Pay ID scam | ‘I tried to sell a dining table on Facebook and all I got was this lousy scam’ | #datingscams | #lovescams | #facebookscams


Before Christmas last year, I embarked on the seemingly simple task of offloading my old dining table on Facebook Marketplace.

Much like its arch-nemesis, Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace has quickly become the primary way people sell pre-loved goods online.

As anyone with experience selling an item on the platform will tell you, you’ll be utterly bombarded with dozens of ‘Is this still available?’ messages thanks to Facebook’s automatic message generator.

Among these queries will lie a smattering of genuine requests from real people who are interested in your pair roller skates, set of dinner plates or, in my case, an extendable IKEA dining table.

But I learned the hard way that many of the people querying about your sale will be scammers, lurking behind fake Facebook profiles, desperate to swindle you out of your money.

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Facebook marketplace scam
I tried to sell my dining table online for $250 and was met with scammers. (Supplied)

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I was replying to messages on a “first come, first served” basis, and the very first person I interacted with, sadly, turned out to be a scammer.

She did not try to haggle with me on the price, instead simply asking what the condition of the table was.

The scammer then told me: “My brother will come over to pick it up himself because I’m not available to do that.”

I’m a little green when it comes to selling things online, so this didn’t immediately raise any red flags.

She then became insistent on paying me through PayID, a platform where you can get paid into your bank account using a mobile number or email address.

I was a little surprised the prospective buyer wanted to pay me before even seeing the table. 

“I’m happy to take cash or digital payment on the day,” I told her.

Marketplace scam
The first scammer had me fooled all the way until I got a fake email. (Supplied)

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But she kept insisting to pay via PayID. I relented and offered my email address and phone number so she could send me the $250.

“I successfully sent the payment as ‘business’ with purchase protection included and the confirmation showed an email confirmation has been sent to us so please check for the email,” she responded.

I had no idea what she was talking about but looked for the email. Unsurprisingly (in retrospect) the email was in my spam folder.

The email was so hilariously and obviously a scam, I felt so foolish. Some of the font was in bright pink, with bold letters demanding I send $250 to “secure” the money into my account.

It claimed the buyer’s payment had been “blocked by PayID” and that they would pay me double the amount of the dining table – but would then request half the money back.

Essentially, the scammer was trying to swindle me out of $250.

It finally clicked that I was being scammed (I’m embarrassed it took me this long) and I blocked the fake buyer on Facebook.

Feeling a little deflated at my prospects of selling the table, I started replying to the other messages.

At least four or five more times, I was faced with someone demanding the same, cookie-cutter requests which I realised were the hallmarks of a scam.

PayID Scam
More scammers tried to claim they were out of town or at work and couldn’t pick up the table. (Supplied)
Facebook marketplace scam
PayID alerted me that someone used my details to try and scam me. (Supplied)

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If someone is trying to scam you on Facebook Marketplace, they will:

  1. Pretend they are “out of town” or unavailable and a family member will pick up the item.

  2. Insist on paying with PayID.

I think the only foolproof way of ensuring your buyer isn’t a scammer is by asking for cash-only. If you demand this, the fake buyers will retreat and attempt to scam someone else. And believe me, they have plenty of options.

I eventually sold the table to a nice young man who had moved into his first apartment – with cash, of course.

I was a little surprised the prospective buyer wanted to pay me before even seeing the table. 

While I was lucky enough to avoid this scam, some older or less savvy sellers will almost certainly fall victim to the PayID scam. It’s quite a cruel way to swindle cash out of people who are just trying to sell stuff online.

A Bank of Australia staffer, Ellie, shared a similar story online after trying to sell her iPhone on Facebook Marketplace.

“This guy said that I’d need to transfer money out of my bank account into my PayPal account in order to refund his $500,” she wrote on the bank’s website. 

“Then I checked the email address these PayPal messages were coming from and saw they were being sent from a Gmail account.”

“I knew that I needed to check the email address,” she added. “Anything coming from a Gmail or Yahoo account is definitely a scam.”

Facebook marketplace scam
The fake emails might look like this, which was shared by a TikTok star, Alexandra, who experienced a similar scam. (TikTok)

According to the ACCC, in 2021 and 2022, banks HSBC and Macquarie noted a higher number of “lower dollar value scams” with purchase and buy/sell scams on Facebook marketplace and Gumtree as well as puppy scams prominent. 

The ACCC advises Australians to:

  • Watch out for websites or sellers advertising at very low prices, often lower than comparable or identical items on other websites. Slow down and consider whether a sale is too good to be true.
  • Be careful if the website or seller is very new. If possible, try and ascertain how many sales the seller has, and the period of time they’ve been selling. If the store is on social media, read the comments and search for reviews on the internet – noting that sometimes there may be fake positive reviews.
  • Many people report losing money after communicating with the scammer over email to discuss a purchase on a digital marketplace. Always conduct your transaction through a secure platform.
  • Always look for secure payment options such as PayPal or credit card. Scammers often ask you to pay by non-secure payment methods such as wire, bank or international funds transfers, money orders, pre-loaded gift cards, and cryptocurrency. It’s rare to recover money sent this way.

If you have fallen victim to this scam, report it to Scamwatch here.

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