Marketplace

dil1976

I am looking at selling a couple of mobile phone on FB Marketplace, what are the best ways to not be scammed to get paid. Are both PP friends and family and a bank transfer the only way that payments can not be reversed once I have posted the item?

cymruchris

dil1976 said:

I am looking at selling a couple of mobile phone on FB Marketplace, what are the best ways to not be scammed to get paid. Are both PP friends and family and a bank transfer the only way that payments can not be reversed once I have posted the item?

I wouldn't sell a phone through fb marketplace and post it - full stop.

Better off using Ebay (if you can get a decent final value fee) - as there's more cover if something goes wrong. Even there you still have to be careful, ensuring you photograph the phone from every angle, record the serial number, photograph the packaging, the whole parcel, and ensuring you get it weighed at the post office.

dil1976

cymruchris said:

dil1976 said:

I am looking at selling a couple of mobile phone on FB Marketplace, what are the best ways to not be scammed to get paid. Are both PP friends and family and a bank transfer the only way that payments can not be reversed once I have posted the item?

I wouldn't sell a phone through fb marketplace and post it - full stop.

Better off using Ebay (if you can get a decent final value fee) - as there's more cover if something goes wrong. Even there you still have to be careful, ensuring you photograph the phone from every angle, record the serial number, photograph the packaging, the whole parcel, and ensuring you get it weighed at the post office.

I no longer have a Ebay account due it getting hacked, then was suspended permanently. I didn't use it often and only found out when it was too late.

So my choices of sale are limited, unless I use something like CEX and get a fair bit less for it

soolin

On marketplace you will need to know what you doing as it is trawled by scammers. I'd try for cash on collection personally, but if it ends up being posted then a bank transfer (which a lot of people won't use) or paypal goods and services. There is a recent thread that I can't find about why I would be careful taking f and f paypal on FB.

Personally I don't believe you get any additional protection by selling on ebay , but you might get a higher price. 

GadgetGuru

You just have to risk it. 
I sold a phone a few years back via FB Marketplace. Buyer paid cash on collection. 
Went to bank the next day to pay in the cash, only for the deposit machine to not accept it - turns out all notes were fraudulent. Was told they were the best fake notes they had ever seen!

Logged with police. Requested CCTV footage as luckily I met him at a station under CCTV. 
Police took so long to check that the CCTV footage was overwritten - this worked in my favour as I now blamed the BTP for not acting quick enough, and they assigned an officer to the case who traced the phone via IMEA twice. 
Turned out it was sold via Amazon once, then returned by the buyer as change of mind, then resold again. 
Amazon didn’t help the police with details bu tin the end they managed to track it and although they didn’t recover the phone, they found someone and recovered the £700 I was down - took a whole year but got there in the end.

Moral of the story - even cash isn’t safe. 
The absolute safest way is to do the deal in the bank, or at a Post Office, and pay the cash in straight away as they buyer waits. 

Not trying to put you off - I’ve had hundreds of successful cash/PayPal/Bank Transfer on collection sales. But just highlighting there is risk in everything nowadays.