Vinted scam?!

[PrudeyTwoShoes]

I've been looking for a console and saw several listed on vinted. Lots new or very good condition, all at 'too good to be true' prices. None of the sellers have any reviews so of course I'm thinking it's a scam. I'm also wondering how any scammers could benefit from vinted given that the money from the sale isn't released until the buyer marks everything as ok. I'm wondering what I'm missing and definitely wise to avoid these sellers, aren't I?!

Yeah, probably! If you can afford to leave your money in Vinted's coffers for three or four weeks, you can try - after making sure you paid the insurance. I bought something from a seller with no feedback, it never appeared and he didn't respond. Followed Vinted's process and got my money back several weeks later.

I did also get a "can't believe it!" item from another seller, though. She had fabulous feedback, to which I added of course. I'd expect that anyone selling consoles for amazing prices would likewise have a ton of great feedback.

I couldn't work out what the fake seller was getting out of it, either. I vaguely remember an article about dodgy people building social profiles for non-existent personas, so maybe it's part of that. Not to profit from unfulfilled sales, but as one element of a wider scam.

People get convinced to send money via a different way to get a discount on what's offered online. Thus invalidating all vinted terms and conditions thus the scam

A quick update for anyone interested: I decided to message one of the consoles I saw just to ask ‘if it’s still available’ as I thought the sellers response would be telling. They didn’t reply at all, so I’m pretty certain it’s a scam but still need to report them. I ended up buying one for quite a bit more on eBay but still a reasonable price.

They chance it because once it's been delivered the money auto goes through after 2 days unless the buyer raises an issue. They're hoping the buyer won't raise an issue in time.

A bait and switch style scam where you're offered a discount if you buy direct is the most likely.

Yeah on the vinted subreddit this comes up a lot. The seller provides a link if someone wants to buy which unfortunately some people click which prompts them to send money to the scammer outside of vinted. The buyer loses their money and vinted won't help because they went outside of vinted to buy.