Here in London, the Facebook Marketplace works surprisingly good and is very popular for selling chairs, tables, plants etc. to neighbours. As the marketplace has no verification features it is a paradise for scams.
I spend a few hours with some of them to see how they behave and if they become more professional in the recent years.
In terms of grammar skills and writing chat messages the scammers are on a surprisingly high level compared to the „old fashion“ email scams. Also most of the fake sellers spend a lot of time convincing me to buy. With some I had chats with more then 30 messages.
Here is a popular fake selling pattern:
- The scammer advertise gadgets like Nintendo Switch for cheap (but not super cheap).
- They ask you to collect but they send you an address outside of London.
- As option they offer you free/cheap shipping but with pre-payment.
- You will never get the parcel.
A few simple tricks to identify scammers:
- Pretend to be at the pick up address. They will come up with crazy ideas about why they are not at home.
- Ask them to transfer you £10 after you transfer £10. They will refuse it.
- Start a fake discussion about photos on their Facebook profile (good fun guaranteed)
What surprised me the most is the scammer use real Facebook profiles. Probably they are hacked but at the first sight, it looks like a real person is behind the ad.
Some conversions:
„Jane“ has no idea about her cover photo. When I told her I was in Barcelona once too she replayed how beautiful it is.
It is in Rome…
The fake profile
I cannot get into online banking
When I asked Jane to pay me £10 back she told me her online banking is not working. How would she see my full payment then?
My daughter is a home. She is 12.
When I told Kevin I am at the pickup location he told me his daughter is at home and I need to transfer the money.
In short: Stay alerted and never pay in advance :)