Suspension riskSP-3 · Seller Policy
Artificially inflating shop favorites, views, or sales through fake engagement is prohibited
What Etsy says
Shilling includes opening or using additional accounts posing as an independent buyer to take inauthentic action on the first account. This could include purchasing an item to leave a review for the first account, deceptively favoriting the first account's shop or listings, upvoting positive reviews on the first account.Read Etsy's full Seller Policy
How to stay compliant
- Stop any practice of using secondary accounts, friends' accounts, or family accounts to favorite your own listings or leave reviews.
- Do not purchase your own listings, even to test the checkout process — use the Etsy test purchase feature in Shop Manager instead.
- If you used a third-party service to boost favorites or reviews, stop immediately and do not purchase such services again.
- If Etsy has already flagged your account, contact Etsy Support and acknowledge the issue directly — attempting to hide the activity after detection makes outcomes worse.
Effort: low · 15-30 minutes
Suspended over this rule?
Generate a complete, ready-to-submit Etsy appeal for this exact violation in about 5 minutes.
Related seller policy rules
- Listings must not use irrelevant tags or keyword stuffing to manipulate searchWarning
- Operating duplicate shops to game visibility or evade suspension is prohibitedSuspension risk
- Sellers must not manipulate reviews through incentives, coercion, or retaliationSuspension risk
- Harassing or abusive communication with buyers or other members is prohibitedSuspension risk
- Sellers must honor stated processing times and accurately represent their shipping locationWarning
- Sharing account credentials or granting unauthorized access to your shop is prohibitedWarning
- Sellers must accurately represent their identity and shop locationSuspension risk