Hopefully you have taken the time to read all of our blog posts in our Dangers of Online Selling category because these articles teach you how to protect yourself and safely sell online.

In todays post we are sharing yet another nightmare experienced that a Poshmark seller, nasturtium5, who we will call “Nat” experienced.

Nat was just like any other Posh seller; happily listing and successfully selling merchandise without any major issues…. Until one day when she received a text message on her personal cell phone. To her complete shock, this text was from a Poshmark buyer… the strangest part was that Nat had never offered her personal phone number to the buyer, and she also does not have her cell number posted on her Posh account.

The buyer began sending product related complaint questions:

Then the messages progressed from there.

For a seller, your personal, private phone number being obtained by a buyer is terrifying. In the past we have written about online sellers being stalked, harassed, hacked, assaulted and even fired from their day jobs over an online item that was sold to a weirdo who was unhappy with their purchase and wanted to harm the seller.

Once the crazy buyer obtains the sellers personal information they are able to find out EVERYTHING about the seller including home address, place of employment, friends, family and more… all from the privacy of their own home, without the seller knowing they are in the early stages of being stalked.

Websites like https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/ give out tons of personal details, FOR FREE. All the stalker / buyer needs to know is the sellers name and the state they are located in, then, in one click they can get all of these details and more:

As you can see from the image above, not only does FastPeopleSearch give out current and former addresses, but it also provides cell phone numbers, the persons full name (including middle name!), the persons age, aliases / nickname and more. THIS IS TERRIFYING, especially because the researcher doesn’t even need an account to access this free data.

HOW DID THE BUYER GET NATS PHONE NUMBER?

Keep in mind, all the buyer needs to access personal info is either the sellers name, the sellers business name that is linked to the sellers name or the sellers home address, and, unfortunately, most work-from-home sellers do not realize they are giving away ALL of these details on their Mailing Labels (read 5 Mailing Label Mistakes You Need to Fix NOW)

Another way a buyer can access personal information is to look up the legal filing paperwork if the seller has an LLC. LLC paperwork is free to lookup and easily accessible if the buyer knows the state the business is located in. Most new sellers do not realize that their LLC filings are public, and this paperwork includes the ADDRESS and PHONE NUMBER listed on the paperwork.

Additionally, as soon as a crazed buyer obtains the sellers name they can use social media to find out pretty much everything about the seller, because most new sellers use their PERSONAL email, personal address or personal phone number to create social media accounts.

THE SOLUTION

1. NEVER use your personal name or home address on your mailing labels. Get a PO Box.

2. NEVER create accounts using your personal phone number or home address. If you already have made accounts using private information, change them now.

3. ALWAYS use a business email and business phone number for business. Use your personal information for personal accounts only.

4. NEVER reply to buyers using your full name. If your name is Mary Smith, respond to the buyer as “Mary” or “M”, or you can reply with your business name.

5. IF you have a LinkedIn profile and your business is listed on it, proceed with caution if you work from home.