Based on the recent EB Games deal with pre ordering PS5 consoles my attention was drawn to these scams on FB marketplace.
They are everywhere. Usually offering the console, an extra controller and a game for around the 795$ mark. These deals are offered by certain individuals, their locations states eg. Melbourne but clicking on their private profiles their locations are Fiji, Poland, Papa New Guinea ect. Basically camouflaging their actual location but pretty obvious based on some of their profile pics. When contacted they will forward you to a store such as ABC Gadgets, Supreme Gadget Stores, New Age Gadgets. The owner of these FB stores keep changing the names all the time for obvious reasons.
When you check out the FB stores, they do not provide any physical address nor a link to an actual webpage of course. The pictures are some random ones of the internet. When I zoomed in on one you could clearly make out a sign in another language, turned out to be Turkish. After contacting them they usually go through their script with you. Mentioning deal details and asking for all your details, once that's done they provide you with their bank details. When asked for local pick up they are always conveniently in another location, usually South Australia even though the item location states otherwise. I mentioned that I had a family member able to pick it up for me. They provide you then with a random address, this one turned out to be a food store.
One of the first responders turned out to be a Polish student, once he realised what had been happening he told me to not pay under any circumstances, good on him! He said that he was contacted, would get paid weekly, he was asked to change his location to Melbourne and forward anyone interested to the mentioned stores.
The bank account is linked to an ING account. I have contacted the bank and advised of the scam but cannot imagine anything will come out of it.
These scams are so obvious but people must fall for it. Do you guys have had any experiences with it or any further inputs?
I feel for the people falling for them and they must work at times considering how many there are and they keep popping up.
FBM and Gumtree are about connecting people that live near each other for a cash transaction and a hand 2 hand transfer of goods.
Anything outside of that is a potential scam.
You cannot help people that can't help themselves.