Partner almost scammed on Facebook - profile still not removed

MrBrindle

Hiya all, I don't know how, but I'd like to pursue this further.

My partner nearly fell victim to a Facebook scam yesterday. She contacted someone who was selling some dog grooming equipment on the marketplace. The 'bloke' became very pushy and dropped the price quite a bit for the sale, he also said 'he couldn't take more pictures' and that he 'didn't know specifics of the items'. He also wanted our address to generate a courier quote, which unfortunately my partner gave him. Please don't give me any scare stories about the address thing because I'm already freaked out enough and angry at her about this! 

He then sent over his bank details and demanded payment on the day. I found this a bit odd as most people use paypal - and we've used paypal succesfully with a few purchases on the marketplace.

Anyway, after it got to this point she told me she was a bit concerned as the persons profile was only created the day before, he has no friends, and his pictures seem completely random.

I check out his profile and googled his bank details, and his 'bank' comes up as 'Wirecard Solutions' which has terrible reviews about it being associated with scammers online.

Bloody great. So I report all his items as scams, and report his profile as being fake, and facebook came back saying 'We reviewed the profile you reported and found that it doesn't go against any of our Community Standards.'  What?!! Someone else will get scammed now probably.

What can I do? Do I message the ******? Tell him I know he's a scammer etc. But then again, my bloody partner sent our address to this person! Do I contact the police?

Thanks for any advice. I'm really annoyed, and a bit freaked out by all this.

Neil_Jones

If you haven't paid any money then its not a police issue.  If you have paid, contact your bank and ask to recall it.

Things like this are all about the money.

MrBrindle

No, nothing was paid. But it's just wrong someone like this is still free to keep on scamming after being reported on facebook.

deadendwaterfall

Neil_Jones said:

If you haven't paid any money then its not a police issue.  If you have paid, contact your bank and ask to recall it.

Things like this are all about the money.

I thought that once the money has been sent, tough luck?

Elmer_BeFuddled

MrBrindle said:

No, nothing was paid. But it's just wrong someone like this is still free to keep on scamming after being reported on facebook.

So why would you think a bank on facebook would be trustworthy?

J_B

MrBrindle said:

No, nothing was paid. But it's just wrong someone like this is still free to keep on scamming after being reported on facebook.

Similar happened to my neighbour - scammer set up a website selling tractors using their address - godaddy wouldn't take it down despite someone in Portugal (?) being scammed out of several €K

jackieblack

Elmer_BeFuddled said:

MrBrindle said:

No, nothing was paid. But it's just wrong someone like this is still free to keep on scamming after being reported on facebook.

So why would you think a bank on facebook would be trustworthy?

Why would anyone think anything on Facebook would be trustworthy? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Neil_Jones

As strange as it might seem, I believe its its not "illegal" as such to set up websites for the purposes of scamming, but it only becomes a criminal matter when there's money been involved (and as far as Facebook is concerned, they actively say they 're not responsible for the content of the marketplace/business sellers). I'm sympathetic but realistically there has to be an element of caveat emptor as well, and the OP's friend should have done their own checks before deciding to get involved - and I'm sorry to say but the warning bells should have been ringing for your partner before you become involved - a profile that was one day old, aggressive "pay me now" messages and pay me via Wirecard/"don't do Paypal".. I'd consider yourselves lucky you haven't lost any money.

chrisw

I wouldn't worry about them having your name and address, it's readily available anyway through sites like 192.com. There's very little scammers can do with it on its own and it's probable they're not uk based anyway.

MrBrindle

Elmer_BeFuddled said:

MrBrindle said:

No, nothing was paid. But it's just wrong someone like this is still free to keep on scamming after being reported on facebook.

So why would you think a bank on facebook would be trustworthy?

Well, I've sold and bought a few bits and pieces on facebook recently, without any hitches - albeit these are items from within selling groups. My partner bought a grooming dryer just before xmas without any problems. I normally check out profiles and ratings before getting in touch with anyone when the item requires posting.

In this instance she was quite naive to just jump straight in without doing a little bit of research.

MrBrindle

Neil_Jones said:

As strange as it might seem, I believe its its not "illegal" as such to set up websites for the purposes of scamming, but it only becomes a criminal matter when there's money been involved (and as far as Facebook is concerned, they actively say they 're not responsible for the content of the marketplace/business sellers). I'm sympathetic but realistically there has to be an element of caveat emptor as well, and the OP's friend should have done their own checks before deciding to get involved - and I'm sorry to say but the warning bells should have been ringing for your partner before you become involved - a profile that was one day old, aggressive "pay me now" messages and pay me via Wirecard/"don't do Paypal".. I'd consider yourselves lucky you haven't lost any money.

I know, she was very naive, and I don't know she didn't check out the person a bit more before buying or at least demand to see more information/pictures before trying to purchase. Trust me, we had a good argument about it when I found out how obviously this looked like a scam profile!