Can I get scammed from a FB buyer?

Reuben klang said:
**** sake.

So basically if you want to really **** someone just send them money with a stolen account. :D

No iffs buts or maybes. Just suspended like that? Seems ridiculous.

Wonder how a digital only bank would deal with that.

Back on topic - cash is king for second hand market. Wouldn’t surprise me even if you got paid via PayPal if they started a claim.
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It was grim.
I had to prove I was innocent. Download transcript of our conversation, prove my identity etc.

I believe someone accessed this person's bank account (ie thier online banking!) and bought stuff from me. It was Halifax to Halifax too.


I was quite lucky.
I had a second bank account with santander which was untouched so I could buy food for example!

And it happened on 5th of the month. Most of my DDs had gone out and my rent/salary were month end.

Had it had happened on 28th... Imagine the damage to credit file etc.


It was days before I realised. I initially just thought it was my card was not working. And I had a credit card. So no biggy.
It was only when I went on Internet banking and got the "no access" that I realised. At no point did they reach out. Apparently it's to not tip off any criminals.


But yeah. Really hit home how vulnerable you are to "the system"

If I didn't have another account I wouldn't even be able to buy food!
 
A £650 mobile phone is not the sort of thing you should list on marketplace. Anybody worth dealing with is unlikely to be buying a phone at that price point on Marketplace. All the rest are going to either be hard work or scammers. In your shoes I am selling it to a reputable company and accepting that will be for a lower price.
 
I’ve found a few key things about buying and selling in FB.

1. Don’t buy anything unless it’s in person.

2. If you’re selling, the scammers do a few key things that give them away:

2.1 they send an offer for the full value. Frankly, I wouldn’t trust anyone that doesn’t negotiate.

2.2 if they don’t ask any questions whatsoever about the thing you’re selling.

2.3 they ask for your bank details and then say they need your email address.

2.4 they say they can’t pick it up but their cousin or someone will turn up.

If they don’t meet any of those criteria there seems to be a decent chance that they’re an actual human being.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I’ve found a few key things about buying and selling in FB.

1. Don’t buy anything unless it’s in person.

2. If you’re selling, the scammers do a few key things that give them away:

2.1 they send an offer for the full value. Frankly, I wouldn’t trust anyone that doesn’t negotiate.

2.2 if they don’t ask any questions whatsoever about the thing you’re selling.

2.3 they ask for your bank details and then say they need your email address.

2.4 they say they can’t pick it up but their cousin or someone will turn up.

If they don’t meet any of those criteria there seems to be a decent chance that they’re an actual human being.
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Agreed. These are all red flags.
Often they try to seem keen. But when it comes to buying they'll try it remotely. And hope you're invested enough to go along with it.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I’ve found a few key things about buying and selling in FB.

1. Don’t buy anything unless it’s in person.

2. If you’re selling, the scammers do a few key things that give them away:

2.1 they send an offer for the full value. Frankly, I wouldn’t trust anyone that doesn’t negotiate.

2.2 if they don’t ask any questions whatsoever about the thing you’re selling.

2.3 they ask for your bank details and then say they need your email address.

2.4 they say they can’t pick it up but their cousin or someone will turn up.

If they don’t meet any of those criteria there seems to be a decent chance that they’re an actual human being.
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Points 2.1 and 2.2 are only applicable if the item is mid or high value, or perhaps a moderately complex product. For a mobile yes but certainly not across the board.

I needed to pick up a clothes horse quickly the other week as one of ours broke. I did not see any need to negotiate down the £5 or ask for the technical specification.
 
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I never really regarded Facebook as a buy/sell place. It's more along the lines of Friends Reunited and Face Party with an instant messenger thrown in.

Anyone who works in a large organisation will have an internet noticeboard. I've sold a few phones including a £300 one no probs and accepted PayPal as payment method.

CEX for voucher (not cash) is another avenue and the voucher can be used towards new tech.

Ditto with Music Magpie, although CEX have bettered Magpie's offers in recent years in my experience.

I'm not sure how trustworthy eBay is nowadays as a seller, but I sold a DSLR for £350 no probs in late 2021 which isn't a million years ago.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I’ve found a few key things about buying and selling in FB.

1. Don’t buy anything unless it’s in person.

2. If you’re selling, the scammers do a few key things that give them away:

2.1 they send an offer for the full value. Frankly, I wouldn’t trust anyone that doesn’t negotiate.

2.2 if they don’t ask any questions whatsoever about the thing you’re selling.

2.3 they ask for your bank details and then say they need your email address.

2.4 they say they can’t pick it up but their cousin or someone will turn up.

If they don’t meet any of those criteria there seems to be a decent chance that they’re an actual human being.
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What the **** kind of numbering convention is this :mad:

You disgust me.
 
BowdonUK said:
Is there a reason people don't use PayPal to transfer money?
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IMO, too easy for the buyer to claim it didn't arrive. You can have tracking info, proof etc, but the buyer can say "yeah, I bought an iPhone and they sent me a calculator - here look at this photo of a calculator". So people don't trust it from a selling perspective.

Having said that, they then put way too much faith in bank transfers.
 
Jim99 said:
IMO, too easy for the buyer to claim it didn't arrive. You can have tracking info, proof etc, but the buyer can say "yeah, I bought an iPhone and they sent me a calculator - here look at this photo of a calculator". So people don't trust it from a selling perspective.

Having said that, they then put way too much faith in bank transfers.
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I wonder if someone will create a service that will hold money either for 28 days or until both sides have accepted the transfer is done.
 
BowdonUK said:
I wonder if someone will create a service that will hold money either for 28 days or until both sides have accepted the transfer is done.
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I vaguely remember people talking about escrow services and similar in the early days of eBay, but I guess it never really got anywhere.

I think you will always end up with this problem - imagine that you send me a phone. I can claim it's broken and that I want a refund, and then in theory I should get my money back. But only if I send the phone back to you. And then you could say "actually, that's not the phone I sent out". So now the "money service" is in exactly the same position, because they've got no way of knowing who is telling the truth. And even if they could figure it out by reading all the comms, going through the photographic evidence etc, the cost of that would be colossal and nobody would use the service.

I feel like that's the biggest issue with all of these - you're always going to end up relying on trust eventually, or a company big enough that they can afford to throw money at people or ban them to make them go away (e.g. eBay).
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I’ve found a few key things about buying and selling in FB.

1. Don’t buy anything unless it’s in person.

2. If you’re selling, the scammers do a few key things that give them away:

2.1 they send an offer for the full value. Frankly, I wouldn’t trust anyone that doesn’t negotiate.

2.2 if they don’t ask any questions whatsoever about the thing you’re selling.

2.3 they ask for your bank details and then say they need your email address.

2.4 they say they can’t pick it up but their cousin or someone will turn up.

If they don’t meet any of those criteria there seems to be a decent chance that they’re an actual human being.
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3. 99% of people on FB will waste your time, it's the wild west. Gumtree seems strangely more reliable.
 
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I can definitely confirm that a lot of the FB marketplace stuff is really suspect. I'd definitely suggest not buying anything of high value on there. A friend of mine bought some high end cycling parts, Only to have the police turn up at his door a couple of days later saying that he'd handled stolen goods. Thankfully he explained they bought it off Facebook marketplace and had all the receipts of the conversation and didn't get any charges pressed against him.
 
In the end, after having dozens of scammers message me, a local guy (through FB) collected and paid cash. :cool:


Just have to wait for ink to dry :D
 
FlyingFish said:
Well I've turned them down and listed it as collection only. They also gave a name and postal address that didnt match the name of the person I was chatting to! :rolleyes:

Quite a few people making enquiries, and yet none of them look like your average FB profiles. Only a few pictures, and very little info on their pages.

Its more effort than its worth!!
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Just send it to mazuma. Forget all that hassle man.
 
There is nothing at all wrong with FB if you use it for what it is; cash only/local. Same as Gumtree.
 
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