Whatever happened to Facebook Marketplace?

[whomoon]

I am probably behind the times here, but what the hell has happened with Marketplace??

I have used it over the years to sell furniture, clothes, kitchen appliances etc, all having a few messages of interest and being sold to someone locally within a day or so. Simple.

But I uploaded two sofas for sale yesterday, the usual selection of photos, lots of information and I have been inundated with scam messages! I was fooled by the first one to give my email address for a PayPal payment and the email I received was just a blatant, poorly written, ‘send me £500 so I can send you the full amount back’ type email. Lesson learned, and I’m on high alert. But there have been 6 more and the pattern of messages are all so similar.

I realise this is the internet, there’s scammers out there, but I thought the second hand market might be quite buoyant with the COL crisis. But then looking around marketplace, there are so many sofas either Free or super cheap. Is it because no one uses it anymore? I’ve had no real interest in the sofas, so perhaps marketplace has had its day??

Does anyone still use it?

I heard this being discussed on Radio 4 "you and yours" the other day. They think it is "bots" initially as the scam messages started arriving 6 seconds after the ad was posted.

Asking you to pay "insurance" for a courier which actually just goes to the scammers bank account is common.

Yes! On both adverts, I received a message immediately after I posted it. The first time I assumed they were just on at the right time. The second one then became obvious it was a bot!

Sofas can’t be given away even for free round here, the expense and hassle of hiring a van puts everyone off.
Scammers presumably know that FB used mainly by older people (including me!) who are more likely to fall for scams, unfortunately.

Ours is unusable due to the volume of fake posts offering sofas/beds/anything for either free, or £66 with no description.

But actually I find fb pretty useless these days, shows me more adverts than friends/groups has weird algorithms which show me stuff I'm not interested in and the stuff I am interested in is always 3+days old

I always seem to get an immediate message saying 'is this item still available'. I think it's a ruse to get you to respond, but why??

Also the number of muppets who engage about an item I'm selling or giving free, then ask where I live. I always put 'collect from (postcode) ' and then they say I'm too far from them 😐 I think some people are just lonely and it's their only for of social interaction

I wondered why lots of things were advertised as free, when they obviously shouldn’t be. Thought scam but unaware of what it was.

Makes me wonder how to sell them though? I have tried Vinted but obviously that’s for clothes.

I’ve sold sofas and white goods before, so yes it might be a hassle to get a van to collect, but that’s what people have always done if you wanted an item for cheap.

Maybe charities collect?

Have you used Gumtree before? There's still a lot of stuff sold on there in my area. Or eBay for local collection only?

Oh my god this is so annoying!! Literally every time I post on it, about 25 messages each entailing the fact that a UPS postman will come deliver . Coming from legitimate accounts as well, hacking !

But the computer types the message for you, why would it be a ruse?

My friend has sold a lot more and been a lot more successful with Schpok.

I've noticed that recently. Decided to get rid of a lot of baby stuff but it just wasn't shifting. This stuff used to go so quickly, now I can't even get £40 for a silver cross travel system! The only offer was from this spam type bots

I have just set up an account on Gumtree 🙂 hoping it’s more successful!
I always thought marketplace was the new eBay - but may have to try eBay, like the good old days!

I’ve found the same on marketplace. I only sell bigger items on gumtree now. Vinted for clothes and things.

I post in local selling/for free sites but do not check the "add to Marketplace" button which seems to keep most of the spam at bay. If they just reply "is this still available" I reply "yes", I'm not going to engage till I get a proper response.

I did sell a rug on Facebook marketplace- took a while
Tried gum tree but nothing though I have had a lot of success on there.
But on market place I dud the 'is it still available'
I sent back yes and then ' nothing'
Very weird.

It goes both ways though: I send a message asking if items are still available and people don't even bother to reply.
Ebay is the same, I ask for measurements, no reply.

I use it all the time without issue. Do you live in a city?

I also post on local selling sites.

I agree. It didn't used to be like this.

I've listed a piano. Of the 100 or so messages I've had, 95 have been scams. It's relentless.

The latest batch are something about exchanging goods rather than cash. I daren't open the link but I can't imagine how that one works.

I've only ever listed two things: an exercise bike and a piece of furniture.

I had countless messages about the exercise bike (it was free) and gave it to the first person who had manners.

The piece of furniture was on for free but collection only. Yet 7 people expected me to deliver it!

@Undecicive everyone hates the automated ‘is this still available’ message, just say ‘hi, I could collect this this afternoon, or any time on Tuesday if either suit?’. I think ‘for fucks sake’ when I get endless ‘is this still available’ messages.

The British Heart Foundation furniture shop collects I believe - if you have one near you. For sofas they would have to be in very good condition and have fire labels.

You can sell on olio now as well as give things for free if that helps?

The last time I sold on marketplace (last year) it was excellent. I had no idea it was a scammers paradise now. What a shame. AI is basically going to make the whole internet a junk mail box isn’t it 😕