This week a new sale page went up on ClearList. Cleveland, Ohio. One item.
"Custom Tattoo Session, Black & Grey Realism." $200.
I built ClearList for people clearing out a house before a move. Sofas, the crib nobody needs anymore, the treadmill that became a coat rack, an alarming amount of Tupperware. In all that time I had never seen anyone try to sell their tattoo skills on the way out the door…
So I looked closer.
The page said Cleveland, but the account had signed up from another continent. And the only thing for sale was a "session," which is something you pay for before you get it.
I banned the account the same day. Then I spent the rest of the day making sure the next one gets flagged before I have to go looking for it.
A while back I wrote about scammers who pretend to be buyers and go after sellers. This is the mirror image, where the fake one is the seller and the target is you.
A fake seller needs your money before you see anything
Once I looked at it closely, the whole thing came down to getting the buyer's money before the buyer is standing in front of the item.
A real person clearing out a garage wants the opposite. They want you to show up, look at the thing, pay and take it away, ideally before the moving truck arrives.
A fake seller can't let you show up, because there is nothing there. So almost every red flag below is a version of "pay me first."
The red flags I watch for now
It isn't a thing you can carry out
Moving sales sell stuff. When a sale offers a service (a tattoo session, lessons, a massage appointment), a rental, a job, or a pet with a "rehoming fee," slow down.
You can't inspect a service at pickup… which is exactly why a scammer likes them.
The payment has to be money that can't come back
Wire transfers, gift cards and crypto have one thing in common. Once the money is sent, it's gone, and nobody can reverse it for you.
No real seller at a moving sale needs you to go buy an Apple gift card to get their bookshelf.
"Send a deposit and I'll hold it"
This one is sneaky because it sounds reasonable. It's $50, the dresser is popular, you don't want to lose it.
But a deposit is the pay-first move wearing a friendly face. If a real seller wants to hold something for you, they can hold it without your money.
An offer to ship
A moving sale is local pickup. "I'm out of town right now, but I can ship it to you" means the seller isn't where the listing says they are.
(My Cleveland tattoo artist, for example.)
The story doesn't match the place
Ask to see the item in person. A real seller says "sure, Saturday morning works." A fake one always has a reason why not. Usually it's travel, or a cousin who has the key.
The one rule that covers all of it
Only pay once the item is in front of you and you've checked it yourself.
Cash or a payment app at pickup is fine, after you've looked. If a seller can't live with that, they weren't really selling anything.
I tried to find a cleverer rule and couldn't, because every scam above falls apart the moment you insist on seeing the thing first.
What we changed at ClearList
I'm one person, so I won't pretend I catch everything. Here's what's different now:
- Every listing and every seller's payment instructions get checked for the words behind most of the red flags above. A match sends me an alert and I look at it myself. I use plain word rules for this, not AI, because I don't want a model guessing who is a scammer.
- If a sale page claims one country while the seller keeps connecting from another, I get an alert.
- When you reserve something, your confirmation email now carries a short "stay safe when you pay" note with the rule above.
- When something is clearly a scam, I can ban the account and take the page down in one step.
ClearList also never handles payment for items. Money goes from you to the seller at pickup, so seeing the item first is what keeps your money safe.
My word list isn't perfect. A scammer who writes "body art sitting" instead of "tattoo session" slips past it until I add the phrase, and the rule still protects you while they do.
The Cleveland tattoo artist is gone… and the next one gets flagged the moment they hit save.
See how a ClearList sale works.
Frequently asked questions
How can I tell if a moving sale seller is fake?
Watch for anything that gets your money before you see the item. A real seller wants you to show up, look, pay and haul it away. A fake one asks for a deposit, a wire transfer, gift cards or crypto, offers to ship instead of meeting, or sells something you cannot carry out, like a service or a pet "rehoming fee".
Is it safe to pay a deposit to hold an item at a garage sale?
No. A deposit is one of the easiest ways for a fake seller to get paid for an item that does not exist. If a real seller wants to hold something for you, they can hold it without your money.
What is the safest way to pay at a moving sale or garage sale?
Pay at pickup, after you have the item in front of you and have checked it. Cash or a payment app is fine at that moment. Never pay by wire transfer, gift card or crypto, because that money cannot be recovered.
What should I do if I already paid a seller who turned out to be fake?
Contact your bank or payment app right away and report it as fraud, and report the listing to the site it was on. Stop replying to the seller and do not send more money, even if they promise a refund after one more payment.
Related reading: How to outsmart online marketplace scammers (and keep your address private) and Things you can't sell on Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, Craigslist or Nextdoor.