eBay emails about orders you never made: check in My eBay
Alarming eBay emails, an order confirmation for something expensive, a notice that your account is restricted, a message from a 'buyer' asking you to finish a sale off-platform, are standard phishing. They depend on you reacting inside the email. The rule that defeats all of them: real orders, messages, and account notices exist inside your eBay account when you sign in directly, and anything that is not there did not happen.
What to do
- Do not use the email's buttons or links, and do not reply to buyer messages that arrive only by email.
- Sign in to eBay by typing the address yourself and check two places: your purchase history and your Messages inbox. Real orders and real member messages are mirrored there.
- Compare the sender's full address. Phishing uses free mailboxes and lookalike domains; the display name alone means nothing.
- If nothing appears in your account, the email is fake. Report it using eBay's phishing reporting option on its help pages, then delete it.
- For sellers: keep every conversation and payment inside eBay. A buyer steering you to email, text, or gift cards is ending the protections on purpose.
Common variants
- The phantom order: a confirmation for a pricey item, with a 'not my order' link that leads to a fake sign-in.
- The restriction notice: your account is supposedly suspended until you verify, password harvest again.
- The off-platform buyer: an overgenerous offer if you deal by email, followed by a fake payment notification and a request to ship.
- The fake payment received email: looks like eBay or PayPal confirming payment for an item you sold. Payment is real only when it shows in your account, not in an inbox.
Signed in through the email's link? Change your eBay password right away from the official site, turn on two-step verification in account settings, and check your account for changed details or listings. If you entered a payment card, call the issuer. Report the email through eBay's reporting flow and at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Common questions
I never bought it, but the email has an order number. Is that possible? Order numbers in phishing emails are invented or random. An order is real only if it appears in your purchase history when you sign in directly. The number formatting proves nothing.
A buyer paid me, I have the confirmation email. Safe to ship? Not until the payment shows as completed inside your eBay and payment accounts. Fake confirmation emails are a seller-side staple, and shipping on the strength of an email is exactly the loss they are designed to produce.
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