It's a great thing when fraudsters contact us directly via an ad on Facebook Marketplace and provide us with material to warn you. – That’s what happened today. And we want to share that with you.
Contact via Facebook
So there is this ad from a Mimikama employee, whereupon a request comes in via messenger: “Hello, is this item still available?” Yes, otherwise the ad wouldn’t exist. And then it starts:

The interested party wants to buy, but cannot pick up the item herself and claims that DPD would do that for her. The DPD EXPRESS employee allegedly also had the money in cash with him.
We know that such messages and the described procedure amount to a scam, which is why we put a lot of effort into our further answers:

Poor DPD messenger. – Here you are forced to crawl on all fours to approach the door in order not to be seen as an enemy by the guard dog Cerberus. The confirmation of this request follows promptly with a “thumbs up”. Also, when we mention that the device on offer is defective and that we would rather have 500 euros for it instead of 300, “No problem?”
The fraudsters then ask for our contact details again. We look at the profile, a company is named as the place of work, which we will now use. And yes, we probably made it too easy for our counterpart. He/she has realized that there is nothing to be gained here.

It's a shame, we would have liked to continue the conversation, the coordinates of the Pentagon were already provided.
What is the aim of the scammers here?
DPD Switzerland has already published information about fraud via Facebook Marketplace on its website. It is specified that courier insurance would be required for engaging DPD, which should be borne by the seller. The amount for this would then be added to the purchase price when the courier picks it up, which of course does not happen.
Cybercrimepolice website also reports that an alleged “envelope insurance fee” should be paid by the seller. Paysafecards should be purchased for this purpose. As proof that this has been done, the alleged prospective buyer asks for a photo of it. The fraudsters use the PIN shown on it to redeem. The money is gone and the item offered for sale is of course never picked up.
As soon as sellers become skeptical, they are insulted or even threatened.
How do you behave in such a case?
- When selling on Facebook Marketplace or other classifieds platforms, you specify how payment and shipping should take place. You should not agree to other suggestions for processing or communication via other services such as WhatsApp or similar.
- If you send an item, you should always wait until the money has actually reached your account.
- You should never send credit codes or gift card vouchers as advance payment.
You might also be interested in: Attention, sales on trading platforms are now taxable!
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Notes:
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