Does this sound like some sort of scam on Facebook Marketplace?

kissenger

kissenger

kissenger

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I have a MacBook Pro advert on Marketplace. A guy messages me. We agree a price of £900. (£100 under asking). He turns up the next day to collect…

He says he took an Uber to get there. He seems really nervous and he’s wearing a mask outside even though I’m not. I try to convince him he doesn’t need the mask but he won’t take it off. I was a bit sceptical with it being Marketplace and I wanted to see if he was who the pics showed (very hard to tell). While we were chatting I ask him where he came from and he said a different place to what his FB profile (which barely contains any info) says. So, he inspects the MacBook a bit, asks a few questions, and in the end says he’s happy with it but that he didn’t bring the money. At this point I’m even more sceptical so I butt in to say I’d like payment by IBT in any case. He says he will go home, send half the money so that I hold it and come back tomorrow to collect. He leaves and I send him my details. After that I check him FB profile again and it’s gone.

I could be worried about nothing and I still have the laptop, but I can’t help feel like he was trying some sort of scam. What do you guys think?
 
Angilion said:
The mask? I'd do the same as they did. There's a pandemic going on and getting worse. Yes, I know we're all supposed to pretend the pandemic has disappeared. But it hasn't.

Wrong address on a scanty Facebook profile? Maybe they moved and they don't really use Facebook and/or don't fancy broadcasting usable personal information to the world (hence the scantiness of the profile, in both cases). It isn't mandatory yet.

But going to an arranged place to buy an arranged thing and not bringing the arranged payment? That's a red flag. Deleting the Facebook profile afterwards? Red flag.

Maybe there's a legitimate explanation. Maybe they were really nervous about being outside for some reason. A phobia, maybe. Maybe they were suspicious of you and lied about not having the money on them. Maybe they were nervous because they were carrying a lot of cash on them. Maybe. But I think you're right to suspect a scam. What details did you give them and are those details useful to a scammer?
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I gave bank details for the IBT. Unless I’m mistaken they can’t do anything with those. The rest was just casual chat about jobs etc.
 
Semple said:
From my reading of the OP the look over the laptop was done outside. OP mentions the potential buyer was wearing a mask outside. So he shouldn't have been able to get much of a view of what's in side / security set up. It's one of the reasons if i sell anything on gumtree/fb then i tend to have the bits outside on the driveway / behind the back gate when they come to collect.

But i agree, it's definitely an easy way to scope out potential victims.
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I did invite him in. He seemed keen to do it outside.
 
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