Are people really this bored?

[ABCDear]

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!

Although you could set up a direct debit with the bank details, my bank usually notifies me that a new on has been set up before the first payment is made. Presumably this is so I can cancel it if its not me that has done it.

Same, I get a notification on my app and an email when a new DD is set up on my bank account.

I very much doubt the scam was to get the phone.

The scammer now has the name, address, phone number, sort code, bank account number of the OP.

The scam is well known. often you get someone saying they want to buy and will send a courier with the cash and collect the item. The scam is that they then say that just to protect themselves they want to get insurance to cover the courier and ask you to pay a small amount online to the courier which they say they’ll cover by cash. Once you do so you’ll never hear from them again because they then have your bank account details. It’s a very well known scam that’s been around for some time.

I would check with your bank OP.

Clarkson stung by fraud stunt | Scams | The Guardian

Don't be daft. He can't do any such thing.

@Typecast I pay for loads of things direct into people's bank account. I must have 50 people on my payment list with my bank. Half are trades people.

I believe people may have missed my point.

The OP says that she gave him a piece of paper with her name and sort code and account number on it. There's no proof that he actually put that in to a banking app to make a payment. There are countless ways that this information could be misused, and yes, including making purchases online (first payment by direct debit, item/service received, payment cancelled).

I also pay for items direct into people's bank account but I do that myself by choice via my own banking app. Not with some random person wanting to buy a phone via Facebook Marketplace.

@Typecast that's still nothing making an iota of sense!

That's hardly comparable! Unlike the OP he published the details to millions of people, effectively daring them to do something with them. There's the risk in the course of normal behaviour, and then there's extremely reckless behaviour, part of the risk is him .. who could resist making him look stupid 🤣🤣

We're not talking about secret information like your card pin number, login details to an account or anything else that if shared means you won't get compensation for fraud. The account number and sort codes exist for the sole purpose of being shared freely.

There is a risk because every single piece of information has a risk of being misused, including your name and telephone number but nobody advocates keeping them a secret. The banks have assessed the risk Vs benefit and concluded it's acceptable

So yea, it's obviously good for the OP to look for signs of the information being misused, but it's ridiculous for anyone to suggest the OP did anything wrong or stupid. They didn't, the banks not only consider it an acceptable risk, they'll compensate customers in the unlikely event of them being misused for fraud