This is blatantly a Facebook Marketplace scammer

I do with NatWest, I get a text or alert on my banking app whenever there’s a new DD or standing order set up. Just says to ignore it if it was me or contact them if it wasn’t me.
 
I only accept cash on collection from selling on facebook marketplace
 
Social media engineering. They can get so many details from this. Its not just what you post but what your friends post also. Bank account details also helps facilitate this. Bank details, DOB, mother's maiden name, pet names just to name a few. They could destroy you.
 
I don’t sell much on there, but what I have has only been paid by cash, never had anyone ask to pay any other way.

I suppose you’ve got as much chance of being paid with dodgy notes though, if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
 
The last time I handed over a cheque in ca. 2004 I had no savings, who uses them these days?
 
The last time I handed over a cheque in ca. 2004 I had no savings, who uses them these days?
Can't remember the last time I've use a cheque.
My last visit to France a couple of years ago I was gobsmacked by the person at the till in front of me paying for there shopping at the supermarket with a cheque, I started to question what year I was in!
 
The last time I handed over a cheque in ca. 2004 I had no savings, who uses them these days?

They are still used here and there - my mobile phone cashback comes by cheque - anyone want the Carphone Warehouse account number and sort code for some larks?
 
mother's maiden name, pet names

This is why I use different random answers to these useless questions for each site, also stored in LastPass.
 
I just got a message from FBMP for my other item. It's £125 and the buyer made a modest offer of £120.

I accepted.

He said he can't collect until the weekend and wanted to pay cash. From experience, it's best not to hold anything as it will probably fall through without further contact. I told him it was also listed on eBay (which it is), but if it doesn't sell by the weekend, he can buy it. He agreed to that and asked me to message him if it sells.

I'll actually message him if it does sell by then so he knows were he stands. It's just good practice. I hold 100% postive feedback on my eBay account.

It's a shame that we're exposed to the low life maggots like the one in my OP, that was just after my personal info for online fraud.

We have to be vigilant on FBMP.

Post here if you're not sure about a FBMP transaction to get advice if it helps.

I was thinking of listing hundreds of items on FBMP, but I will be inundated with offers and low lifes trying it on.

I'm not sure how to hande this yet, as FBMP is like the Wild West. If you have a good plan against the fraudsters, it can be a very good place to make a lot of profit without eBay's extortionate fees.

Being able to safely offer postage on FBMP means you can reach out to the entire UK.
 
It would be great if anyone can share any horror stories so we can learn from it. I'll do the same as they come (and they will).

I didn't get a flood of chancers messaging me with silly offers with these two current listings, as I politely emphasized twice in the item descriptions that the price was my final offer.

That action alone saved me a lot of time.
 
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I would never post anything i was selling on facebook marketplace
I also only pay in cash on collection


it does say on face book market place not to give anyone your payment details
 
It would be great if anyone can share any horror stories so we can learn from it. I'll do the same as they come (and they will).

I didn't get a flood of chancers messaging me with silly offers with these two current listings, as I politely emphasized twice in the item descriptions that the price was my final offer.

That action alone saved me a lot of time.
I agree and for various reasons let’s just keep this thread for Facebook Marketplace only, eBay has its own thread as do other platforms.
 
There are ways to prune out a lot of the dishonest.

It's all in the item description/terms to start with.

There are good customers out there that want a quick and honest transaction.
 
personally i find on facebook market place if you dont pick it up as soon as possible it could be sold by the time you actually pick it up
 
I'm not clued up on money laundering tbh. I know it's to 'clean' money, but I'm not sure how entirely. To assume either of your scenarios; someone sends me extra money in 'error' and I then refund them the overpayment - in what way am I out of pocket or in danger of having money taken from my account without permission?
There's a common scam where they'll pay too much (or you may be approached to cash a cheque, transfer £X to somewhere else and keep the rest as a service charge) by cheque from a foreign account. You'll see the cheque clear, and then refund the over payment, and assume everything is good. The problem is how fast foreign banks will process cheques.

Let's say that it clears after the 5th working day. Normally the money goes into your account, and you think that's the end of it. What has actually happened is the cheque has passed provisional clearance, and that there's nothing considered untoward. A short while later you then get a message from the bank letting you know that the cheque is fraudulent/been cancelled/whatever, and they're taking the money back from your account. The fact that you've acted in good faith doesn't matter, and even if it means you going into an overdraft, the bank are (rightly and legally ) taking their money back.

What's happened in the period where everything was fine is the foreign bank's systems have finally caught up, spotted that the cheque is janky and told the UK bank that they won't be paying out.

The banks used by scammers are usually small banks that aren't part of any central network or owned by bigger banks. They'll usually have the slowest systems (I've heard reports of it being over a month later until it's been spotted), so the chances of catching the scammers are small because they use this time to distance themselves. These scammers will usually work in "shifts" where they'll make the same offer to many others, and then as soon as the clock starts ticking for people to start realising, they disappear, phones go dead, e-mails not answered, sometimes change location, and then rinse and repeat with new details.

Before Europe starting getting it's act together regarding money laundering, a common way of doing it abroad was setting up as a money exchange. You'd see exchanges offering crazy amounts to the pound (usually around 10% more). and you'd wonder how they were doing it. What was happening was the dirty money was heading out the country, and was used to buy foreign currency. At this point the exchange gets set up, and they start selling at the crazy rate, and then if the authorities started getting nosey, they'd simply close and reopen elsewhere. So how did this make money?

When you're laundering money, it's rare that you'll ever get a 100% conversion rate, or at least legally and correctly without people asking questions. You can expect to take a hit of around 30-40%, and it's viewed as a business expense. The crazy exchange rate will be part of the cost, but it's also advantageous as it allows them to launder a large amount of cash because of the amount of business they're doing (every tourist is using it). The people running the exchange also take a cut, and when the money is handed back to the criminal (minus costs) it's given the illusion of being clean.

There was a good scam when we were part of the EU and the pound was strong against the Euro, which offered a very good conversion rate, but was pretty unwieldy. You'd be offered a week or two in Spain for free. All you had to do was fill up a case with baccy and cigarettes, also paid for, and bring it back the UK. The baccy and cigarettes would be sold for the equivalent Euro price in pounds (€5,00 a packet would be £5.00). The pound was strong enough at that point, and a cheap holiday would pretty much be paid for with the £/€ exchange rates. The main problem was the authorities taking an interest in flight lists. You could pretty much guarantee someone doing it once or twice would get through, but someone doing it once a month would get pulled. Even if the person managed to get through with the baccy (it's rare with a case full but it does happen) then that person was useless after that. Either way, at that point you've got cash that is laundered and relatively clean. It was just a pain because you needed people to take the holidays and the hassle of shifting the product.
 
There's a common scam where they'll pay too much (or you may be approached to cash a cheque, transfer £X to somewhere else and keep the rest as a service charge) by cheque from a foreign account. You'll see the cheque clear, and then refund the over payment, and assume everything is good. The problem is how fast foreign banks will process cheques.

Let's say that it clears after the 5th working day. Normally the money goes into your account, and you think that's the end of it. What has actually happened is the cheque has passed provisional clearance, and that there's nothing considered untoward. A short while later you then get a message from the bank letting you know that the cheque is fraudulent/been cancelled/whatever, and they're taking the money back from your account. The fact that you've acted in good faith doesn't matter, and even if it means you going into an overdraft, the bank are (rightly and legally ) taking their money back.

What's happened in the period where everything was fine is the foreign bank's systems have finally caught up, spotted that the cheque is janky and told the UK bank that they won't be paying out.

The banks used by scammers are usually small banks that aren't part of any central network or owned by bigger banks. They'll usually have the slowest systems (I've heard reports of it being over a month later until it's been spotted), so the chances of catching the scammers are small because they use this time to distance themselves. These scammers will usually work in "shifts" where they'll make the same offer to many others, and then as soon as the clock starts ticking for people to start realising, they disappear, phones go dead, e-mails not answered, sometimes change location, and then rinse and repeat with new details.

Before Europe starting getting it's act together regarding money laundering, a common way of doing it abroad was setting up as a money exchange. You'd see exchanges offering crazy amounts to the pound (usually around 10% more). and you'd wonder how they were doing it. What was happening was the dirty money was heading out the country, and was used to buy foreign currency. At this point the exchange gets set up, and they start selling at the crazy rate, and then if the authorities started getting nosey, they'd simply close and reopen elsewhere. So how did this make money?

When you're laundering money, it's rare that you'll ever get a 100% conversion rate, or at least legally and correctly without people asking questions. You can expect to take a hit of around 30-40%, and it's viewed as a business expense. The crazy exchange rate will be part of the cost, but it's also advantageous as it allows them to launder a large amount of cash because of the amount of business they're doing (every tourist is using it). The people running the exchange also take a cut, and when the money is handed back to the criminal (minus costs) it's given the illusion of being clean.

There was a good scam when we were part of the EU and the pound was strong against the Euro, which offered a very good conversion rate, but was pretty unwieldy. You'd be offered a week or two in Spain for free. All you had to do was fill up a case with baccy and cigarettes, also paid for, and bring it back the UK. The baccy and cigarettes would be sold for the equivalent Euro price in pounds (€5,00 a packet would be £5.00). The pound was strong enough at that point, and a cheap holiday would pretty much be paid for with the £/€ exchange rates. The main problem was the authorities taking an interest in flight lists. You could pretty much guarantee someone doing it once or twice would get through, but someone doing it once a month would get pulled. Even if the person managed to get through with the baccy (it's rare with a case full but it does happen) then that person was useless after that. Either way, at that point you've got cash that is laundered and relatively clean. It was just a pain because you needed people to take the holidays and the hassle of shifting the product.
Very interesting to read, thanks
 

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