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  Geebo 9:00 am on February 3, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: car title ( 2 ), craigslist ( 124 ), Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp ( 23 ), Scams ( 1,240 ), texas ( 22 ), used car ( 28 )   

  Used car scam plagues Texas county 

  

  Harris County in Texas is one of the largest county’s in the country. It doesn’t hurt that it contains Houston the 4th largest city in the country. Due to its large and culturally diverse population, Harris County has become susceptible to a scam where victims are losing thousands of dollars at a time.

  Scammers are listing stolen vehicles for sale on platforms like Craigslist, OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace. When the buyer goes to purchase the vehicle, all the paperwork looks legitimate including the car title. When the buyer goes to the DMV to put the car in their name, they find out that the vehicle has been reported stolen. Meanwhile, the scammers are long gone with the victim’s money. Harris County investigators say that they’ve investigated at least 125 of these fake title scams in the past year. There may even be more victims, but the scammers seem to be targeting members of the Latino community. Some of these victims may be undocumented and are fearful of going to the police. The Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office has stated they will not ask for anyone’s immigration status if they’re reporting a crime.

  There are a number of ways you can protect yourself from this scam. The first is checking the vehicle’s VIN through one of the many services that will give you a car history. In some states, including Texas, you can check with the state’s DMV website to find this information. You can also ask to have the seller meet you at a local police department parking lot to make the exchange. If the seller does not want to meet you there it’s advisable not to make the transaction. Some police departments can even tell you if the VIN has been changed on the vehicle. Lastly, ask the seller to come with you to the DMV while you get the title changed. Again, if they refuse, the vehicle may be stolen.

   

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  Geebo 9:00 am on January 5, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook Marketplace, paypal ( 10 ), paypal scam ( 12 ), phishing ( 73 ), Scams ( 1,240 ), text messaging ( 32 )   

  Two PayPal scams you should be aware of 

  

  PayPal is probably one of the most trusted online payment systems today. There aren’t many online retailers that don’t accept PayPal as a payment option. PayPal also allows those who are underrepresented by banks to not only shop online but to also have a debit card that the consumer can use like any bank debit card. However, this post isn’t meant to be free publicity for PayPal. While PayPal does offer many protections to their users, it can still be used in various scams as we’re about to take a look at now.

  Security experts are warning about a new series of text messages going around that are designed to steal your PayPal login information. The text messages claim that there has been fraudulent activity on your PayPal account and that your account is now limited. That would mean that you would be restricted in the use of your own PayPal account. The text then directs you to click on a link to verify your account. If you click on the link, you’ll be taken to a phony PayPal page that resembles the genuine article. If you enter your login information on this phony page, your information has just been stolen. Since many PayPal accounts are linked to bank accounts, your bank account could be in jeopardy as well. If you feel like you’ve clicked on one of these links and given them your information you should immediately change your PayPal password.

  The other scam is more hands on so to speak. A woman in Georgia was selling a cell phone on Facebook Marketplace. She met a buyer at a local restaurant. The man agreed to buy the phone using PayPal. The buyer showed the woman a fake email that looked like he had just paid her through PayPal. However, the woman wasn’t seeing the payment in her account. The man then made it appear as if he was calling PayPal himself and told the woman that the payment would be in her account in a couple of hours. As you can expect, the payment never showed up. PayPal doesn’t work like this as payments are almost instantaneous. Once you make or receive a payment you should be notified by PayPal right away. If you’re not notified you shouldn’t take a stranger’s word for it that you’ve been paid.

   
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  Geebo 9:00 am on November 4, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook Marketplace, impersonation scam ( 118 ), romance scam ( 68 ), Scams ( 1,240 ), social security ( 28 ), used car ( 28 )   

  A reminder that some scams never go away 

  

  While we haven’t seen any new developments in scams today, we thought we’d help you brush up on some of the old classics. As always, just because these scams are being reported from different parts of the country, they can likely be applied to your region if they show up near you.

  Always be careful when buying a car online, especially if the price is too good to pass up. A woman in Oklahoma found what she thought was a great deal on a car for her son on Facebook Marketplace. The seller claimed the price was so cheap because her husband died and she also happened to be deploying with the military. On top of that, the seller asked for payment in gift cards and that the car will be shipped by eBay. Always be wary of any sob stories that come with bargains. Also, be suspicious if payment is requested in gift cards or some other untraceable form of payment. And keep in mind that eBay does not ship vehicles even if the vehicle is purchased on eBay.

  Social Security scams are abundant but the one that seems to be the most popular these days is what we call the impersonation scam. A man in Pennsylvania received a call from someone claiming to be from the Social Security Administration. The man was told that his Social Security number had been compromised. The scammer recited the man’s name, age, address, and the last four digits of his Social Security number and then asked the man to verify that information. Thankfully, the man recognized it as a scam and hung up. The SSA usually only communicates with recipients through the mail and would already have the information that the scammer was trying to verify.

  Lastly, a woman in Tennessee was taken in a romance scam recently. She met a man on a dating site. The man said that he had to go to Singapore for work but once he got there the man supposedly contracted COVID and was in ICU. The man said he needed money to be treated. Then a ‘friend’ of the man said that he needed to fly out to Singapore to help the first man so she paid for the plane ticket. She later found out that the pictures being used by the scammers were two evangelists from Brazil. Never send money to someone you haven’t met face to face. Romance scammers will go to great lengths in convincing their victims they’re in a relationship.

   
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  Geebo 10:01 am on February 5, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: counterfeit money ( 8 ), craigslist ( 124 ), Facebook Marketplace, grants ( 14 ), LetGo ( 10 ), OfferUp ( 23 ), robbery ( 10 ), Scams ( 1,240 ), tickets ( 17 )   

  Just another day of classifieds crime 

  

  One might think that after over 20 years of having online classified ads being so prevalent online that most people would become more aware of the pitfalls that have become inherent when using some of the less reputable sites and apps. Here are some of the stories that have happened just over the past 24 hours.

  While not technically a classified site even though it does have Facebook Marketplace, a tired old scam has targeted Facebook messenger uses. It’s the grant scam which promises users large government grants to do with what they wish. The only catch is that you have to pay a fee, usually of at least several hundred dollars, in order to process the grant. Of course, you’re expected to wire the money to whoever is supposedly managing the grants. To be clear, the government does not use Facebook Messenger to offer grants and they never offer grants unsolicited. Also, you should always be suspicious of any transaction that requires you to wire money as once the money is wired it’s virtually untraceable once it’s gone.

  In Youngstown, Ohio, there has been a rash of robberies through the marketplace app LetGo. In these robberies, the buyers are posing as men in their 30s and 40s but when the seller shows up to the meeting place they’re approached by teens who then rob them. The article we linked to does have some good safety tips but leaves out the most important one. Don’t just meet someone during the day in a well-lit and well-traveled area as even there robberies and worse have been committed. Instead, insist on meeting at a local police station. This one simple step goes a long way in discouraging scammers and thieves from trying to take advantage of you.

  In the Kansas City area, one man was swindled out of close to $400 after buying tickets from a supposed seller off of craigslist. The scammer had official looking documentation that carried the Ticketmaster branding, the only problem with that is the arena where the concert was being held doesn’t use Ticketmaster to distribute their tickets. The tickets never appeared and the would-be buyer was out of $400 before buying more legitimate tickets from a reputable dealer. The victim, in this case, was an IT specialist who admits that he should have known better showing that it’s people of all stripes and backgrounds that can fall for a craigslist scam.

  For our next story, we stay in Ohio, Hilliard to be precise where police have discovered a counterfeiting operation that was using OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace transactions to allegedly try to launder the money. In this instance, the phony bills were not theatrical money as has been the more popular counterfeit scam lately. Instead, these bills were manufactured and ranged in denominations from the humble $1 bill to the much more respectable $100 bill. Again, the article we linked to has several tips to prevent yourself from being ripped off by counterfeiters even claiming that the marker test isn’t always reliable as some fake bills will show as genuine when the special anti-counterfeit marker is used. In this case, the bills should have been easy to detect as they had markings on them in one of the Chinese languages.

  While not every marketplace platform is perfect, there are very few that go the extra mile in trying to protect its users. For example, Geebo reviews every ad in order to try to weed out the ads that are obvious scams and setups. Maybe if our competitors were more concerned about user safety they wouldn’t keep cropping up in the daily headlines for all the wrong reasons.

   
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  Geebo 10:18 am on August 3, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: check scam ( 76 ), Facebook ( 173 ), Facebook Marketplace, Scams ( 1,240 )   

  Old craigslist scam turning up on Facebook Marketplace 

  

  One of the oldest scams on craigslist, if not the oldest, is what’s known as the fake check scam. A seller will list an item for sale on the questionable classifieds site then they’ll receive a check for more than the amount they’ve asked for. The scammer will say the overpayment is for shipping costs and will ask the seller to return any money over the asking price to be sent back to them. The seller will deposit the check and usually wire the money back to the scammer. The check then turns out to be a fake which ends up leaving the seller on the hook for the amount of the check with their bank.

  More recently a similar scam has been appearing on Facebook Marketplace. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that this new twist on the old scam has claimed a few victims in Georgia. Instead of sending a phony check for more than the asking price, the scammer is now said to be asking for the seller’s bank account information so the funds can be transferred electronically. Once again, the money transfer turns out to be a phony transaction so not only does the scammer have your money but they have your bank information as well which puts you at risk for future scams like identity theft.

  Any online marketplace worth its salt will tell you that if something appears too good to be true it usually is. If you go to the main page of Facebook Marketplace it gives no such warning. If you try to find any tips or suggestions on how to deal with unscrupulous buyers or sellers on Marketplace you really have to know what you’re looking for in Facebook’s maze-like structure of resources. There’s no link to click on from the Marketplace page. Instead, you have to join a separate community about Marketplace then hope to find the link that you’re looking for. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if scams like this weren’t against Facebook’s vague and arbitrary community guidelines.

   
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  Geebo 8:52 am on June 27, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: contractors ( 8 ), craigslist ( 124 ), Facebook Marketplace   

  Craigslist contractors can cause calamity 

  

  A subject we don’t discuss on this blog that we really should are the hazards of hiring a contractor off of an unmoderated site like craigslist. Craigslist is rife with both unlicensed contractors and con artists posing as contractors. When a state or municipal licensing board wants to crack down on illegal contractors, craigslist is the first place they turn to.

  Recently in Bakersfield, California, one such supposed contractor was arrested for allegedly placing ads on craigslist and Facebook posing as a contractor while bilking people out of their money. The suspect is said to have collected down payments from potential customers but would pocket the money instead of doing any kind of contracting work. This is just one of the hazards of using craigslist to try to hire a contractor.

  If you allow an unlicensed contractor into your home to do major repairs or alterations, not only could you be gambling with your home improvement fund, but you could also find yourself on the hook for medical expenses if the contractor were to injure themselves without carrying the proper insurance. Many states have licensing websites where you can look up to see if the contractor is licensed. It also helps to check references and your local Better Business Bureau to see if a contractor is trustworthy. Anybody can print out a business card that says they are a contractor, but only a licensed contractor can earn your business and trust through their reputation.

   
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  Geebo 10:12 am on November 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: counterfeit goods ( 12 ), Facebook Marketplace, National Trading Standards, UK ( 10 )   

  Counterfeits flooding Facebook Marketplace 

  

  Reports are coming out of the UK’s National Trading Standards, the UK equivalent of the Consumer Protection Agency, that high-end counterfeit goods are flooding Facebook Marketplace. This includes such brands as Gucci, Chanel and Louis Vuitton among others. The reason that counterfeit goods like this are a problem is because they’re often funding organized crime or illegal sweatshops with child labor.

  To compound the problem, the NTS has said that Facebook lacks any channels to report counterfeit goods. It also doesn’t help that fake Facebook profiles can be created with little to no information given. Also, like too many large online marketplaces, Facebook doesn’t seem to monitor or review the Marketplace ads for illegal content. While this may be currently making news in the UK, counterfeits have been sold on Facebook in the US for years predating Facebook Marketplace.

  This story shows two problems inherent in the marketplace industry today. The first is that any online marketplace worth its salt should be checking their own ads that may be harmful to their users. The second is that this is another example of Facebook having unchecked power in our everyday lives. Many people may assume that counterfeit items for sale on Facebook Marketplace are legitimate since Facebook is supposed to be about real people. Instead, it’s as fake as the bags they’re listing for sale.

   
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  Geebo 9:55 am on November 8, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BBB ( 18 ), Facebook Marketplace, RV ( 2 ), Scams ( 1,240 )   

  BBB reports uptick in Facebook Marketplace scams 

  

  The Better Business Bureau has recently reported that they’ve received an increased amount in complaints about Facebook Marketplace. Specifically, the complaints the BBB has been receiving are about big-ticket recreational vehicles like RVs and trailers.

  The scams work the same way that they’ve been working on craigslist. The seller will set up a fake Facebook profile and list an RV for sale. They’ll have some story as to why they’re selling the RV like they’re out of the country or they’re deployed in the military. Then they’ll try to have you pay for the RV with some form of unusual payment such as wiring the money or paying with prepaid credit cards or gift cards. Both methods of payment are virtually untraceable.

  Again, this is just another symptom of the larger problem of classified ads on other sites not being moderated. Facebook moderates their site for all sorts of content violations yet they’re taking the hands off approach when it comes to Marketplace. Then again, what do you expect from the company that took foreign currency payments for American political ads?

   
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  Geebo 8:57 am on August 25, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: eBay ( 16 ), Facebook Marketplace   

  Is Facebook Marketplace looking to take a bite out of eBay? 

  

  In Facebook’s further attempts to be all things to all people, they are looking to expand their Marketplace feature to include not just private sellers but businesses as well. This would put Marketplace not only at odds with sites like craigslist, but now would pit them against Amazon and eBay as well. Both of the aforementioned online retail titans have allowed businesses of all sorts to sell their wares through their websites for years now.

  The main difference between Marketplace and eBay is Marketplace does not offer a payment service to use like how eBay relies on PayPal. Sellers and buyers are still expected to work out the financial dealings on their own. As we’ve pointed out in the past, since Marketplace doesn’t moderate their ads well, if at all. This could still lead not only to fraudulent transactions but could also lead to other dangerous incidents such as robbery and the like.

  However, it appears Facebook is only halfheartedly behind Marketplace, not as a disruptor in the online retail space, but more as a way to keep users from wandering out of Facebook’s walled garden. As nice as a garden may look, if you try to prevent users from going elsewhere then it’s just a well-groomed prison.

   
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  Geebo 8:53 am on August 23, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Avocado, Facebook Marketplace, New Zealand   

  A new criminal enterprise is being run on Facebook Marketplace 

  

  A new scourge of the criminal underworld has been showing up on Facebook Marketplace in New Zealand. It’s the product of a crime wave that is fueling a black market that could have potentially disastrous results by anyone who buys this product. I am of course speaking of the avocado.

  Avocados have become so popular in the Kiwi nation some people have taken to stealing the crops from farmers and selling the stolen fruit on roadside stands. However, law enforcement have taken to shutting down these illegal stands. So the avocado rustlers have taken to Facebook Marketplace to sell their ill-gotten gains. The problem is, some of the avocados are either unripe or still have insecticide sprayed on them which could be hazardous to anyone who tries to eat them.

  To be fair, while we may be poking a little fun at the situation, it does show that Facebook Marketplace is still largely unmoderated, relying more on community policing. Craigslist has shown in the past community policing does not work in the long run and is more prone to abuse than any actual policing.