BERKLEY, Mich. (WXYZ) — A lot of people want to sell items using online marketplaces, but be wary of scammers. Some of them are trying trick people during the payment process, especially on Facebook Marketplace.
Watch Alicia Smith's report below
From couches to kitchen tables, power toopls to toys, there are many items sold on Facebook Marketplace.
”Because we were moving, we had a lot of things to sell," said Patti Nagle — who just moved from Berkley to South Lyon.
Nagle posted a long list of items, but the most expensive was a set of Franciscan Desert Rose china.
“As soon as I posted that $800 item, that's when scammers kind of popped up," Nagle said.
“When you started communicating with a person interested in buying the set, what was the red flag?” I asked her.
"Well, it was almost immediate, really, because the first thing he said is, ‘Where can we come get it?’ And he didn't negotiate the price or anything," Nagle said.
The individual messaged her that he'd sent the $800 through PayPal, but she received no email verification. He started messaging rapid-fire wanting confirmation, and then said he was "on call with PayPal support" adding "they require you to call in as well', providing an 808 number. When she called that number, a recording told her the number could not take messages.
“I messaged back that that wasn't a valid number. And he said, well try this number. And that's when I called PayPal customer service directly. I just looked up the number," she told me.
Nagle messaged the buyer that PayPal's official number was a totally different number than what he had provided, but he continued the ruse. After an hour of back-and-forth, she was 'feeling scammed' and messaged him 'nice try'...'calling the police.'
Berkley Public Safety Lieutenant Andrew Hadfield says he's seen about five PayPal impersonation scams this year and about a hundred impersonation cases posing as other financial sources.
“The scammer wanted to take the communication off the platform," I noted to Lt. Hadfield.
“Yes, they generally will try to distract you with different phone numbers or emails or ways to communicate and 'Hey, if you don't believe me, here's someone else you can talk to that's trusted.' But those are just other friends of theirs to help create the scheme," Lt. Hadfield replied.
Meta's Scam Protection Center says payment scams may trick you into sending money, often via online instant payment services. But they also may be after your financial information or aiming to get you to click on a dangerous link.
A few tips from Meta for how to spot payment scams:
- Be wary of any messages claiming an issue with your checkout
- NEVER click on a link if you don't recognize it
- Check your payment history directly in your Facebook settings or with your financial services provider.
I asked Patti how many scammers she ended up interacting with:
"One, two, three, four. And then I got the sweet old grandma that was retired finally bought the china," she replied.
"A real person," I replied.
"Yeah, yeah," she confirmed.
"Why did you decide to report it to police?" I asked Nagle.
"I was kind of mad," she replied. "And I thought, 'how many people have been taken by this?'"
We thank Patti for sharing her story to help awareness about these kinds of scams.
It's worth noting, Facebook Marketplace has a rating system to help you in the buying and selling process. So, before you really start interacting with someone, make sure you check their rating and also the comments on their page. And if it's a newer account with no comments, or very few, those are red flags.
