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How I got scammed on Facebook Marketplace (2023)

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

#111

Post by dawnerd »

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.

I had an eBay sell once for an expensive camera and the buyer asked if I could change into pickup and have a relative pick it up. Was suuuuuuuper sus but because it was local and paid through eBay I figured sure let’s see where it goes. Went totally fine. Had the person sign a an invoice not that it would do anything on the eBay front.

Scammers know it’s hard to judge sometimes. Heck there’s always the risk someone just comes and runs off without paying.

Now on marketplace I say cash only in person in public and when the person shows up then I offer Zelle or cash whatever. That seems to have stopped most of the automatic scam attempts.

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

#112

Post by dawnerd »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #48
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's a great place to get goods cheap. Stolen goods, that is.

Or just stay away from people selling brand new products below msrp.

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

#113

Post by burningChrome »

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.

The Zelle thing is a huge red flag for me.

I almost got scammed by a couple on Facebook Marketplace. They had a Mac Mini they were selling for about $20 less than the going rate I had found on ebay so I initiated contact and we agreed on the price. I asked how they do payment, Paypal, Venmo, Stripe?

None of the above. The husband kept telling me sob stories about why they don't use any of them - only Zelle. I was like, I don't have that, and I'm not setting up another payment app just for one purchase.

That's when the scam and the sketchy feelings started creeping into my brain. They told me to go get a prepaid card, and then send it and they'll ship the Mac Mini when they get it. They were a few cities over and just like OP said, they didn't want to arrange a pickup. I was like, "Yeah, fuck that, you send the PC first and THEN I'll send the money." Then the husband told me if they were going to do that, I can just scratch off the security label and send then the code for safe keeping, and then they'll send the Mac Mini when they get the code.

That was the last straw - I told them to fuck off and go scam someone else. I got few nasty texts from the husband before blocking them.

Scammers use Zelle because nobody else uses it, which then forces people to go to great lengths to get something and will start to jump through hoops. I was wondering how many other people this couple had scammed before I contacted them.

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

#114

Post by seattle_spring »

vvilliamperez wrote: post #100

I just had a Facebook marketplace camera scam happen to me Today. Seller marked as shipped, and delivered, but my package wasn't there. After some sleuthing (I knew a guy who works in UPS) the seller put a different ship to address. So Facebook marketplace isn't doing something as simple as verifying the tracking label is heading to the right destination. Only doing E-bay from here on out. They have this problem solv…

FB Marketplace should only be used for in-person transactions. Think of it more like a craigslist replacement than one for eBay.

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

#115

Post by burningChrome »

meindnoch wrote: post #96
RajT88 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get downvoted for saying this every time I post it here, but a huge number of facebook adverts are scams of various sorts. Some are as you say - you order something and never receive it. Straight up Some are fast fashion companies which get spun up quickly with slick ads and websites, which are somehow "going out of business" even though they were registered less than 2 months ago. Some are kickstarters for product…

"Sadly, we're closing our shop... :( The whole inventory is 80% off while the stocks last." Oldest trick in the book.

Back in the day, you'd see some semi-truck park in a lot and then two dudes with thick AF Southern accents would get out and tell people they tried to deliver all these items to the warehouse, but the warehouse refused the shipment (insert various reasons why) and they can't go back to Ken-tuck-yee without getting rid of it all.

They said they're selling (furniture, electronics, clothing, art) it all for 80-90% off retail. You know, just so they get it off the truck and get back home. I remember working in a commercial area and the owner of the business would come and tell the guys to GTFO their property so they'd pull out and then pull into the next driveway over and rinse and repeat until they were out of the area.

It was a total scam though. My boss bought some couch and said it started falling apart after a few months. I'm not sure these guys had stolen all the stuff, or if the truck got hijacked our what, but during the Summer it was a regular thing that happened a few times every month.

I'd be interested to find out if anybody else remembers these "truck load" scams in the late 90's early aughts.

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

#116

Post by neilv »

VHRanger wrote: post #103
neilv wrote: post #98

> Instead of closing it, I pretended that I couldn’t see the case on my end and even sent doctored screenshots of the case not showing up. You can handle a potential scammer without behaving like a scammer yourself. You might want to be known as a person who's always honest, not a person who tries to decide when it's OK to act dishonestly. (In this case, it sounds like the writer guessed correctly that the other part…

Thanks, Immanuel Kant

For people who have different ideas of what's good practice in normal life, maybe a helpful exercise is to imagine that example in a business context:

"Bob, uh, did you say you doctored a document from a regulated financial institution? And passed it off in a representation in a business transaction? It was inter-state commerce? And you think the transaction might get disputed, and be investigated? ... OK, I think we need to go talk with Legal right now."

Of course, just because something is bad in the conventions of business, doesn't mean it should be considered bad outside of business. But thinking about why it's considered bad in one set of conventions could be helpful.

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

#117

Post by robinsonb5 »

ochronus wrote: post #37
behnamoh wrote: post #21

How the heck such a FB account is not banned yet? The author said it was created in 2017.

When I was still using facebook ages ago, I repeatedly reported trivially fake accounts. Every single time they concluded the accounts are fine.

It hasn't improved - I still do it from time to time, with the same results.

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

#118

Post by hbn »

croemer wrote: post #75
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

You probably meant to write "as long as" or "if" not "unless"

Or

s/'d only/ wouldn't/

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

#119

Post by BobaFloutist »

Gortal278 wrote: post #62
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…

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.

The advantage of PayPal is you don't have to give anyone your payment information.

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

#120

Post by dragonwriter »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #119
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.

The advantage of PayPal is you don't have to give anyone your payment information.

But you do: you have to give PayPal your payment information.

Sure, you don't have to give other people your information, but honestly there are few people that I’d want to business with that I feel less comfortable giving payment information to than PayPal.

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