A simple online transaction can turn troublesome if you’re dealing with unscrupulous people.
I had some stuff to sell, and so thought I’d try listing the items on Facebook Marketplace. I’ve never sold on there, but I have purchased several items and so, I created my ads and posted the items for sale.
Within just a few minutes, I was contacted via Messenger (without Facebook) by someone interested in an item. It was a pair of snowboard boots, and an Elizabeth Smith contacted me saying she definitely wanted them.
I had them marked for local pickup, but she said she wanted them shipped. I responded that I’m fine with shipping them. She asked for Zelle information. We exchanged information, and she then sent a screen shot that Zelle wasn’t able to send the money (but she was trying) and asked me to check the information I had sent.
Upon a second attempt, she messaged that I should check my email associated with the Zelle account for confirmation. I received the following email.
The email didn’t exactly feel right, and nothing showed in my Zelle account.
I didn’t know Zelle did shipping validation, and so searched for information. I found nothing about shipping confirmations on the Zelle site, and then found this on Reddit r/Scams:
Zelle does not have any system of verifying tracking numbers for shipments of goods you sell online.
If you receive an email that says you have gotten a payment through Zelle, but it’s on hold awaiting a UPS or Fedex tracking number, that is a fake email and you are being scammed. Thank you for reading.
I sent this message to the person messaging me and the person went dark.
I looked up the mailing address that they had sent me. Here is 1878 NW 20th Street in Miami, FL.
Just a few minutes later, I received a response on one of the other items I had posted for sale. This item was a power tool. Mary Willard contacted me via Messenger and wanted to purchase the tool. She sent me her phone number and asked that I text, and so I did.
After a brief exchange, I received a text with a message that she had sent a Google voice verification code and I was to give her the code to verify I’m who I am. It was linked, but I never click links in texts unless I’m sure of who the sender is. I texted her the code and the contact went dark.
When I looked at the sender’s information. The phone number is non-verifiable in reverse number lookup. The profile is locked, and the only searchable information didn’t return any hits. Text for people they follow is in the language, Bengali, the official language of Bangladesh and used in South Asia and some areas of India. They had tried to send a virus to my phone disguised as a 2-factor authentication to verify who I am.
I had two different types of scams from two different parties attempted on me within 20 minutes of trying to sell my items. Beware of scammers when marketing online.
