Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

ben.page

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 154 posts

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#81

Post by ssl-3 »

TonyTrapp wrote: post #59
gertlex wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be an option you turned on? I don't experience 2FA for paypal... But I'll probably go fix that today.

I'm pretty sure it's part of "the algorithm". I don't get 2FA prompts every time, but ever so often for it to be annoying - especially since I am then thrown back to the login prompt which dares to tell me that the password from my password manager was wrong. No, it wasn't wrong, your system apparently just cannot handle going from a password prompt to 2FA and then realizing that the correct password was already ente…

It is apparently very inconsistent.

My own experience with using PayPal usually (as in: almost always) goes like this:

I get a PayPal popup that says something like "You're already logged in! One moment," and then once that goes away I push the whatever button corresponds to "Yeah, sure -- pay it."

It's generally a one-button operation for me, and has been for years.

I wonder what the differentiation is.

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#82

Post by paxys »

gnicholas wrote: post #64
purpleflame1257 wrote: post #4

When I do FB marketplace I go cash and in-person. It lets you assess the quality of whatever you're buying.

I know others have had good success with FB Marketplace, but man I only see scams. I've posted stuff there and on Nextdoor and CL, and I get 10x the number of scam buyers on FB. I stopped even trying to post stuff there, since it was all chaff and no wheat. Kind of surprising, considering I live in SV, just a few miles from FB HQ. I'd think there would be plenty of legit users here!

I've bought/sold hundreds of items on FB Marketplace and never had a problem. The quality and response rate is significantly better than Craigslist, Nextdoor and others. The simple rule is – local, in-person meetup and cash only. If someone insists on anything else then just block and report them.

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#83

Post by khalilravanna »

purpleflame1257 wrote: post #4

When I do FB marketplace I go cash and in-person. It lets you assess the quality of whatever you're buying.

Same. Only time I ever dealt with shipping on FB marketplace was the time I was selling my Steam Deck and some guy didn’t want to drive. So I said “How about I list it on eBay so we’re both protected, send you the link, and you buy it there”. He was on board and it worked well. Of course I had to eat eBay’s fee but better than getting scammed.

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#84

Post by Karellen »

EricE wrote: post #79
Gortal278 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's time to move away from Paypal and use a credit card when buying online. Fraud protection with credit cards is much stronger. Paypal has proven itself bad for consumers again and again.

It boggles my mind that people still think paypal is trustworthy.

s/still think/ever thought/

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#85

Post by bluGill »

LiquidPolymer wrote: post #80
balderdash wrote: post #72

Somewhat tangential - but one of my friends used to buy lots of concert tickets off Craigslist - but he had one simple rule - he’d only buy them unless the seller emailed from a corporate or school email account - it was pretty simple and effective - how is Facebook marketplace worse than Craigslist

I'm curious how Craigslist is bad? I'm a regular user and love the functionality of CL. I'm certainly aware of the many scammers operating on CL but have found them to be rather easy to spot and avoid. Of course, I have a rule - always meet in person and test the item. I'm not aware of anybody shipping items in CL which is where many of these problems arise. FWIW - I collect vintage portable music players (minidisc,…

Craigslist knows there are are lot of scams and so when you go to contact a seller they give a big warning that there are scams and so avoid them. Facebook accepts ad from scammers but gives you no warning that they do that. And not just things that marketplace, but they also accept ads from scammers and redirect you do their website for the scam - without any warning that it could be a scam.

I refuse to buy from Facebook because they mix things so that things that it seems I shouldn't have to beware of could be scams. I don't mind buying from a potential scammer - but I'll take extra action if I have reason to worry, which in turn means if you are not local to me I won't buy from you. There are a lot of things that I cannot get locally though, so I have to buy from someone who might or might not be scamming me, there I look for signs that it is not a scam - and there Facebook is not helpful in separating out scams from legitimate companies.

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#86

Post by bluGill »

the_snooze wrote: post #50
s0rce wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That limits you to buying stuff locally, its a good precaution but means you can't buy anything that is only available further away. I've had good luck buying stuff so far and saved money, I certainly could have got scammed and that would suck.

>That limits you to buying stuff locally, its a good precaution but means you can't buy anything that is only available further away. To me, that's an entirely reasonable trade-off. You sacrifice the breadth of the market available to you in exchange for greatly reducing your attack surface. You'll easily filter out the legions of machine-assisted international scammers if you require transactions to be in-person wit…

Like most people - I have a niche interest that doesn't have a large market locally. When I want something that everyone in the country has there is no problem. When I want something unusual though I need to expand to a larger market than local to have a chance of finding it.

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#87

Post by jayrobin »

JohnnyD10 wrote: post #68
bhouston wrote: post #40

Been using Marketplace for 5 years with probably +100 items sold. Scammers in my experience usually exhibit these traits: * They have a new account, and have no Marketplace reviews. * They want it shipped and will pay extra for shipping. (While some real sellers will want it shipped, most will come by to pick it up.) * They do not try to low ball you or even negotiate. (Facebook sellers are notoriously cheap.) * Ther…

There's another red flag I've seen: buyers ask to pre-pay on the spot without having seen the item. They usually want to use Zelle or Venmo, and say they're going to have a relative come pickup the item.

Happened to me the other day. I got a weird feeling when they responded with a long message within seconds of me messaging (maybe it’s partially automated?), then when they wanted to pay upfront with Zelle and asked for my email I knew it was a scam.

At that point they’d send you a fake Zelle/Venmo phishing email, saying you need to upgrade to a business account, or “login” and do something else to accept the payment.

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#88

Post by lazide »

nradov wrote: post #61
toss1 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If so, the idea you can safely leave stuff in a car is the triumph of anecdotes over data. Long ago when starting a software & network company, I got a commercial insurance policy on the computer equipment. It covered everything , suprisingly including the usual exceptions such as war, terrorism, Acts Of God, lightning, fire, etc. But, there was ONE thing it did not cover: "Theft from an unattended motor vehicle". I…

Theft from a parked car would typically be covered under an auto or homeowners insurance policy, and most of those contain no such exclusions (although there are limits on covered losses). I don't understand what point you're trying to make by bringing up commercial insurance which is irrelevant to most people.

That the actuaries of that insurance know it was such a big problem they expressly excluded it.

Also, many auto and homeowners insurance policies have low (or no) coverage for personal property theft in cases like this, at least for computers, etc. unless you expressly pay for it.

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#89

Post by jolt42 »

w-ll wrote: post #77
masto wrote: post #58

I like to think I'm pretty scam-savvy, but it only takes a moment of the holes in the swiss cheese aligning. I saw a recreation of a movie prop that looked like a good gift idea for a friend and made an impulse purchase. Something was nagging at the back of my head and a couple of minutes later I had a sinking feeling that it might be a scam -- sure enough, a little research showed that the product photos were stolen…

Was it the Jurassic Park Barbasol Can? I got it as an Instagram ad, $30 lesson.

I was thinking if that camera was only $30 I'm not sure I'd jump thru the hoops, and so more people would get scammed.

Re: How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

#90

Post by jolt42 »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #7
purpleflame1257 wrote: post #4

When I do FB marketplace I go cash and in-person. It lets you assess the quality of whatever you're buying.

This is the way. Does FB Marketplace even have any sort of reputation system? Or are you banking entirely on the age of the account? I'm a heavy Facebook user, but I avoid FB Marketplace like the plague. Just seems like a great place to get scammed.

Since I only deal with "in person" sales, to me it's less sketchy than most eBay purchases. I had a similar happening to this story, but with eBay. I don't know why they bothered trying the scam, I got my money back relatively easy, just had to be patient.
Post reply on HN