Amazon Marketplace: Scammer Paradise< no monitoring, etc.,

Articulate25

I used to buy lots of bargains on my local forum, legit, knew who you were buying from, but now have to use F/B marketplace, i can't believe how poor it is: its a scammers paradise, there seems to be no monitoring at all by Meta, graphics cards are especaaily dodgy, going for little by sellers who don't live where they say they do. Meta also seems to allow sellers to offer hacked firesticks(which is clearly illegal, and have been prosecutions) they are everywhere on the site: i just wanted to buy a decent used one, but it was impossible.

I wonder how you complain about all this, or if you already have, has it been on Watchdog, etc?

oh, and because of the scammers genuine buyers find it hard to get more info off genuine sellers, won't post, etc.

km1500

don't go anywhere near Facebook marketplace.

there was no need to complain it is pointless.

Articulate25

But it still has some bargains, and why should META not accept its responsibilities

soolin

Articulate25 said:

I used to buy lots of bargains on my local forum, legit, knew who you were buying from, but now have to use F/B marketplace, i can't believe how poor it is: its a scammers paradise, there seems to be no monitoring at all by Meta, graphics cards are especaaily dodgy, going for little by sellers who don't live where they say they do. Meta also seems to allow sellers to offer hacked firesticks(which is clearly illegal, and have been prosecutions) they are everywhere on the site: i just wanted to buy a decent used one, but it was impossible.

I wonder how you complain about all this, or if you already have, has it been on Watchdog, etc?

oh, and because of the scammers genuine buyers find it hard to get more info off genuine sellers, won't post, etc.

There are still local forums and even wider interest selling groups, I use a fair few myself and am just packaging up stuff I sold earlier today on a specialist group. 

There's always been a lot of scammers on FB marketplace, it's easy for them on places like marketplace and Gumtree as it is anonymous- most of the scams though are pretty obvious and if you use it regularly you will quickly learn to spot the signs. Dodgy buyers can be reported, although FB seem to have a different view on what constitutes a scammer than I do!

I have also been banned from a few local FB groups for scaremongering, my crime was to point out that it is not safe and looked dodgy paying for something that everything wants (in covid it was hot tubs and garden furniture) before Covid it was mainly Michael Kors handbags  by bank transfer . Before covid the Michael Kors handbag scam even hit the local paper- after I was banned by one group for being 'posh' seeing every bargain as a potential scam- that scam was then used on the garden furniture scam . Basically someone had a shipment of items coming in and was happy to take deposits and deliver personally on arrival when the ship docked. They took deposits by bank transfer (in the case of the furniture it was in three figures) then even tried to get more saying they couldn't afford to pay the import charges and everyone needed to pay a bit more otherwise he couldn't accept the shipment. Seller then disappeared with everyone's money.

As for the dodgy advertisements for must have clothing or shoes - Skechers (spelt wrongly) is a well known one- no one should be falling for these obvious Far east companies who then send pencils or cheap notebooks (if anything at all!) .

The groups I use regularly are well regulated by knowledgeable admin , safe payments are a must- sellers can't use paypal F and F or bank transfer - and I feel very comfortable both buying and selling on them. I do sell on marketplace, not very much anymore due to time wasters, and buy even less frequently.

GDB2222

Why is this headed up Amazon Marketplace?

soolin

GDB2222 said:

Why is this headed up Amazon Marketplace?

Good point!

Articulate25

Where else should it be?

soolin

Articulate25 said:

Where else should it be?

I certainly thought you meant Facebook marketplace as that is what the main body of your post talked about. If you did mean Amazon then apologies, as I didn't know they had a viable group market scheme.

p00hsticks

Articulate25 said:

Where else should it be?

You're in the right section, but people (including me) are wondering why your thread title refers to Amazon Marketplace but the text of your post seems to be complaining about Facebook Marketplace, Meta etc - two completely different companies. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

It's surprising that companies like Facebook and Google aren't held to greater account, I don't use Facebook but do watch Youtube, the volume of ads for scam websites is surprising (not on videos but the ones that appear in the search results), you'd think they'd have a better vetting system. 

I've also seen countless ads about miracle heaters that will heat your home for nothing, all nonsense of course but people must be duped by them otherwise the ads wouldn't keep running. 

Articulate25

Ah sorry, I meant Facebook Marketplace