Avoiding communication scams on Whatnot

Scammers may use emails, text messages, or in-app DMs to trick you into giving them your personal and financial information. They may be interested in your passwords, account numbers, Social Security numbers, borrowing money or other information for their financial gain.  

While Whatnot’s Trust & Safety team is always working to eliminate scams on Whatnot, it is also important for you to recognize deceptive behavior to protect you and your information. 

If you receive any suspicious messages, do not click on any links or provide your personal or financial information. If you receive a scam email, please report it as spam and disregard it. If you receive suspicious direct messaging within Whatnot, please report the user within the app. If you are unsure or have questions, please contact support.

To help you avoid scams, we have set out some guidance and example scams below. 

Scammers may pretend to be representatives of Whatnot. Please be cautious when receiving suspicious DMs or emails from someone claiming to be a Whatnot representative.  Please note:

• All Whatnot emails come from Whatnot domain @whatnot.com
  • Examples of a Whatnot-affiliated email address: 
    • sellersupport@whatnot.com
    • trustandsafety@whatnot.com
    • [Whatnot employee name]@whatnot.com
  • Example of a fake email address NOT related to Whatnot: 
    • supports.whatnot@onmail.com
• Whatnot will NEVER ask for your payment details via email (e.g., to repurchase an item, for a transaction failure) 
• Whatnot will NEVER email you to get a prepaid card or activate an “Instant payout”

Examples: 

Scammer encouraging you to contact a fake Whatnot email address that is not from @whatnot.com domain

Scammer encouraging you to email them payment details. Whatnot never asks for your payment details over email.

Scammers may pretend to have information from representatives of Whatnot. A scammer may approach a seller posing as a buyer claiming that Whatnot contacted them asking for the the seller to take some sort of action (e.g., configure payment settings). Please note:

• Whatnot will communicate with you directly (not via another user) if you are required to update payment details or take any action on your account. See above for Whatnot affiliated email addresses.  
• Please be cautious when other users reach out requesting that take other action on your account, or to share or update any payment details. 

Romance/relationship scams. Scammers may attempt to build a relationship or romance over direct message, leading to requests for information or to borrow money. In this scenario, scammers may spend weeks or months building trust and engaging in conversations before they make a request for money, a loan, or another request. Please remember to always: 

• Be very careful when communicating with users over DM, especially people seeking a romantic connection then asking for money.  
• Do not share personal or banking information with anyone over DM.  

Giveaway scams. Scammers may approach users over direct message telling them they’ve won a free item then requesting that the user pays shipping fees, customs fees or other fees to ship the item.  Please note: 

• Be very careful when communicating with users over DM, especially when people ask you for advance fees or costs to receive a “free” item. 
• Do not share personal or banking information with anyone over DM.  

Impersonating buyers in a livestream. Scammers may impersonate a buyer in a livestream after the actual buyer left the livestream. In this scenario, once the buyer purchases an item and leaves the livestream, the scammer impersonates that buyer by changing their username and profile picture then offers to sell the purchased product(s) or asks to open the sealed products and sells to a third person in the chat / DM. Please note: 

• Sellers must always confirm that they are shipping products to the original buyer, and sellers should never open sealed products without double checking if the person asking is the real buyer. 
• Sales must only take place via livestream or marketplace, not via DM or otherwise.