A friend of mine shared a post on social media the other day and my alarm bells immediately went off. It was a listing of items for sale in a Facebook group for residents of a small town.
At first glance, it doesn’t look suspicious.
This looks like any other online listing and the prices aren’t outrageously low like they are with some scams.However, I was instantly suspicious. There was a long list of nice stuff.
To me, it seems pretty suspicious that a lady is willing to deliver large items by herself with her own truck at these prices. Generally, you have people either pick it up themselves or meet you. And the stuff was nice. Really just way too nice for a moving sale. Everything is perfectly pristine.
When I started looking closely, I noticed tile floors throughout the home in some shots and different shades of wood in others. Tile floors throughout the house are not common in the area of the U.S. where this was posted. Also, this person is claiming to live in a very rural area. That’s not what the streets look like. I clicked on the profile for this person. It was her only post in the group and she only had one post on her alleged account. The account was created just a few weeks ago.
I told my friend to be cautious. I told her I was pretty sure the person would ask for money upfront via some type of payment app and then just never deliver the goods.
Someone messaged to find out. Turns out the person wanted half up front for the items via a cash app, but was unwilling to let anyone come to look at them or pick them up themselves. Also, it’s a very small area and nobody had ever even heard of this person.
Remember, all scams aren’t super obvious. People buy and sell stuff online all the time. It’s always best to keep your eyes open.