I just had an attempted scam on Facebook marketplace just now, be aware, this is how it went down:
I put the ad up last night and I think about an hour later (or immediately, not sure if the ad was still under review by FB) the person Van Moer Patrick messaged me asking if it was still available:
They left immediately after being pushed back on giving an email. I read online that getting your email was one of the common scam techniques, for various reasons.
The red flags I noticed was:
- Getting a 'driver' to pickup the item. And the weird phrase about the driver not expecting to make a sale(??) - must be a thing in the country the scammer is from.
- Some replies were immediate, like the two messages after I said the time and payID. I imagine the scammer was using a bot to reply when certain phrases were found. When I asked what the confirmation was for, it took some time - I guess the scammer had to manually look at the message to respond.
- All replies were fairly quick, within the hour - not worrying in itself but more-so in combination with other red flags
- Very quick to message after the ad was posted
- No haggling or asking for more info (The list price was over 1k)
- Strange profile, very little recent activity, lots of photos and activity in Belgium but many years ago (~2012). No photo of themselves in profile pic.
- No direct reference to, or discussion about,the item being sold
Be careful out there
You must be new here.