Selling exposes you to strangers rather than companies, which changes the threat entirely. The risk isn't marketing lists — it's scam approaches, pressure to move the conversation off-platform, and an address permanently tied to your listings and your location. Use a dedicated alias for selling, keep conversations on the platform, and treat any request to move to email or messaging as a signal in itself.
Why this is a different problem
Most email privacy is about organisations: who holds your address, what they do with it, how to revoke it. Marketplace selling is about individuals, some of whom are actively trying to defraud you.
That shifts what matters. The mail volume is small; the consequences of a single bad interaction are larger. And your address becomes associated with a listing that says what you own, roughly what it's worth, and approximately where you live.
The scams that arrive by email
- Overpayment. A "buyer" sends more than the price and asks you to refund the difference. The original payment reverses later.
- Fake payment confirmations. Convincing emails impersonating a payment provider, saying funds are held pending shipment. Ship, and there were never any funds.
- Off-platform pressure. "Let's continue by email" removes the platform's protections and record — which is precisely why it's asked for.
- Shipping-agent stories. An elaborate reason involving a courier or relative that ends with you paying something.
- Phishing your marketplace account. A fake "your listing has been reported" email leading to a login page.
Common thread: they need you off the platform and moving fast. Recognising phishing generally
The setup
- One alias for selling —
selling@yourdomain.comor per-platform if you use several. Never your personal address, and never your work one. - Keep conversations on the platform. The messaging system is a record, and platform protections generally only apply to transactions conducted through it.
- Treat "email me directly" as a flag. Legitimate buyers occasionally ask; scammers almost always do.
- Never accept a payment confirmation by email as proof. Check the actual account balance, at the provider, in a tab you opened yourself.
- Burn the alias when it goes bad. If a listing attracts persistent approaches, disable that address and list again under a new one — the whole point of it being separate.
If your address contains your real name and you're selling from home, you've connected a name, an approximate location and a list of valuables. That combination matters more than it would in an ordinary signup.
A neutral selling alias breaks the link — a strong argument against firstname.lastname@ in this context specifically. What an address gives away
What an alias doesn't do
It doesn't make you anonymous to a buyer — they may see your name, your approximate area, and eventually your address if you ship or meet. This is spam and scam-contact control, not concealment, and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise for a transaction involving a physical handover. The boundary
After the sale
Keep the alias alive while returns or disputes are possible. Once a listing is finished and settled, there's no reason to keep the address reachable — disable it, and use a fresh one next time you list. Sellers who reuse one address across years of listings accumulate exactly the exposure this avoids.