Make sure you don’t fall victim to Marketplace scams

As we enter the final days before Christmas, we are reminding people to be vigilant when it comes to making any last-minute purchases via online marketplaces.

Scams could happen to both buyers and sellers online, with fraudulent activity taking many different forms.

It’s important to do what you can to protect yourself from this type of criminality and recognise when activity could be fraudulent.

A ‘buyer scam’ is when someone attempts to buy or trade items from someone else without paying or fulfilling their obligation to the purchaser.

This type of scam may look like someone:

• Reporting their transaction as fraud after they've received the item from you
  • Claiming they never received the item from you, when they did
  • Not paying for an item that they received.

A ‘seller scam’ is when someone tries to sell or trade items to someone else without delivering the items as promised.

This scam looks like a person/seller:

• Purposefully sending you something significantly different from what you paid for
  • Claiming that they sent the item to you when they didn't
  • Asking you to send them money as a deposit for a high-value item without letting you confirm that it's real first.

Fraudulent listings, or a listing scam is when something is listed for sale/purchase which lures buyers to complete transactions outside of the marketplace on an often fake or dishonest site.

Fake or fraudulent listings often look like:
• A product with a suspiciously low price
• A product with a description encouraging buyers to get in touch with the seller outside of the marketplace.

In order to protect themselves from these types of scams, the public should avoid communicating with buyers or sellers privately outside of Messenger, avoid direct contact with the seller on email and do not respond to any pressure from individuals to complete a sale immediately, as this is often an attempt to get around safe practices.

Simon Street, from our Fraud Specialist Crime Command, said: “It can be tempting, especially this time of year, to make quick purchases on marketplace or take up a deal that perhaps looks too good to be true.

“Only by being vigilant and learning how to recognise what fraudulent activity looks like can we help protect people from falling victim to these types of scams.”

Anyone concerned about fraudulent activity should visit: Advice about fraud | Staffordshire Police or call 101. Call 999 in an emergency or to report anonymously, contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.