Ilia Zavialov reviews marketplace scam phrases: the lines fake sellers use and how to check them

Ilia Zavialov reviews six lines that come before the money disappears

Shoppers on online marketplaces look at the price, the photos and the stars. Scammers are usually caught by something smaller: one sentence in the chat that pulls the deal away from the platform. The same sentences show up in listing after listing, almost word for word.

Ilia Zavialov reviews them as a phrasebook: the line, what it means in practice and one check a buyer can run before paying. Platforms and sellers aren't named, because the script travels from site to site without changing.

The losses add up. In 2025 the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, IC3, received 56,478 complaints about non-payment and non-delivery, with reported losses of $503,373,587. Many of those cases started with one of the lines below.

No single line proves fraud on its own. Real sellers travel, real shipping costs money and real accounts get locked. What matters is the combination: a payment link, a deadline, a story about distance and a request to move the chat. When two or three of them show up in the same conversation, the safest move is to walk away.

‘Use safe checkout through my link’: Ilia Zavialov reviews the off-platform payment

The first line sounds helpful: ‘let's do this through safe checkout, I'll send you a link’. The link opens a page dressed up as the marketplace or a shipping company, asking for a card number, expiration date and security code.

The FTC's guidance for marketplace buyers is direct: don't buy from anyone who wants you to pay outside the marketplace's payment system. If you do, you lose any protection the site offers, and you probably won't get the item or a refund.

Ilia Zavialov reviews this line with a one-minute check. Close the link, open the marketplace app yourself and look for the order. If the purchase isn't there, it doesn't exist.

Look closely at the web address as well. A page reached from a chat can copy the marketplace's logo and colors exactly while sitting on a different domain. If you have already typed card details into such a page, call your card company right away and ask for a replacement card.

‘Pay the shipping company directly’: a delivery fee that goes to the scammer

The second line often follows the first. The seller says shipping is ‘already arranged’ and the buyer just has to pay the carrier through a link. Sellers hear the reverse: ‘I've paid, the shipping company is holding the money, enter your card to release it’.

The FTC also warns sellers about fake payment notifications. The scammer sends a message that looks like a payment alert and hopes the item ships before anyone realizes it's a scam.

Ilia Zavialov reviews these stories for one shared detail: money for shipping was demanded before anyone had seen the goods. Shipping bought through the marketplace is paid at the marketplace's checkout, and an outside carrier is one you choose and reach at an address you typed yourself.

Six lines: safe checkout through a link, paying the shipping company, the seller who is out of town, the move to text, the verification code and the reviews on an old account. Each one pulls the buyer off the platform. The main tip: pay only through the marketplace, preferably by credit card, and never share a code.

‘I'm out of town on a work trip’: Ilia Zavialov's distance check

The third line explains why you can't see the item: ‘I'm traveling for work, my brother has it two states away’, ‘another buyer is driving over tomorrow, so I need a deposit to hold it’. The request at the end is always the same: send money now.

The FTC lists the payment methods these sellers tend to push: wire transfers through money transfer companies, gift cards, cash reload cards and cryptocurrency. Paying that way is like sending cash. Once it's gone, you generally can't get it back.

Ilia Zavialov reviews the account behind the story, too. Look for other listings and completed sales on the same profile, run the photos through a reverse image search and ask for a live video showing the item. A seller who refuses all three has already answered your question.

If the seller insists on one of those payment methods for the deposit, end the conversation there. The FTC's guidance is to avoid paying that way at all.

‘Text me instead’: Ilia Zavialov reviews why the chat stays on the platform

The fourth line: ‘the app's messages are glitchy, text me at this number’. On the platform, a deal leaves a record you can show the marketplace: the conversation, the listing, the payment. Off the platform, all of that disappears.

If something goes wrong, the FTC's first steps depend on that record. Contact the seller, then report the seller to the marketplace, and if you paid by credit or debit card, dispute the charge with your card company and withhold payment while it investigates.

Ilia Zavialov reviews ratings as a secondary signal at this point. An account with a solid history may have been bought or taken over, and a request to move the chat says more about whoever is typing today than about last year's buyers.

If the seller has already sent a phone number, search it online: people who were cheated sometimes post the numbers that fooled them. Keep talking about price and delivery only in the marketplace chat.

‘Send me the verification code’: Ilia Zavialov on the numbers you keep

The fifth line sounds like a formality: ‘I just need to verify you're real, read me the six-digit code’. The FTC describes a version aimed at sellers, where the ‘buyer’ asks for a verification code so they can set up an internet phone number tied to the seller's phone.

The FTC's advice is simple: don't share a verification code of any kind with someone you don't know. A code can just as easily unlock an online account, a bank login or a payment.

Ilia Zavialov reviews every code request with one rule. Read the message to the end, check who sent it and what it is for, and keep any code you didn't ask for to yourself. If one has already been shared, sign in on your own, change the password and call the bank.

A related trick targets the buyer's own marketplace account. A code sent to your phone at the seller's request may be the one that signs someone else into your profile, saved card included. A sign-in code is meant for the person signing in, and that person should only ever be you.

‘My reviews are on my old account’: Ilia Zavialov reviews only what can be checked

The sixth line covers an empty profile: ‘this account is new, the old one got locked, all my reviews are there’. Screenshots of five-star ratings follow, and none of them can be opened or traced.

A rating you can't connect to this seller on this marketplace proves nothing. Federal rules treat fakes seriously: since October 21, 2024, the FTC's rule at 16 CFR Part 465 bars businesses from writing, creating or selling reviews that misrepresent whether the reviewer exists or what their experience was. Section 465.4 also bars paying for reviews with a set sentiment, positive or negative.

Ilia Zavialov reviews only the feedback attached to the listing in front of you. Screenshots sent into a private chat count as the seller's own advertising.

Patterns matter as much as the score. A cluster of perfect ratings posted within a day or two, all in the same words, with no photos and no mention of shipping, is a reason to slow down. A long review that describes a problem and shows how the seller handled it is worth more than ten of those.

Ilia Zavialov reviews a seller in five minutes: ratings, history, payment

The FTC tells marketplace buyers to check the seller's ratings and read comments from recent buyers. It also suggests checking several sources, looking at where a review is posted, who wrote it and the reviewer's history, and not relying on star ratings alone.

Fake reviews cut both ways, the FTC notes: some are positive, and some dishonest competitors post negative ones. Some sites label a review when they know the reviewer got something in return, but not every site does.

Ilia Zavialov reviews a seller in a fixed order. Account age and number of completed sales come first. Then the newest feedback, read from the bottom up, since recent complaints show whether an account has changed hands. Then the seller's other listings. Finally, the chat: did any line from the phrasebook come up?

Payment settles any tie. The FTC recommends sellers and sites that accept safer methods like credit cards, so a perfect profile that only takes wire transfers or gift cards fails the check.

Compare the profile with the listing, too. A ‘local’ seller whose other listings are all in another state, or a profile photo and name that don't fit the item's story, deserve a question before any money moves.

What FTC and IC3 numbers show about online shopping scams

In 2025 consumers filed 3 million fraud reports with the FTC and reported losing $15.9 billion. Online shopping was already the second-largest category in the FTC's Consumer Sentinel data for 2024, with 383,441 reports and $432 million in losses.

Social media is a common starting point. According to the FTC, online shopping was the most frequently reported type of scam on social media in 2025, and more than 40% of people who lost money there said it began with an order placed from an ad.

Ilia Zavialov reviews these figures as a reminder that most of the damage happens at the moment of payment. A buyer who pays inside the marketplace with a credit card keeps a dispute open, while a wire or a gift card usually ends the story.

Ilia Zavialov reviews where to report: FTC, IC3 and your state

Report a dishonest seller to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general, as the FTC's marketplace guidance recommends. The FBI also asks people who lose money to online fraud to file a complaint at ic3.gov.

Report the seller to the marketplace too, with the listing link and screenshots of the chat, so the account is shut down before it finds the next buyer.

If you paid by card, call the card company and file a dispute. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, a credit card dispute over goods that never arrived has to reach the card issuer within 60 days after the first bill showing the error.

Ilia Zavialov reviews one more trap: strangers who contact victims and offer to recover the money for a fee. Recovery runs through your bank, the marketplace and law enforcement, and none of them charges for it.