Innovative Strategies to Safeguard Yourself from Fraudsters on Facebook Marketplace

Facebook has become a trendy way of promoting and selling products worldwide, including in Pakistan. To avoid walking for hours to the market and arguing with shopkeepers, people worldwide are now shopping online. While thousands of people are seen tirelessly enjoying this shopping, many have lost their money and valuables at the hands of the shoplifters. 

Fraudsters are also increasingly active on this platform for online shopping, some of them using shady methods to dupe their victims. Not surprisingly, Chris’s high-end laptop wasn’t being used, so he sold it and advertised it on Facebook’s marketplace. A potential buyer was contacted through the site. They checked his online profile and found no reason not to trust him. But all was not as it seemed at the time. 

Facebook was an excellent place for Chris to make some quick cash. They uploaded photos and descriptions of the laptop and exchanged six or seven messages with the potential buyer. According to Lucy, the man asked all the right questions and wanted to see the item before buying. 

We thought an actual buyer would want to see it first,” he said. Lucy says there was nothing suspicious about her Facebook profile. His photos were of his wife and children. It also contained information about where they lived and what they did. He welcomed him into his home and offered him a drink. He was a warm and friendly person, talking about being a father himself and the difficulties of parenting. 

He also met their three-month-old daughter. ‘He seemed interested in us and Elodie,’ said Lucy. After showing him the laptop, he agreed to a price of £700. The man then opened what looked like a banking app on his phone. Lucy says it looked real: ‘It was a famous bank. Chris saw the home page and the transfer click-through page.

 Chris types his bank details into the man’s phone. Even after 15 minutes, the funds were not cleared. But they were reassured and were shown some words on the banking website about the two-hour transfer. Elodie was hungry, and Lucy didn’t want to feed her in front of a stranger in the house, so they let her take the computer. 

It was getting dark, and the money still needed to be received. The couple tried to call him, but their number was blocked. His Facebook profile also disappeared. They realised that they had been cheated. He knew our address. It made us feel unsafe in our own home with a newborn baby. He informed his bank, the police, and Facebook about the fraud but said no one had investigated it. 

Lucy says Facebook wanted links to the man’s profile but blocked us so that we couldn’t see it. ‘We have his phone number, our neighbours’ CCTV recording of his car,’ she says. But no one is interested in it. I don’t think anyone will stop them.

Scammer tactics to watch out for:

• Action Fraud says that no one can avoid being a victim of fraud. He has highlighted several such tactics that one needs to be aware of. 

• Criminals will pretend to be essential statistics or people from famous organisations.

•  Anyone who is rash cannot be trusted.

•  Cheaters usually use emotional tactics so that you listen to your heart and not your head. 

•  Fear of missing out on a good deal can also be used against you.

• Is someone trying to gain your trust by showing interest in your family or circumstances? 

I don’t know how they sleep:

Emma Kalby is familiar with all these tactics as she was also targeted by fraudsters who used her company name to put on a fake craft fair. ‘People trusted us as a business,’ says Emma, ​​who runs Knotty Nets and Creative Crafts with her husband Andy in Loughborough, Leicestershire. The couple is known for their loyal customer base. 

One of their customers saw an ad for the event, and since neither Andy nor Emma had posted it, ​​they suspected it was a scam.  ‘Facebook Marketplace is an add-on to the existing social media site. You should treat it like a classified ad in a newspaper. 

You need to find out who posted this ad. We don’t want anyone to become a victim of criminals,” Facebook Marketplace said in response to questions from the BBC. People can report such content with a few simple clicks and we will cooperate with the police to investigate it. Our trained team reviews complaints 24 hours daily and immediately removes offending accounts.’