I despair. There are so many low-life crooks hiding behind anonymity on the internet.
We’ve sold a number of items through Facebook’s Marketplace without any problems, so I put on an ad for a computer we no longer use. The response was almost immediate. The potential buyer asked how old it was and was very happy with ‘a couple of years’. He (but who knows on the internet?) would send his son to collect it. Could he pay through PayID? PayID allows direct transfers of funds between banks and I’d set it up on my phone to send money to a family member. All the buyer needed was my email address. I did wonder why the person hadn’t asked for an address or phone number but what the hey. Maybe that was the first hint of eau de rodent.
I received an email purportedly from Payid. Here it is.
I immediately caught a much stronger whiff of rat because of the poor grammar. So, I went to Professor Google and asked about PayID scams. It’s well known. In essence,
“PayID is a relatively new payment method and is quick, safe and simple. It is also free – and the biggest red flag of any PayID-related scam is often if someone asks you for money to upgrade an account or to access PayID. There are never any charges related to using PayID.
“It is also important to remember PayID will never send you an email, text or message directly. If you receive one of these, it is a scam.”
Here’s the link to the article – well worth a read. https://news.nab.com.au/news/payid-scam/
My response to this person was “You’re a scammer. Bugger off.”
But I’d learned an important lesson.
The following day I had another potential buyer. This woman (but who knows) was also intending to send her son to collect the machine. He wouldn’t be bringing cash because he’d been robbed on another occasion. Could she pay with PayID or PayPal? I elected for PayPal this time. I didn’t get an email from PayPal, but she sent me this text:
“Hi there can you check your email now i just got a notification from PayPal asking me to send an additional payment to your account in order to expand your limit.Do you get it as well?”
It’s yet another well-known scam. https://getcarefull.com/articles/watch-out-for-facebook-marketplace-scams
‘Scammer’, I’ve decided, is far too polite for these people. They’re nothing but bottom-feeding thieves. The next individual who tries it on with me will be told they’re thieves.
In complete contrast, a real potential buyer asked for the computer’s model number. That provided, he asked if I’d swap the machine for an X Box. But at least it was a real person interested in the machine, not just a low-life trying to rip me off.
I dunno. The world used to be a more innocent place. Like that sergeant used to say in NYPD Blues, ‘Let’s be careful out there.’
Mary Murphy
Definitely a rat or two! Thanks for the heads up