Online scams are everywhere – we all know this. Some better than others. But there is one scam that is making the rounds on Facebook as of late, that really hits an all time low. It’s rather convincing and many people are falling victim to it.
I personally have seen three of these scams on my personal Facebook feed over the last week.
Basically, scammers gain access to a real persons account. Once they have access to that account, they go to that person’s local marketplace group pages. Such as, ‘For Sale In “Your Town”‘. Just about every town and city has these ‘For Sale’ groups. The scammer will then post photos of an expensive item that they are giving away for free, such as a PS5.
But why are they giving it away? They are creating a sad sob story about how their child passed away recently and they simply want to give it to someone who can appreciate it. Sometimes, they say it was given to them as a promotional item that they just don’t need.
All of this is of course complete bullshit and on top of that, it’s stooping incredibly low – not only because it’s not true – but remember – they are posting this on a real person’s account, who has real children.
The scammer will typically ask to be private messaged by anyone who is interested in the ‘free’ item.
Well, we private messaged two of the three people that we saw running this scam and this is how both played out – they were from two different people and they played out exactly the same.
Remember, these people are stealing Facebook accounts, so in once case – it was actually someone’s account that was local to me and I had 46 mutual friends with.
ME (via private message): I would love to have the item!
SCAMMER: You can have it! Just please don’t resell the item because it was my child’s and it means a lot to me. I want it to go to someone who will appreciate it.
ME: Of course, I would never sell it. I’m so sorry for your loss. Where and when would you like to meet? I can meet today.
SCAMMER: After the loss of my ‘son’, I moved away back to my home town to be closer to family. I will have to ship the item to you. You will pay shipping fees.
ME: Oh, so you don’t live locally like your Facebook page says?
SCAMMER: No, I just moved last week.
SCAMMER: Shipping will be $85
ME: Wow, shipping seems very high.
SCAMMER: That is the fastest option.
ME: Can we go the slow, cheap option? Should really only be between $25-$35 to ship that item.
SCAMMER: $34 is the slow option. Do you want to do this?
ME: Yes.
SCAMMER: Can you send money on CashApp?
ME: No.
SCAMMER: What do you have to pay with?
ME: Cash or Check
SCAMMER: Can you get gift cards?
ME: Yes I can.
SCAMMER: Ok, can you just get a Google Play gift card for the amount of shipping?
ME: Yes.
I then ghosted the scammer, where he proceeded to ask me over and over again if I got the gift card. He began ‘Loving’ various messages in order to get my attention. So every few hours, I would love one of his, but never write back.
So that is the scam. Don’t EVER send money to anyone you don’t know. And if it’s TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, it probably is!
Stay safe out there!