Overpayment scam
A buyer 'accidentally' overpays, then reclaims the difference before the original payment bounces.
An overpayment scam targets sellers and workers by paying too much on purpose, then reclaiming the 'extra'. A buyer for your marketplace item, or a new 'employer', sends a cheque or transfer for more than the agreed amount and asks you to refund the surplus — often to a third party, and urgently. The original payment later bounces, is reversed as fraudulent, or was faked in a doctored screenshot, but the money you sent back is real and gone.
It preys on the instinct to be fair and return what looks like an honest mistake. The defence is to wait until any incoming payment has genuinely and irreversibly cleared into your account — not merely shown as pending — before refunding a penny, and to be deeply wary of any buyer who overpays and then hurries you to send money onward. On selling platforms, keep the whole deal inside the official system rather than moving to private transfers. Our guide to marketplace scams covers the seller-side traps in detail; the sibling refund scam runs on the same fake-overpayment move.