RICHMOND, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- More people are looking to their own homes and belongings to bring in some money, but there are things to watch out for when it comes to buying or selling used items online.

The Better Business Bureau serving Central Virginia urges consumers to be on the lookout for buyers who want to pay more than the listed price, because offers that seem "too good to be true" likely are.

According to a release, the organization is seeing a lot of scam reports mentioning Facebook Marketplace, though such reports also come in about other services.

People can post just about any items for sale online, from clothes to electronics to vehicles.

Sometimes a buyer will reach out and offer more money than what is being asked for, and there may be a variety of reasons why.

The release says the scammer may claim they want to cover shipping and other fees or they may overpay through a digital wallet such as PayPal or Cash App, or they may mail a check for more than the asking price and then claim it was a mistake.

When the buyer asks for the return of the extra funds, the seller will likely find the initial payment was false, with the check bouncing or the online payment being denied.

This means the seller will lose the "returned" money and the item they were trying to sell.

There are some tips the BBB offers to avoid falling victim to an online selling scam.

First, people should not ship an item before receiving payment and making sure such payments are legitimate before shipping. If an item is shipped before the purchaser pays, the seller has no way of getting their item back.

People should also be wary of offers that appear too good to be true unless they are selling a rare or highly-desirable item that has several people bidding on it. If anyone tries to pay more than the list price, it should be considered a red flag.

There is also a risk of counterfeit emails as scammers are able to imitate emails from popular payment services, such as PayPal or Venmo. Any emails should be examined for obvious typos or grammatical errors and that come from a domain that is not official.

If a scam is spotted in an online marketplace, the person should report it. This can include dishonest buyers or sellers.

BBB has other tips available here.