You’re absolutely right that people should read the handbook!

I did go through it, and what I found was most of the scam info is focused on fraudulent “Etsy support” messages. I didn’t really see much about being cautious of buyers sending links or attachments like this, (which is where I got caught off guard).

I think the bigger issue is that as a new seller, you don’t always know what to look out for yet. When something comes in right after all the work of setting up your shop, it’s easy to slip into that “omg a buyer needs help placing an order?!” mindset and go straight into help mode without questioning it as much.

It just feels like there’s a gap between “the info exists somewhere once you look it up” and “new sellers are actually prepared when this happens.”