It's a Facebook Marketplace one!
Trying to sell an unused refurbished phone (as inherited my late husband's one).
Apart from the usual scammers and ridiculous low ball offers got contacted by a lady who seemed very nice and keen. Old Facebook account etc. Asked all usual questions, didn't argue price and wanted to know where collection is from.
Gave her a neutral location (as never know if the Italian mob will turn up or who is on the other end), she gave a time and off we go.
About 10 min before agreed time she messages she's busy at work and her partner will come instead. At this point red flags start going off so I enquire about payment and mention if bank transfer will have to wait for money to land before handing over the item. She says not a problem, should be instant anyway. Mentions he's really close.
Couple of min later a young guy turns up (by foot) very polite, checks the phone, takes a picture to check camera says all looks great and happy to buy it. I give him a piece of paper with my name and sort code and account number as don't know if he might snatch my card/wallet or whatever, (is it obvious I'm very suspicious yet?), he takes his phone out puts the info in then shows me the amount and then a green tick shows up. All done...supposedly.
Now I don't know much about banking apps but this green tick set alarms off as mine has nothing of the sort. Anyway we stand around waiting for 5 min while I refresh my banking app, he checks his phone and says will take 2 hours to process. Red flag number 2!
At this point I expect him to want to take the phone etc. but instead he says he'll give me his number and I can message when money has landed and his girlfriend will collect. We exchange numbers. Great! No pressure, no threatening behaviour nothing! He walks back the way he came.
I get home and notice the lady has left the Messenger chat. Red flag number 3! Two hours pass, still nothing, I message him saying "nothing landed yet, may have been late in the day, will check tomorrow and let you know". No reply.
Next day comes, still nothing. I fire off another message saying "still nothing, would you or your missus like to rearrange and bring cash this time instead?" Again no reply.
Haven't heard anything since. Obviously I always had it in the back of my mind that nothing would come of it anyway but why go through all this if you never had the intention of buying it in the first place? He said he took a taxi from next town over with his mate, but I didn't see a car or anyone else, just him walking there. And there was never any whiff of threatening behaviour or pressure to hand the phone over.
The only time he wasted was his own, the neutral location was 2 min from my house on the same estate as didn't want him/them to know where I lived so didn't put me out one bit. So why?
I would love to hear some theories as everyone else I have told this to end up speechless!