DENVER (KDVR) — Scammers are preying on people trying to make an extra few dollars by selling their items on Facebook Marketplace.
We have seen more and more reports about scammers contacting people trying to sell something on Facebook Marketplace, but some people looking to buy do not have the best intentions either.
A man in Lakewood was trying to sell a mattress on Facebook Marketplace to make room for a new baby on the way.
He was contacted by a buyer pretty quickly, who mentioned someone else would be coming to pick up the item. The buyer requested to pay using Zelle and then sent him an email from a questionable email address ‘ZelleOfficialPay@gmail.com.’
“I said, hold everything. This is not on the up and up. There’s no way that a company like Zelle would have a gmail.com email as their official email,” said Vinnie Iannuzzi.” It’s not pleasant to know that somebody knows where you live and to not know what their intentions are.”
The Problem Solvers reached out to Zelle about how to do these transactions safely. Zelle is a legit service and they say only use Zelle with people you know and trust. Do not use it with people you don’t know online.
More safe online buying/selling tips:
- Stick with a payment method you’re are comfortable with
- Don’t let emotions get in the way
- Have a friend or loved one verify the legitimacy of a message
- Go to police stations to make transactions if you can
“To open up that trust and get betrayed potentially or actually. I feel very fortunate that we were able to avoid it and very, very sympathetic for the other people who aren’t able to avoid it and we’ve just got to kind of try to look out for one another as much as we can,” Iannuzzi said.
In some cases, the scammer will message the seller for several days and then send the scam email, hoping you click on the link.