Selling a high ticket item on Facebook Marketplace. Paranoid about scams.

thefunkygibbon

thefunkygibbon

thefunkygibbon

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Joined
8 Nov 2002
Posts
160
Hi all,

I'm selling my old graphics card (I don't have access to ocuk selling forums any more since the great wipe 20 years back lol) and I've listed it on fb marketplace. I've never sold such a high ticket item on there before, but a "guy" has messaged me asking to buy it, pay extra for postage and send to his "son at uni".

He wants to pay paypal, which i'd rather not as I advertised as cash/bt on collection (wasn't intending to post).

the paranoid in me is concerned that I could be being scammed somehow as I'm always hearing about some scam or another. I've been massively out of pocket before selling things (amazon marketplace though... never again)

I cannot see anything on the persons profile other than name and a photo.

Can't they just simply claim that I didn't send what I was supposed to, or claim it as faulty or that sort of thing? Obviously the card is 100% working fine and I don't intend to scam them, but I note that the paypal buyers protection seems to be a lot more robust than any protection offered to sellers.


thanks in advance
 
thanks, but my point is, whats the scam? how can you tell? how are you supposed to even sell things online/via paypal if you run the risk of this happening?
whats the best way to sell these days?
 
thefunkygibbon said:
thanks, but my point is, whats the scam? how can you tell? how are you supposed to even sell things online/via paypal if you run the risk of this happening?
whats the best way to sell these days?
Click to expand...
Dodgy PayPal and untraceable address.

You aren't supposed to sell things remotely over marketplace. It's for locals to pay cash. Much like Gumtree.
 
thefunkygibbon said:
thanks, but my point is, whats the scam? how can you tell? how are you supposed to even sell things online/via paypal if you run the risk of this happening?
whats the best way to sell these days?
Click to expand...

He will claim you sent him a brick and make a claim to paypal, he doesn't even need to do it straight away, but has 6 months to do it.
 
thefunkygibbon said:
thanks, but my point is, whats the scam? how can you tell? how are you supposed to even sell things online/via paypal if you run the risk of this happening?
whats the best way to sell these days?
Click to expand...

if you sell online to anyone that is not part of any feedback history that you can view then you will get scammed at some point, probably very quickly.
 
Raymond Lin said:
He will claim you sent him a brick and make a claim to paypal, he doesn't even need to do it straight away, but has 6 months to do it.
Click to expand...

ok, yes i was fearing itmight be something like that. 6 months!? thats ridiculous!. Is there nothing which a seller can do to mitigate such a claim such as taking shedloads of photos of the package and so on. even a video of packaging it and taking it to the post office lol.
 
Marketplace is better for when they come to your house and pay cash. If you are worried they may bring fake cash - can happen but rare - then get them to do bank transfer in front of you. Only then do you hand it over.
 
thefunkygibbon said:
and how would this be any different to selling on ebay?
Click to expand...

Ebay has a feedback system so is less exposed to fraud.

It's not fool-proof of course and scams can (and do) happen on Ebay, but at least there is some level of accountability (verified addresses, feedback etc).

FB Marketplace is a scam paradise, hence the "cash on collection" always touted here.
 
ci_newman said:
Ebay has a feedback system so is less exposed to fraud.

It's not fool-proof of course and scams can (and do) happen on Ebay, but at least there is some level of accountability (verified addresses, feedback etc).

FB Marketplace is a scam paradise, hence the "cash on collection" always touted here.
Click to expand...

Negative feedfback only applies to sellers. A buyer could be a prolific scammer and the seller wouldn't know about it.
 
Raymond Lin said:
He will claim you sent him a brick and make a claim to paypal, he doesn't even need to do it straight away, but has 6 months to do it.
Click to expand...

In this case will likely claim account was compromised with the different billing and delivery addresses.

Another one they'll try with this is paying you from a compromised account and trying something like they are having trouble transferring money to their son so can they pay you the extra and you pay their son keeping £20 or whatever for the trouble... then the original payment gets reversed by the legit account owner's bank and you are out the item and extra money you'll have a nightmare reclaiming.
 
Last edited:
thefunkygibbon said:
Hi all,

I'm selling my old graphics card (I don't have access to ocuk selling forums any more since the great wipe 20 years back lol) and I've listed it on fb marketplace. I've never sold such a high ticket item on there before, but a "guy" has messaged me asking to buy it, pay extra for postage and send to his "son at uni".

He wants to pay paypal, which i'd rather not as I advertised as cash/bt on collection (wasn't intending to post).

the paranoid in me is concerned that I could be being scammed somehow as I'm always hearing about some scam or another. I've been massively out of pocket before selling things (amazon marketplace though... never again)

I cannot see anything on the persons profile other than name and a photo.

Can't they just simply claim that I didn't send what I was supposed to, or claim it as faulty or that sort of thing? Obviously the card is 100% working fine and I don't intend to scam them, but I note that the paypal buyers protection seems to be a lot more robust than any protection offered to sellers.


thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Are they close, cash only sell.
 
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