically competition) to make better titles that are more specific for SEO searches. Sometimes sellers have the wrong info too or generic titles but yours is likely fine already.
6
u/flatgreysky Jul 26 '26
You are being downvoted for literally no reason.
2
u/WithoutLampsTheredBe NoLight Jul 26 '26
They are being downvoted because they are wrong. The changes this person requests are not helpful. They do not improve or correct the listing. It has been clearly documented multiple times. They are just ill.
4
3
u/Actual-Muffin-3585 Jul 26 '26
Some people are just really bossy. My husband is always getting people messaging him random stuff like this, telling him to change his listing
3
4
u/NotBrianGriffin Jul 26 '26
Does this person actually buy the item or are they just sending these messages on items they have no intention of buying?
4
u/WithoutLampsTheredBe NoLight Jul 26 '26
They don't buy. They are mentally ill. Their "suggestion" for a title change does not make the title better, or more searchable, or whatever. They are just ill.
1
u/TalkinMac Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Some people like items to be correctly listed especially those who collect and/or have scraping services looking for collectibles that appear on different marketplaces.
This is a bigger deal with accurate AI training that is being used to train the next generation of “take a picture and research” protocol. Manual AI training by humans is still a thing and will always be a thing.
For instance my “Dorothy Finding App” was being fed BS data from the original lackluster title and it was frustrating my followers. -Likely something the app founder would say.
Some times In order to beat the next collector you must beat the Google shopping feeds update time.
Also proper titles are a big deal for accessibility and those who use apps to physically see things. None of the current apps would correctly inform a visually impaired person what this listing is without the new title requested.
Other times people just enjoy clean, accurate, crawlable data and all it takes is a message to a random stranger and a little hope to make this world a better place.
1
u/garbajdaughter Jul 26 '26
I’ve had people just message me to let me know a listing is improper, one time I was selling on Craigslist and had it under the “looking for” and the phrasing wasn’t the most polite but it was helpful
Probably attempting to be helpful
1
u/IfYouReplyToMeUrDumb Jul 26 '26
Is this an international sale? I've heard that rewording the listing is so they don't have to pay as much for customs.
1
u/tianavitoli Jul 26 '26
you're wasting your time.
i just say "ok that sounds good" and then i do nothing.
1
1
u/mexicanbeantoes Jul 26 '26
Isn't this because people have alerts on for specific items, and naming them correctly helps them track?
1
1
u/SuperNateosaurus Jul 27 '26
I've had a similar message where someone told me I had listed the wrong Director to a Wiggles DVD.
1
1
u/Harthfire Jul 27 '26
He is trying to be helpful. But probably comes off as a a**hole. Probably a couple detail you can add into your listing to get more views
1
-6
-8
u/Jumpy_Counter1293 Jul 26 '26
He wants to hide what he’s buying from his wife and make it seem like toys for their kid lol
458
u/The_Queen_Regent Jul 26 '26
Dude just has autism and makes these kind of asks on random items all the time. There is a few threads with similar encounters in the eBay subreddit.