I like to think I'm pretty scam-savvy, but it only takes a moment of the holes in the swiss cheese aligning. I saw a recreation of a movie prop that looked like a good gift idea for a friend and made an impulse purchase. Something was nagging at the back of my head and a couple of minutes later I had a sinking feeling that it might be a scam -- sure enough, a little research showed that the product photos were stolen, the original was a limited-run authorized item that sold for 20x what I paid, and I found a forum post where this scam item was being discussed.

The web site I bought from was a single legitimate-looking veneer page with most of its content lifted from templates, and there was no functional tracking or order management anywhere, so I immediately e-mailed them asking to cancel the order, to which they replied that they that the product was "good quality", "you can rest assured that you have it", and that they would charge me a 5% fee to cancel. So I opened a case with PayPal and they closed it saying the transaction was "consistent with my purchase history", whatever that means. I appealed and they doubled down that it was not fraudulent. There are no more buttons to press at that point, but I wrote back again reiterating all of the evidence that they were actively providing a payment service to facilitate fraudulent transactions (the scammer was still around and still advertising the same fake products) and after a long period of silence I suddenly got a refund.

PayPal is not on your side as a customer, especially if you're dealing with a professional scammer who knows how to play the game and string things out. I suspect what happened here was that they got one too many complaints, and if they'd been a little less greedy or more careful, they would have walked away with the bag of money.

I got scammed on a Facebook group (not marketplace). It was a surprisingly sophisticated scam but now that I'm aware of it I see it constantly in every group that has people posting wanted to buy posts.

I was searching for a hard-to-find car part. I asked in the group and got a reply saying "try this page" with a link to another Facebook page that appeared to be a business a few cities away selling car parts. The posts on that page all looked legit, with listings for vehicles that make sense for my region, real-looking photos of parts laid out and labelled, etc. The posts had timestamps that made sense, not just hundreds of posts made on one day.

So it seemed trustworthy, I messaged the group and got an immediate response (should have been a red flag, response was "yes I have that part" within seconds). We negotiated a price ($200), he sent through bank details and I transferred the money. About an hour later someone else responded to my original post with "that's a scam".... sadly, too late.

I dug into the page a bit and found Facebook has a "view post history" feature. Every single post on the page had been edited. The original posts had all been a rabbit enthusiast posting pictures of their rabbits. They had been edited to be pictures of car parts with descriptions matching the pictures. Clearly someone's credentials had been stolen and their page hijacked.

It's unbelievable to me that Facebook can't detect this kind of fraud. Surely someone logging into an account from a new location, editing every single post on the page then spamming Groups with links to that page should set off automated alarm bells. As mentioned, now that I'm aware of this scam I see it in every single group that allows "wanted to buy" posts, constantly. Like, in every thread.

> The next morning, I called PayPal and asked them how the seller could’ve opened a case on my behalf against themselves. They weren’t sure.

That's scary :/

Fake tracking numbers are a common occurrence in scams now. Somehow the scammers are getting access to a database of real time legitimate tracking numbers, they wait until there’s a shipment in their database going to the same city as the buyer, and then use that tracking number to claim that they shipped the package. Maybe they’re paying a real merchant for access to their shipping database? Or are UPS tracking numbers short enough to brute force?

Been using Marketplace for 5 years with probably +100 items sold. Scammers in my experience usually exhibit these traits:

* They have a new account, and have no Marketplace reviews.

* They want it shipped and will pay extra for shipping. (While some real sellers will want it shipped, most will come by to pick it up.)

* They do not try to low ball you or even negotiate. (Facebook sellers are notoriously cheap.)

* There is a sense of urgency and very responsive to messages. (Most Facebook sellers are not instantly responsive as they have a life.)

I have also seen scam sellers appear as well. They sort of do the same thing:

* The price for the items are amazing, a steal.

* They always ship, often for free. You can never pick it up.

* They are very responsible to any messages.

* The account is new.

When I do FB marketplace I go cash and in-person. It lets you assess the quality of whatever you're buying.

> (They asked early on for my phone number “for the tracking information,” which in retrospect doesn’t make a lot of sense.)

When I have shipped parcels (legitimately to people I know personally), the courier services have a place on the form for phone numbers. And I do generally try to make sure I fill in an accurate phone number.

This is why I HATE providing my phone and banking information. Phones are the worst 2FA available yet it unlocks almost all doors.

Related to e-marketplaces, I decided to sell something on eBay, an account I've had open for many, many years. They decided to tell me after the item was listed that I would have to link my bank account if I wanted to take the money out and would face further restrictions by the end of the month if I don't comply.

Somewhat tangential - but one of my friends used to buy lots of concert tickets off Craigslist - but he had one simple rule - he’d only buy them unless the seller emailed from a corporate or school email account - it was pretty simple and effective - how is Facebook marketplace worse than Craigslist

Interesting story - I wonder how they managed to manipulate the Paypal account of the victim. Clearly Paypal has a problem there.

But the other issue is that of general lawlessness and the fact that this scammer will get away with the attempted scamming, and probably do it to other people, too. For every person like the OP who manage, somehow, to protect themselves, there are 1000 others who don't. And there is the issue that the scammer broke the law, in their state and in the victims state, and probably federally, and yet there will be no action from law-enforcement. In such an environment, why not go into this kind of business? What's the downside? It seems to me that there isn't any downside. Sort of like committing perjury.

In general, how bad does it have to get before the law gets enforced?

I got scammed for £60 the other day as well when I wanted to buy a Flipper Zero to play around with. I suspected it was a scam, but having never had a bad experience on Facebook Marketplace before (I only bought face to face), I figured I'd give it the benefit of a doubt.

The guy asked me to wire him some money and then disappeared. Once I knew what signs to look for, I realized that all ten people who sold a Flipper Zero on FB were scammers.

How did the scammer close the ticket?

Zero day on Paypal? Unlikely for a lowly FB scammer to have this.

SMS hijack? Unlikely the OP would have noticed.

Phishing? Maybe… could have been a sophisticated phishing attack. Maybe using those fake package delivery SMS messages.

There's a lovely line in the original BitCoin paper which says:

> Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers.

The word "easily" is doing a lot of the heavy lifting there! Escrow is a difficult problem to solve. There is no infallible smart-contract which can protect both buyers and sellers. There's just a lot of messy human interaction which - if the stakes are high enough - can only be resolved in court.

Are PayPal's protections sloppy? Probably. Is Facebook Marketplace a cess-pit? Mostly. Can technology solve a cultural problem? I think we all know the answer to that!

Is it possible that the scammer works for paypal or has someone on the inside with access to open and close tickets?

Wow, for once a PayPal story where someone didn't get screwed.

A couple of similar, now-common scams I have experienced on Facebook Marketplace and eBay:

1) Buyer messages you, wanting local pickup, but claims they can't pick it up themselves and wants to prepay (but won't pay through Facebook or an eBay or Mercari link if provided). They ask you for your Zelle info. Then they'll tell you your Zelle isn't working and needs you to confirm it with them, you'll get a confirmation code, give it to them, and they'll have your Zelle account.

These scammers' accounts typically look legitimate but are often from other cities/countries with no relation to yours. They will engage you in complex conversation about arranging pickup but typically will disengage and block you if you tell them flatly that you do not accept prepayment via Zelle.

2) On eBay, as a buyer, scammers seem to have access to tracking numbers for nearby but not actually the same place. They'll ship things to you with an apparently legit tracking number, and when it never shows up, blame the shipper.

I have to say that I am not sure how this latter case is making money - eBay nearly always sides with the buyer in these kinds of disputes.

I just had a Facebook marketplace camera scam happen to me Today.

Seller marked as shipped, and delivered, but my package wasn't there.

After some sleuthing (I knew a guy who works in UPS) the seller put a different ship to address. So Facebook marketplace isn't doing something as simple as verifying the tracking label is heading to the right destination.

Only doing E-bay from here on out. They have this problem solved for the most part.

I feel like the scammers just had his PayPal creds and this is how they extract money from it. If they just transfered it PayPal would be more likely to react swiftly to the complaint, this method might stymie someone completely.

This whole post sounds scammy. There's no way to "call" PayPal. If the author would have said "spent two hours in a fruitless attempt to find a phone number on PayPal's web site," then I might have believed them.

But I can't figure out what the scam is here. Why make up a story like this? Maybe it's some weird way to train a 3rd party LLM? It finds some text on the internet and just includes it into its training set. Months later it barfs out sentences about "calling" PayPal? Seems like a lot of work.

One has to be wary of fake investment companies online these days. I was a victim of an investment scam. I lost $70K to a scam broker. However, I was able to recover all my funds with the help of this Contact (wisetechhack@ gmail .com)

The crazy part is how they managed to open/close Paypal cases for the buyer, it sounds like Paypal has some kind of bug or just lax security over the phone in verifying who someone is.

> I paid $1,030 using PayPal

Stopped reading right there. I don't know why anyone thinks this kind of transaction will ever work out in their favor. FB Marketplace/Craigslist etc. are fine, but the golden rule is to use them for local, in-person, cash-only exchanges and nothing else.

Buying anything on Marketplace without seeing & trying the product is an absolute mistake. And then expecting PayPal does the right thing? Can't believe people still do this

I didn't even have to read the article to know how someone got scammed on Marketplace. Its nothing and I mean NOTHING but scams (oh with the exception of stuff people are giving away).

Interesting and disturbing I set up 2 factor with a token in Authy for Paypal a few years back and I never click the 'leave me logged in' link to prevent anything at all like this.

Since 2020 I stopped buying things used. I do not trust online anymore, not even Amazon brand new. If I need something expensive I will get it shipped to the store and open it there.

That's pretty ballsy to buy anything that needs to be shipped from Facebook Marketplace. I wouldn't.

I don't mean to be funny, but like.....why is Facebook Marketplace even allowed to exist at this point? Clearly they do literally 0 vetting of anything - I've literally just opened it right now, and the first 3 "sponsored listings" are:

1) Fake UK passports/driving licences

2) Fake UK banknotes(literally advertised as passing UV tests)

3) Drugs. Like like literally just magic mushrooms advertised on facebook - says various quantities available, contact me on Telegram.

At this point I have no idea what would it take for Facebook to interviene - actual child porn being sold openly?

How the heck such a FB account is not banned yet? The author said it was created in 2017.

So for eBay, am I safest using PayPal? Or a Credit card?

"Thanks PayPal :)"

- Interesting take away after this story.

The title should be "How PayPal refunded me for a scam" no?

> Instead of closing it, I pretended that I couldn’t see the case on my end and even sent doctored screenshots of the case not showing up.

You can handle a potential scammer without behaving like a scammer yourself.

You might want to be known as a person who's always honest, not a person who tries to decide when it's OK to act dishonestly.

(In this case, it sounds like the writer guessed correctly that the other party was a scammer. But no one can always guess correctly. And I can imagine even that example situation turning out in a way in which the writer would've gotten into significant legal trouble.)