Poshmark ScamsHow Sellers & Buyers Get Scammed on Poshmark & What It Means for Your Business

Selling Luxury Goods Online? Don’t Fall Victim to Poshmark Scams

If you’re operating in the luxury resale space, then you’re probably already familiar with Poshmark.

Founded in 2011, the social commerce platform has since grown to become the largest fashion-oriented marketplace in the world. Current user figures are hard to come by, but several outlets assert that the site has over 80 million users, with 8 million of those being resellers. Together, they generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales every month, including everything from shoes and bags to dresses and jewelery.

There’s a downside to these high-ticket, easy-to-resell luxury goods, though: they’re hot targets for scammers.

The platform features buyer protection in the form of Posh Protect. But, based on feedback from sellers that’ve been scammed, similar fraud liability guarantees appear to be absent for sellers. This allows fraudsters to exploit gaps in the platform’s payment processing technologies, return policies, and dispute resolution systems to con merchants out of revenue and inventory.

In this article, we take a closer look at the most prevalent Poshmark scams and their impact on the platform’s users. We follow up with actionable strategies you can use to protect your business, whether you sell on Poshmark or another eCommerce marketplace.

What Makes Poshmark Vulnerable to Scams?

The first point is that it’s easy for anyone, whether a legitimate user or fraudster, to create a Poshmark account. From a business standpoint, reducing friction at onboarding is a good idea. But, it does make the platform vulnerable to fraud.

For instance, users simply have to supply an email or social media profile to create a seller account, along with a verified phone number. Only when an account reaches $5,000 in gross sales does a user have to provide a social security number (SSN). These fairly lax requirements — coupled with the notable lack of biometric authentication or liveness detection at account creation — makes Poshmark prone to scams like new account fraud and synthetic identity theft,

As a platform for reselling, the merchandise itself can also be a target for scammers. Under the Poshmark Authenticate program, all items over $500 are inspected for signs that they are genuine originals. Items under this threshold go through no authentication process whatsoever, though. This means fraudsters posing as sellers can potentially sell counterfeit goods on the platform, if they’re savvy enough to fool buyers.

Finally, Poshmark has a 72-hour post-purchase hold period, which does not require the buyer to confirm delivery for funds to be released. Scammers posing as sellers can potentially swindle buyers out of their money simply by delivering a dummy item (or nothing at all).

Common Poshmark Scams Targeting Sellers

Scammers commonly target legitimate sellers on Poshmark, too. Some tactics include:

Scams Targeting Poshmark Buyers

As mentioned above, Poshmark buyers can be targeted by fraudsters posing as sellers on the platform. These scammers may:

The Impact of Poshmark Scams on Legitimate Businesses

Fraud conducted by scammers posing as buyers or sellers on Poshmark can cause sellers to lose out on revenue, inventory, and time. For example, disputes on Poshmark usually take one to two days to resolve, though more complex cases can take weeks to sort through.

Inventory shrinkage is another concern. In general, eCommerce sellers can expect to lose 1-3% of their inventory to fraud or theft.

Standard scams aside, platform-wide data breaches should also invite worry among legitimate buyers and sellers. In 2018, the platform suffered a data breach that exposed the email addresses, usernames, full names, genders, locations, and passwords of 36 million user accounts.

Later, in May 2025, reporters from Cybernews discovered “two…unsecured Azure Blob Storage containers holding a combined 1.6 million files…belonging to online shopping platforms Etsy, Poshmark, and TikTok Shop, [which contained] personally identifiable information such as full names, home addresses, email addresses, and shipping order details.”

The result of all this fraudulent activity? Losses for merchants in the immediate sense, as well as the loss of potential future profits, as buyers lose trust in the platform.

Poshmark Scam Red Flags & Warning Signs

While every fraudulent attack is unique, they often share some common red flags. Watch out for these warning signs when conducting business on Poshmark:

Poshmark Dispute Resolution & Recovery Options

When a buyer opens a dispute on Poshmark, the seller is notified and has just six hours to initiate a refund request before Poshmark’s team steps in. Buyers, however, can only dispute purchases if the items are not as described, damaged, incorrect, or counterfeit. All other sales are considered final.

If you believe you’re on the receiving end of an invalid dispute, you may be able to defend yourself with compelling evidence. Examples include clear, well-lit photos from the original listing, detailed descriptions that disclose any flaws, as well as video evidence of the item being packaged for shipment. When responding to a case, you should address Poshmark directly, not the buyer, and lay out your case objectively.

Poshmark often sides with buyers when the seller’s listing is vague or if the buyer provides compelling photo evidence of a discrepancy. If you lose the case, the buyer receives a prepaid label to return the item. Should the returned item not be in its original condition, you may report a problem with the return. In any case, Poshmark offers no protection whatsoever for transactions taken off-platform. 

Pursuing recovery through payment processors, however, is not an option even for on-platform transactions. That’s because Poshmark itself manages the payment.

For fraud involving high-value transactions, legal action may be a possibility, but the cost-benefit analysis often makes this impractical for smaller claims. A better strategy would be to build a “fraud loss reserve” by setting aside a small percentage of revenue of every purchase as a buffer against potential fraud losses down the road.

Fraud Prevention Strategies for Poshmark Sellers

Poshmark scams should be a concern for any seller operating on the platform. But, none of the scams often seen on Poshmark — including off-platform requests, return fraud, and counterfeit sales — are exclusive to the platform. They’re common across all P2P marketplaces like eBay, Mercari, and Depop.

Understanding the specific tactics used on one platform can help you anticipate and recognize them on others, as scammers often use similar playbooks everywhere. 

I have good news, though: there are plenty of moves sellers can make to protect themselves across all these P2P marketplaces. Some of the best advice I can offer is to:

Whether you’re selling on Poshmark or another marketplace, fraud risks are inevitable. But fraud losses are, to a certain degree, preventable. Take the time to examine your protocols from top to bottom and to identify potential risk sources.

P2P platforms like Poshmark can be a great way to get up and running as a seller… don’t let them become a source of loss.