Brick resident Alycia Woolley knew pretty quickly that the person on the other end of the Facebook chat was trying to rip her off.

The woman said she wanted to buy Wooley's Apple MacBook Air. which she had advertised for sale on Facebook Marketplace. But, it has to be shipped to Nigeria, "as a surprise birthday gift for my uncle," the scammer wrote in a Facebook message. Oh, and she was willing to pay $400, $50 more for than the $350 asking price if she promised that "it gets shipped to him in good condition."

"Sure no problem," Woolley replied. "I'll ship before payment."

Obviously, she didn't really fall for it.

Consumers should be wary. Scammers, who have used internet ads like those placed on Craigslist as a way to mine for victims of their cons, are showing up on Facebook Marketplace too.

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"Scammers always focus on the platform with the best return on investment, so as a marketplace becomes more popular, expect more attention afforded to it," said Cameron Camp, a security researcher at ESET, an IT security firm with its North American headquarters in San Diego. "These scams have worked for years on Craigslist and local classified ads sites, so now they move to Facebook."

Facebook unveiled its Facebook Marketplace last fall. "More than 450 million people visit buy and sell groups each month – from families in a local neighborhood to collectors around the world," wrote Mary Ku, Facebook's director of product management, in a blog post. "Marketplace makes it easy to find new things you’ll love, and find a new home for the things you’re ready to part with."

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Woolley posted an ad to try to sell her 2011 Apple MacBook Air on Feb. 28. Two apparent scammers, including one who claimed to live in California, sent her messages to try to buy the laptop. Both said they were buying a surprise gift for a relative. Both wanted her to ship it to the same address in Nigeria. Both said they sent a payment to her via Western Union.

It "set off some red flags," said Woolley, a bank teller who is trained to spot scams from a mile away. She played along, but the scammers lost interest after it was clear she wasn't about to fall for it.

How can you make sure you don't get taken by these scams? Melissa Companick, president and chief executive officer of the Better Business Bureau of New Jersey has some answers.

  • Check the profile. Do some research by checking out a potential buyer's Facebook profile. You'll get a sense of how long the person has been on Facebook and where they're located. Information about a seller, including their location and how long they've been on Facebook, is on the marketplace advertisement too. Check to see if you have Facebook friends in common, Companick said. Is "this person on the up and up?"
  • Clean chat. If contacted by Facebook message, is the chat filled with typos or does it seem as if it's written by someone for whom English is not a primary language? 
  • Verified payments. Facebook doesn't facilitate payments so you'll need another method. Use a trusted resource, such as PayPal, which validates credit-card transactions, Companick said. If you're a buyer, you'll want to use a credit card so you have some sort of ability to get your money back if the transaction falls apart.
  • Weird payments? No way. If someone asks to pay, or requires payment, via a money transfer service, prepaid debit cards, gift cards or money cards, run for the hills. It's a red flag if you think this: "Huh, why would you pay me like that," Companick said.
  • Pay more? One scammer offered to pay Woolley more for her laptop. "If anything, people are going to haggle to get the price lower," Companick said. It's "a cause for concern."
  • Bad checks. Beware of it turning into what's known as advanced payment scheme. That's where you receive a fake cashier's check for more than the purchase price. "They say this is because they don't know exact shipping costs so they want to send extra to cover the shipping," Camp said. You'll be asked to wire back the difference via a money transfer service. A few days later, the bank will find out the check was fraudulent, but you'll be out your money. The fraudster has it.
  • Far-off locations. A scammer may ask you to ship to a location, typically overseas, where it's not easy to get it back once it's sent, Camp said.

​The best advice? "If sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Companick said.


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