Written By Maggie McGaugh
Whether you’re buying or selling, Facebook Marketplace is a great platform for exchanging goods. Just like any other buy/sell avenue, Marketplace has its tips and tricks that – once learned – will help make the process go much more smoothly. After selling my flips on Marketplace for a few years, I’ve narrowed down a list of ten dos and don’ts to help you make sure you avoid the infamous Facebook Marketplace scams.
1. Do not share ANY personal information with the person you’re chatting with. Remember, these are total strangers. If you wouldn’t walk up to someone on the street and give them your phone number, don’t do it on Facebook Marketplace.
2. Never communicate outside of the Facebook platform. Stay in messenger to handle all your purchases and sales – it protects you and your buyer! Communicating via text (again, no giving out your number OR texting their number!!), email, Whatsapp, etc. is not a good idea.
3. If you’re purchasing, never pay before seeing the item. A lot of sellers have moved to “pay to hold items,” but this is a really easy way to get scammed. Instead, tell them you can pick up immediately. Don’t expect them to hold the item if you can’t pay or pick up immediately. If you’re selling, be cautious about accepting money before someone is there to pick up the item. I know you don’t want to get stood up and have to find a new buyer, but there are potential issues with accepting a stranger’s money before the exchange of an item. I had an item for sale and the purchaser sent me their money and kept pushing off the pickup date – this lasted an entire YEAR.
4. Check a potential buyer's Facebook profile if something feels “off.” You’re NOT looking for the purpose of finding out more about them, but you should look for signs that their profile is an actual person. Check to see when the profile was created – was it a few days ago or years ago? Do they have public photos from updating their profile picture? Do they have a cover photo? If something feels wrong, simply back out of the sale.
5. Be cautious about how you accept money. I recommend accepting Venmo, CashApp, and cash.
PayPal: Do not accept PayPal. Account holders can dispute a purchase, and PayPal typically always sides with the purchaser and not the business.
Cash: Hold it up to the light to make sure it’s not counterfeit (I was recently given a fake $100 bill!)
Venmo & CashApp: You can do a chargeback dispute with Venmo as well (if they pay as goods/service which is legally wise), but I haven’t heard any bad scam situations come from that app specifically. I haven’t heard of any issues with CashApp.
Zelle: Be cautious about Zelle. I’ve personally had issues with a buyer’s bank marking it as a potential scam and they took the money back out of my account. If it’s a bigger sale, make sure you monitor the money in case it’s deducted from your account.
6. Don’t do pickups or sales by yourself – be safe! Bring people with you! I would also strongly encourage you to not allow purchasers to come to your home. Many police stations offer pickup areas specifically for buy, sell, and trade pages. I’ve found these are a great, safe place to meet up for sales. Tell the buyer you’re bringing someone with you, so they will back out if they plan to take advantage of you.
7. Read the seller reviews if you’re buying from someone. When you click on an item, you’ll see the seller’s name under “Seller Information.” Under their name, if they have reviews you’ll see five stars. The blue stars represent how many stars they have, which is their rating. The number in parentheses next to the blue stars is the number of reviews they have. If you click on the stars, it will take you to their commerce profile. You can read reviews and see all of the items they currently have for sale.
8. Offers that come in within seconds of posting an item should be double checked. Many scammers wait around for items to be posted and will message the seller seconds after the post is made. It’s possible the quick offers are real, but go through your checking steps to make sure it isn’t a scam. These individuals will often ask you for a phone number for a verification code to make sure YOU are a real seller – this is a big scam! Do not give anyone a number of any kind.
9. Have a friend to help you monitor the post when you’re selling. My mom posted a house for rent and some random stranger commented on the post and said “Call me for more information!” and put HIS phone number on the comment. He then quickly blocked my mom so she wasn’t able to see his comment. The only people who could see the comment were potential purchasers. Luckily, my dad logged on and was able to see the comment and we were able to leave another comment clarifying who to contact. Having someone on standby to check your post if something feels wrong is always a safe option.
10. It’s better to miss out on a sale than to do something you aren’t comfortable with. I know – this one is hard. We all want to make money or purchase that item for a really good price. At the end of the day, your safety should ALWAYS come first. If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong. Hold off on the sale – someone will purchase it before you know it. If it’s an item you wanted, keep looking for it! I see similar items posted on Marketplace all the time.
Bonus Tip! Avoid pushy buyers and sellers. If they demand you provide certain information, only accept one form of payment, require you to meet them in a specific (unsafe) place, or if there’s anything else they won’t budge on that seems strange - avoid! This usually means they are following a certain scam pattern.
Despite the ways you can potentially be scammed, I still believe Facebook Marketplace is an excellent place for buying and selling items! If you are serious about creating a good seller profile, check out my Flip It! eCourse. I have an entire lesson on staging and selling. I go over how to stage your item, how to price it (and how to avoid low-ballers!), how to deal with unhappy buyers, and provide more general safety and bonus tips for selling and buying!
You can use code FLIP to bring the $100+ value of this course down to only $35 for a limited time.
But for now, happy selling!
Maggie McGaugh
