How to avoid scams when buying secondhand products online

At ZenMarket, the safety of our customers is a top priority, which is why we implement various tools and strategies to identify and filter out fraudulent sellers. However, despite our efforts, there are times when dishonest sellers manage to bypass our security measures. Because of this, we want to give you as many tools as possible to help protect yourself from scams.

We’ve prepared this guide with practical recommendations to help you spot potential scams, especially when buying secondhand products. Below, we’ll explain how to recognize signs of a fraudulent product, interpret product descriptions, review seller ratings, and much more.

The latest trend in fraud tactics

Recently, we identified a new fraud tactic: some sellers are posting images suggesting the sale of a specific product, but in the description—confusingly and in complex terms—they clarify that it is actually a different, lower-value item.

This type of scam is especially dangerous because it’s very difficult to appeal, as technically, the seller does deliver what they describe. The issue is that the description is often hard to understand and easy to misinterpret, which they do so intentionally.

These types of scammers tend to target foreign buyers, especially those who use proxy services like ours. This kind of scam is particularly common in the sale of bundled products and rare collectible cards. Here are some examples:

Case of Sylvanian Families 

In this listing, the seller seems to be offering a complete set of Sylvanian Families figures. However, upon carefully reviewing the translated description, it specifies that only the deer figure is being sold (シカの本体のみ). A single figure from this set shouldn’t cost more than 2,500 yen, but the seller is attempting to sell it for 7,600 yen.

Case of Pokemon Cards

In this case, the product being advertised looks like a Charizard card. However, upon reading the description, it mentions that what’s actually for sale is a sealed pack of cards (サーチパック）, with no guarantee that the advertised card is included. In Japanese it means the card shown in the image is not included. (画像のリザードンv saは付きません).

Also Read: HOW TO AVOID COMMON POKEMON CARD SCAMS

Signs to look out for

The following characteristics don’t necessarily mean that a listing is fraudulent 100% of the time, but if you come across products listed in this way, it’s important to be very cautious.

• The product photo includes many items together or a very rare and/or exclusive item.
• The product’s price is too attractive.
• The original listing in Japanese includes enticing English words (Chinese is also commonly used).
• The product description is usually very long and includes as many relevant keywords as possible to make it searchable.

How to avoid falling for fraudulent listings

1. Check the seller’s ratings

To avoid falling for fraudulent listings, it’s very important to make sure that the seller doesn’t only sell to companies providing proxy services (like ours) but also to regular individuals—and that those individuals are genuinely satisfied with their service.

To check a seller’s ratings, follow these steps:

1. Go to the product you’re interested in on ZenMarket.
2. On the right, you’ll find the seller’s ratings.
3. Click on the green and red arrows that show the number of positive and negative ratings the seller has.
4. Clicking these will automatically open the seller’s review window on the original sales website.

Warning signs

• If the seller has only a few reviews from buyers (in Japanese, 購入者), you’re taking a risk.
• The reviews that matter most are those from buyers. Reviews marked as "sellers" (in Japanese, 出品者) are from people who sold items to the account holder.
• If most of the reviews have "公式" (“official”) in their names, it means they are from other proxy services or other stores. This isn’t necessarily bad, but we’ve observed that accounts following the pattern of selling primarily to proxy services have a high chance of being fraudulent, so be cautious.

2. Look for suspicious signs in the images 

If the product you’re interested in has images with any of the following characteristics, be very careful:

• The product includes only one photo, often blurry: in this case, it’s very likely that the photo is not of the actual item for sale.
• The photo includes many products.
• One of the products is marked with an icon (an asterisk, emoji, arrow, or similar): this usually means that only the marked product is actually for sale.
• The photo has numbers written on it, suggesting that a group of products is being sold. However, the description often clarifies that “there are X items in stock, but this listing is only for the sale of one.”

3. Translate the item description, read it carefully, and look for suspicious signs

When shopping from stores integrated into our website, you can view product information in your preferred language. However, our service also allows purchases from nearly any Japanese website, so it’s crucial to translate the information to understand it well. There are several tools to do this, both on smartphones and computers. Here are some of our favorite options for translating websites quickly and easily.

On the other hand, we recommend not relying too heavily on your own eyes and try doing specific word searches, either with the help of an AI tools (ChatGPT can assist) or by performing a direct search on the website, for example, using the search command Control + F.

Keywords to check

• If you search for the word “only” "limited", "exclusive" or “だけ”, "のみ", "の出品"  "ばかり", "しか", "限定" in Japanese, you might find that only one item is being sold, or only “a part of the product”.
• If you search for the word “set,” "bundle", "bulk" or "セット", "一式", "組", "設定", "揃い" in Japanese, you may discover that it’s not really the complete set being sold, even if the image shows a set.
• If you search for the words “one,” “1,” or “1p,” or "一つ", "いち", "一", "一枚", "一個", "唯一 ", "一点" in Japanese, you might find that the seller is only sending “one” of the items. Typically, “1p” corresponds to “one item” of the ones shown in the image.
• If you search for the word “price”, "on sale" "sale price" or “値段”, "価格", "料金", "相場", "単価", "安価" in Japanese, you might find that the price listed, no matter how high, may only correspond to a single unit or a part of what’s implied in the images.

It is worth noting that these are not the only words that could indicate a scam, so we strongly recommend that you review both the title and the description of the product you are interested in in detail.

Conclusion

At ZenMarket, our priority is the safety of our users. That’s why we’ve prepared this article to help you protect yourself and your purchases. By following these tips, you’ll be able to identify warning signs in the items you’re interested in, and if you ever have questions or need guidance, remember that our Customer Support team is always here to help.

By taking these precautions, you can safely enjoy the wide variety of unique products Japan has to offer. Happy shopping! 👏🏻