A 26-year-old woman from Speyer purchased an iPhone 14 Pro Max via Facebook Marketplace for a price of 1,000 euros. A day after it was handed over, the woman noticed that it was plagiarized. The 26-year-old was blocked on Facebook by the unknown perpetrator immediately after the purchase.
What is Facebook Marketplace?
The Facebook Marketplace is a platform within the social network Facebook where users can buy and sell items. The platform allows users to offer and discover their products or services at a local or regional level. Facebook Marketplace is accessible for various types of items, such as furniture, clothing, electronics, and vehicles. Users can search for specific items, compare prices, and communicate directly with sellers via Facebook Messenger to ask questions or complete transactions.
How to protect yourself from possible fraud on Facebook Marketplace
- Check seller: Check the seller's profile and activity on Facebook. Watch out for red flags like newly created profiles or missing personal information.
- Reviews and Experiences: Look for reviews or experiences from other buyers who have done business with the seller. This can help you assess the seriousness of the seller.
- Communication: Ask the seller questions about the product, condition and other details. Pay attention to how the seller responds and whether they are willing to provide additional information.
- Original Images: Request original photos of the product from the seller to ensure the images have not been copied from the Internet.
- Secure Payment Methods: Use secure payment methods such as PayPal that offer buyer protection. Avoid direct transfers or payments via messenger services.
- Meet in person: If possible, arrange to meet in person in a public place to inspect the product before paying.
- Price Comparison: If the price of a product sounds too good to be true, it may be a scam. Compare the prices of similar items on other platforms to get a feel for what a realistic price is.
- Trust your gut: If something seems suspicious or makes you uncomfortable, cancel the transaction and look for other sellers or offers.
- Pay attention to the so-called “provider transparency”. This includes, among other things, the identity and address of the provider, guarantee and warranty conditions, right of return or cancellation, existing notice period, description of goods or services, delivery conditions including shipping cost information and payment modalities.
- Caution is advised if the goods are offered at an unusually low price.
- The use of an escrow service is also recommended: This guarantees that the money will only be transferred to the buyer when the goods have actually arrived and are in perfect condition.
Source: Ludwigshafen Police Department
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )