Be careful on Facebook Marketplace. I've sold lots of stuff on that site, and most of the time the experience was a good one. But I just had a scary encounter with what I suspect was an online scammer.
I have several listings online, and someone messaged me, saying s/he would pick up one of my items this afternoon. Normally, I double-check the buyer's profile to see if s/he's legit, but this time I rushed and skipped that step. My mistake.
S/he asked for my address and mobile number, to which I replied with my data, like a dummy. Well, this "buyer" replied by saying s/he just sent me a code via text to my mobile. I was supposed to enter the code in Messenger chat.
I was away from my phone for a while, so it took me a good 10 minutes to see this chat message. It was followed by about five ?-mark chat entries urging me to reply. This raised a red flag. When I clicked on the user's profile, it was no longer available. So I copied the chat series, archived the message, and blocked the user via Messenger and also Facebook (I could not block it via Facebook only, but I could do it via Messenger).
My thought is that this "code" the user sent could be used to access either my phone, my FB account, or my computer. Since I live on Hawaii, I don't think some dude is going to come over to our house and break in. (Pat said, not realizing the plan is for tonight. LOL) Anyhoo, this is just a reminder to check each user's profile before responding to their message/inquiry via Marketplace. And don't give out any personal information via Facebook Messenger. I goofed and skipped those steps, so now I'm making sure the Glock 27 is somewhere nearby. And I've changed my Facebook password, my gate code, the phone number on my gate, my phone password, and anything else I could think of.
P.S. I got another one of these fishy replies but remembered to check the profile. No "About" info, no friends, no photos. Definitely a fake account. I reported it as a Scam to FB, then blocked her. Learned my lesson the hard way.
Comments