Facebook marketplace never used to be this bad?

[totallybonafido]

I've had a clear out today and put several items on FB marketplace. I've had lots of messages already, and they're all scammers! They all want to pay by PayPal and sent their cousin to pick it up, or they'll send a DPD driver. Are there no legit buyers on there anymore? I've used it in the past and there was the odd dodgy character but it seems to be everyone now.

Not worth the hassle anymore.

I had similar a few months back while trying to sell something. It seems anything of any value, the scammers are all over it, promising to send couriers and the like. I'm trying to buy a car at the moment, and the amount of Facebook marketplace scams are unreal. I've contacted about 20 different "private sellers" to be met with a generic "email me at...." And some random shipping/logistics/sales email address. Think I'll stick to looking on autotrader!

I've said it before but someone needs to investigate my town - there is a statistically astronomical number of people having car accidents just before coming to collect something I'm offering for free.

I got fed up with FB marketplace and started using Olio now. I think Olio used to be just for giving away free food but now you can give away or sell all kinds of things.

I looked up 'plastic sheds' on marketplace this morning. Different sellers all over the country selling brand new Keter sheds for c. £60. In Argos and similar they are £600 upwards. I'm not sure at which point the transaction falls apart but as I was looking for 2ndhand I didn't immediately spot how cheap they were and could have fallen for it.

What's the scam if they pay with PayPal and collect? Sorry if I'm being dim 😄

I'm not sure but I think it might be a bouncing payment, a promise to pay after collection then never paying, or a false claim that the courier lost it.

I genuinely don’t understand why people go to the bother of trawling stuff on FB, messaging sellers, arranging a collection time and then not turn up. Is there some sort of scam that I’m missing out on here? What’s the point?

Came on here to see if other people had similar experiences. I've bought and sold loads of stuff via Facebook marketplace over the years and never had a scammer, only the occasional cheeky offer. Put something up today and have had a scam - buyer wanted to pay PayPal and when I said yes there was a scammy link clearly not from PayPal that promptly arrived in my email. Suspect the game was going to be pulling out of the deal and asking me to refund.

Now the next two people who seem interested also sound dodgy and not genuine (one wants DPD sight unseen and the other asking me where I'm from (?!!!)

Totally gone to pot and definitely not going to get better with the rise of AI.

Same experience as you OP. We’ve just done a big house move, and I quickly learned that there was no point listing things on FB Marketplace. Almost 100% scammers. Or people that don’t show. I’ve had experiences in the past where buyers show up with less money than the agreed-upon sale price and try to ‘haggle’ at my doorstep. Forget it!

We ended up donating everything to charity. Even the expensive winter tyres from our old car! It’s made me very cautious about what I buy for the new house, as I’m aware that I won’t get much resale value out of anything.

So many scammers on Facebook, but without trying to hijack this thread, my current bugbear is with Vinted.

Saw and bought a pair of Veja trainers on Vinted for a bargain price of £30 (I know, I know - looking back it was obvs too good to be true!).

A couple of days after the payment went through, got an alert saying that the trainers had been shipped. I was able to get the Yodel tracking number and see that it was due to arrive on a particular date - it even said on Yodel 'out for delivery'. But then it didn't arrive on that date and it changed to 'it's on the way'.

When I questioned that with Yodel, they said I needed to go back to the seller, as the issue was with them. Well, when I did, the seller's profile was blocked (apparently this happens with scammers) and they weren't replying.

Initially Vinted were saying I'd have to wait a month for my refund, but I kept messaging them and they actually refunded it in full early (obvs because they realised it was a scammer).

The interesting thing was that at that time, there were LOADS of accounts with really random usernames (think eiofbdmc39dj) selling Veja trainers that looked brand new and with identical backgrounds that looked suspiciously like a shop!

I think Vinted have cracked down on these scam sellers now, because a lot of them have disappeared, but you definitely need to be careful buying on Vinted too!

Dentsdubon - No unfortunately Vinted have not ‘cracked down’ - unless their ‘customer service’ or help page have been magically transformed 😐I have just bought a bag from a seller who to claimed to have worked for Whistles and ‘aquired’it new from Whistles - what tosh the coating on the bloody bag is flaking off - she’s insisting that’s what happens had agreed to a refund and then reneged on that agreement - No response from Vinted do I suppose it’s Caveat Emptor 😐❤️👍🏿🙏🏽☘️🕊

I've sold a few things on fb marketplace in the last year or so - some boots, some kids' toys. They seem to be better than gumtree these days, which generally produces no response.

Gawd, yeah, the customer service at Vinted is non-existent and impossible to speak to a real person (like most places 🙄)

I’ve totally given up trying to sell on Facebook or Vinted due to scammers and time wasters. I’ve even given up taking clothes and shoes to charity shops as they are bursting with stuff and they don’t want anything. I use the Oxfam clothes bank at Sainsbury’s. So much easier.

I've had a couple of head scratching moments on market place this last couple of weeks.
First one was an item that I was selling at half what I paid for it. It was brand new, still boxed and unused.
Someone offered me 15% of my asking price with a ' I'll collect it now luv ' er, no you won't!
Second one was an item that had just been listed. I contacted the seller twice asking if it was still available, and got absolutely no reply.
Third one was someone asking me for a discount which I refused. I was called a miserable bitch in reply.
It's crazy.

I just nearly got scammed on Facebook marketplace - scammer sending a payment via bank transfer and then asking me to refund them. They sent a scammy email supposedly from Monzo bank but was full of misspellings and weird text that made no sense. Cash on collection only is the only way to avoid this.

“Collection only”

Do you deliver?

Fuck off.

Well it seems eBay is just as bad! I've sold 2 things in the last week, one CF wanted delivery to somewhere an hour from me (it very clearly said collection only), the other won on Thursday and is completely ignoring messages asking when they want to collect 😡