Selling jewelry online?

Does anyone have any experience selling jewelry online? I am looking to sell a ring to a private party in North Dakota that I posted on FB. He has offered to pay me via Zelle first which I believe does not have any fraud mechanism for him to file a dispute later on after he get the ring. Once I get payment I can send to him (would verify the address) and require signature.

I am trying to understand how I could get taken in this transaction. I have sold a ton of items on FB/Ebay but for some reason selling a $2k piece of jewelry has me nervous when I have to ship it.

Take this for what it is worth. At least in my area, Zelle is the most used payment platform for fraud. Except for maybe Vanilla cards. I don’t know a single person that uses Zelle for legit reasons. I’m sure they are out there, I just don’t see them.
DT

For 2K I would go to the bank and open a account. Send the wiring info to him and have him wire the funds. Let him know once the funds are in the account you will provide a tracking number for the package. Before giving him the info go to the bank transfer the funds to your regular account and close the account. Ship the item.

I use Zelle often, and as far as I know once the funds are sent you can’t withdraw them, but I would double check with them first. No experience on your other questions.

My understanding is there is no fraud protection with Zelle and that goes both ways. Once the money hits your account, your good to go. No way to pull a kiting scam either. Sounds like the buyer is the only one at risk here per your arrangement.

I use Zelle all the time to send money to people I know. To get scammed the scammers reach out to you, In your case if it is a scam, they will send you a fake Zelle deposit email with an amount more then the $2K like $20,000 and then ask you to zelle back the $18K. But like stated above once the money hits your account its yours. They may send a fake link for you to log in do not open the link they are fishing for your password and will steal your money. If you sell the ring, log into the app on your phone to check the deposit not a link sent to you. Also ask to seller if you can call them, if its a scam they may refuse or if they have an foreign accent hand up. Good luck

^^^

Crappie makes a good point. As long as you do everything money related in Zelle (either the app or the legitimate website) you should be good. Don’t click any links the seller give you and verify all deposits in Zelle yourself. That’s really the risk here.

PayPal has fraud protection…so does Venmo. I think both charge a small fee. If the guy is willing to use Zelle either of those should be an option.

I’ve only used Zelle a few times with friends. I’m surprised there is not fraud protection given some of the big banks, like US Bank, offer it through their app.

You should be leery selling anything online to a person without some form of rapport.

At minimum ask for their cell number and have a good old fashioned talk if they are a complete stranger.

It’s easy to spot a scammer. They’ll likely decline the idea or come up with a million excuses not to.

Picking out a foreign accent or a story that just doesn’t jive can be done with a 60 second phone call.

I recently have had a couple scammers contact me for a wanted ad I have posted in the classifieds here. They both wanted me to pay through Zelle for what that’s worth. One went as far as hacking a cell phone number and breifly having a text conversation with me but wouldn’t talk over the phone. Like magic his number wasn’t working a few hours later and he sent me another number to “try.” In his first email he said he was located in Denver, but “his” cell phone was from Maryland.

At this point I knew it was a scammer and did my best to waste his time with fake information and saying I couldn’t get the money to send

He sent me three different ways to pay and multiple phone numbers and multiple email accounts with completely different names lol

Scammers are looking for easy targets who don’t do any reconnaissance and questioning of their own.

In your case, a guy named Bill Johnson from Fargo, ND has a zero percent chance of having a foreign accent and his area code should somewhat jive from the area.