Facebook Marketplace Scams – The Facebook marketplace creates an opportunity for people to buy and sell to people in their community. So, you can sell your old chunks or even business products to people in your locations.
Facebook marketplace just creates a platform for people to make profits off personal items or their products-an online platform where buyers and sellers can conduct transactions with ease.
There is no option for payment; all Marketplace does is help buyers and sellers meet. Then you can continue your transactions either on Facebook messenger or someplace else.
Despite being such a convenient platform to buy & sell, Marketplace has become a den for scam artists.
Everyone is expected to have a profile to participate on the Facebook marketplace, but no matter how good they look in their profile pictures you can never tell what they are capable of till you get know them in real life.
Most times, sellers post listings of authentic products only to end up selling the counterfeit to you. So, you find it very frustrating even to conduct businesses on Marketplace.
Facebook has a long history of scam, and the marketplace feature is not left out of this. The platform which is meant to be a place people meet to conduct transactions with people in their community has ended up becoming a paradise for scammers.
There are lots of stories about marketplace scams which makes it rather important for every participant to be at alert to stay safe on the platform.
Tips on How to Avoid The Facebook Marketplace Scams
Just like most peer-to-peer websites like Craigslist, eBay, Facebook Marketplace is susceptible to scams. You have a great role to play in keeping yourself safe on Facebook marketplace, so you have to pay close attention to these tips to avoid marketplace scams:
- Check the sellers’ profile to know if they are genuine. Go through the seller’s profile to get to know more about them. Avoid sellers with new Facebook profiles like a day-old or a week-old.
- Use Facebook Messenger cautiously, Ensure to keep your personal information private and don’t give it out to just anyone on messenger because you believe they are within your community.
- Ask the seller information about themselves, and if you are having any doubts about their authenticity, then do not conduct transactions with them.
- Use a secured platform for payments like PayPal. Most scam artists may require you pay or they pay you through money order or wire transfer, do not accept these methods. With a platform like PayPal, you’re secured and can get your money back even if you don’t receive the item you paid for.
- Meet sellers or buyers in a safe place; if you find anything suspicious about them, you can contact the police. Avoid meeting in hidden places, unfamiliar places or even their homes.
- Ship Items locally to avoid allowing buyers to scam you. Also, limit the methods of payments to only trust-worthy payment platforms.
- Always make an exchange at the same time, exchange money and the item at the same time.
- If you find the profile of a scammer or find an item you suspect is a scam just click the “Report Post” option and follow the necessary instructions to report the scam artist.