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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)

#141

Post by pasttense01 »

burningChrome wrote: post #113
JohnnyD10 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 lik…

No. Zelle is widely used as is Cash App. Which is more popular varies with your location, your age, your socio-economic status.

I'm surprised you consider Stripe widely used among small, part-time sellers.

But if I were buying something to be mailed I would insist on either credit card payment or Paypal.

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

#142

Post by retrocryptid »

This whole post sounds scammy. There's no way to "call" PayPal. If the author would have said "spent two hours in a fruitless attempt to find a phone number on PayPal's web site," then I might have believed them.

But I can't figure out what the scam is here. Why make up a story like this? Maybe it's some weird way to train a 3rd party LLM? It finds some text on the internet and just includes it into its training set. Months later it barfs out sentences about "calling" PayPal? Seems like a lot of work.

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

#143

Post by w-ll »

masto wrote: post #138
w-ll wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That was the one. Two for $70 in my case.

Wow, i was half serious but did buy it from the IG ad, and 3 months later after seeing the ad over and over, notice the orignal creator kept tracking the scams and posting in the ad comments it was a scam, I reported it to paypal, and the day after that (roughly 2-3 months) they shipped it, and it was wack.... like parts of it seemed to be machined, but not the acutally thing from the video from the og prop maker.

Edit: for anyone wondering here is mine: https://i.imgur.com/wc9hgwM.jpeg

It's not the worst thing, but definitely not what the ad showed, it showed the movie style twist and pop. Every part onb this is loose/free floating.

I cant seem to find the original ad or the scam ads, but this is what I'm at least referring too.

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

#145

Post by emayljames »

gambiting wrote: post #93

I don't mean to be funny, but like.....why is Facebook Marketplace even allowed to exist at this point? Clearly they do literally 0 vetting of anything - I've literally just opened it right now, and the first 3 "sponsored listings" are: 1) Fake UK passports/driving licences 2) Fake UK banknotes(literally advertised as passing UV tests) 3) Drugs. Like like literally just magic mushrooms advertised on facebook - says v…

Yeah omg, I have seen those. TBH I don't know if it is undercover cops or just really the absolute wild west that is FB.

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

#147

Post by fuzzfactor »

w-ll wrote: post #143
masto wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the one. Two for $70 in my case.

Wow, i was half serious but did buy it from the IG ad, and 3 months later after seeing the ad over and over, notice the orignal creator kept tracking the scams and posting in the ad comments it was a scam, I reported it to paypal, and the day after that (roughly 2-3 months) they shipped it, and it was wack.... like parts of it seemed to be machined, but not the acutally thing from the video from the og prop maker. Ed…

Interesting.

It's difficult to second-guess a scammer but this could very well be something that started out like a scam with the intention of shipping nothing, but within 3 months turned into more like a Kickstarter where they got a bonanza of buyers beyond expectations and decided to build and ship some products after all.

At least ship to the wheels that squeak enough.

And only ship when product is available, it doesn't have to be a sustainable business if it was supposed to be fly-by-night to begin with. So they could quit any time, or keep going for quite some time even after "inventory" has been fully depleted.

Could be about the reverse of the Kickstarters that started out legitimate but end up the equivalent of a scam when they fail to deliver anything.

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

#149

Post by Elizabeth0147 »

edent wrote: post #6

There's a lovely line in the original BitCoin paper which says: > Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers. The word "easily" is doing a lot of the heavy lifting there! Escrow is a difficult problem to solve. There is no infallible smart-contract which can protect both buyers and sellers.…

[dead]

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

#150

Post by ProllyInfamous »

edent wrote: post #6

There's a lovely line in the original BitCoin paper which says: > Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers. The word "easily" is doing a lot of the heavy lifting there! Escrow is a difficult problem to solve. There is no infallible smart-contract which can protect both buyers and sellers.…

Many people don't realize the bitcoin protocol allows for multisignature transactions, making escrow much simpler to implement (e.g. you can make a 2of3 keypair or 3of5 or anything you want to pay for blockchain space to transact).
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