Does anyone look at Marketplace on FB for stuff? I check it out for this and that and have bought a couple of things. But it seems that over the past year, some concerns. - I will see something of interest and the price will be fantastic. I'll write them and ask a question and get an auto-reply, "Yes, this item is still available, please contact John through his email [email protected]" or something similar. That's got to be an autobot doing that, it comes instantly and they never answered my question! And why not just communicate through Messenger as is normal? - Same as above except this super low price on a vehicle (that is always in mint condition), an ATV or piece of equipment is from a seller that is not an individual but a dealership of some sort (supposedly). Often, they have never replied to my inquiry but I get get a couple back that said the super low price is a deposit, not the total sale price. What? Deposit? I see this a LOT. If the seller is legit but the price shown is a deposit, to me, that should not be allowed by FB. - I see an inordinate amount of things for sale by females for guy stuff. Some is legit but there just seems to be far, far too much of this for it to be legit. Especially when I write them and get responses that don't add up. Generally, I trust females more than males but it's like guys are posing as female sellers for some reason. - Let's say I am interested in a Husqvarna 395. That's what I write in the search and it shows an endless stream of chainsaws of all makes and models and an endless stream of Husky lawnmowers and weed whackers, etc. and not one Husky 395, lol. (Just an example.) Their search absolutely sucks and their "local only" filter doesn't work. But this gripe is not fraud, it's just lame. It's getting to where there is so much of it, it's not worth jacking with it but the problem is, Marketplace has taken most all the ads from Craigslist for local stuff. FB and Marketplace are ubiquitous. I haven't even participated on FB's social site since early this year, I dunno if I will go back and now Marketplace is doing this stuff. Anyone seen stuff like this or have insight? I check Craigslist on stuff and it's not much there anymore. I bet their company net worth is WAY down.
I've basically stopped using Craigslist due to BS, tire kickers and scams. Sounds like FB Marketplace is headed in the same direction. Any time money is involved, the scumbags find a way to ruin it. I was told an unbelievable story today by IT. I was sent a phishing email asking to purchase multiple Apple gift cards. Of course I didn't respond. The crazy part is IT told me that when people fall for it and the servers are compromised, the cases get reported to Police, then State Police, then FBI who basically pay out the perps in Bitcoins to get the info unencrypted. So no punishment's, just a reward of internet money. I'm sure that money is coming from taxes somehow. So basically they hold your info on ransom until they get money to release it, and never get caught. WTF
I browse CL & FBM for chainsaw deals. Rarely free firewood. Found a good one last week and PMed seller right away. He responds that it was a "hot commodity" saying he was offered more than his asking price to hold it and would sell it to me at the offerers price which was $30 higher since i was the first to respond. Not exactly fair. Still a GREAT bargain and i accepted then asking when we could meet up as he was over an hour from me. "How about Sunday" I responded yes and never heard from him again and saw the next day the saw was sold. PMed him a couple more times with no response. Private legit seller IMO just greedy like the rest of society. My biggest gripe is when sellers DONT RESPOND AT ALL! I had another a couple days ago that i emailed twice and no response? Listing was ended yesterday. Bought my 028 off CL in April and seller never pulled the listing until it expired. I feel for you. CL has four zones for my small state.
Facebook MP does have some sketchy ads but they aren't in my opinion very hard to decipher. When you see those "too good to be true" deals, they likely are bogus. I know what vehicle/atv ads you're referring to, I've been seeing more of them but what FB allows you to do is click on the seller and you can do some pretty simple investigating. Usually those ads are posted in multiple cities and states. That right there should tell you it's a scam. If people aren't easy to deal with, or if they want you to email them rather than just talk on messenger then that's a red flag. It's such an easy system to use for a transaction that if someone really tries to stray from it or act squirrelly then just forget it. I always look at people's profiles when dealing with them through MP. That's truly one of the benefits of MP compared to craigslist, you can see who you're dealing with, and just judging from their profile it's usually quite simple to tell if they are sketchy, normal enough, or just a bot! My biggest issue with MP was recently when I put up an old forklift for sale from our shop, I had nearly 40 inquiries and I'd say over half of those people didn't even respond to me once I told them it was still available. The other half were too stupid to understand a 6k lb capacity forklift weighs north of 13,000 lbs. So basically, I can't understand why so many messaged me, and even when I'd immediately respond, the messages would go unread and I'd never hear from them again.
I try to be very careful using Craigslist... I've learned to spot scam ads and live by the rule, "If it seems too good to be true... it's probably a scam". There are countless ads for subcompact John Deere tractors that are listed at ridiculously low and oddly numbered prices, like 25% of what should be the asking price... Such as $3467 for a tractor that should sell for closer to $15,000.. I immediately flag those as a scam. I'm also weary anytime anyone uses a picture with their hotmail or gmail address superimposed on the pictures. FB Marketplace is getting to be no different. Just yesterday my wife yells at me to come look at her computer. There was a beautiful picture of an Airstream trailer, some 16', single axle, compact version. The asking price was $1200... WAY TOO LOW... I Google image searched the pic and found the exact pic as part of the real ad... Listed at a much more realistic price of $20,999... Again, "If it sounds too good to be true..." There was a thread on this forum a while back about a smoking hot deal on a large cc Stihl saw on craigslist. I did a Google image search and found the real ad for the saw. It has been listed for sale on a different selling service out on the west coast, at the expected $$$ price, and had been sold.... Someone used those same pictures, made up a bogus ad and I'm sure was trying to scam, or gather email addresses of people with their ad.. Again, a classic case of, "if it sounds too good to be true..." I tried to sell my 2009 Kawasaki Zx-14 on craigslist this summer... What a frustrating experience. I kid you not, I had people asking if they could borrow my truck to take the bike home because they don't have a MC license, people wanting me to hold the bike 'till next year so they could save up their money. One email wanted me to buy a "history report" for the bike and included a link to an overseas web site that wanted me to enter a credit card number and the 3 digit security code.... hahaha No f'ing way I'm doing that. One wanted me to send them a copy of the title before they even came to look at it.. I mean this should be a simple thing, email me, come look at it, bring cash, agree on price, sign the paperwork, and drive it or trailer it home... So the issues with on line selling work both ways.... scammy ads and scammy buyers!!! Sorry, had to vent... all better now
I see some of those adds too. I am not much of a FB person, and only got on there so I could sell or buy, but I do have a few friends from work, family etc on there. One thing that I don't really understand though is I get these friend requests from people I don't know, and we share no mutual friends. I see repeated attempts also. What do they gain by being on my friends list?
Craigslist is far worse for scams than FB. Learned to spot a lot of the scams ads/replies. If there's a sob story "My son was killed in xxxx and I cant bear to look at his truck anymore" is the only description of the vehicle. Or the reply " I'm interested in this item. Are you a real person" actually says item no mention of whats being sold. This one seems to come from a Detroit area code alot.
I literally just started using FBMP a few weeks ago. So far, I've had both good and bad experiences...but any time I've shown up physically has been a good experience. The bad experiences are just sellers that don't respond, or in one particular case, where they list it as "FREE WOOD CONTACT ME FOR ADDRESS" and then I ask if such and such a day works and they come back with "It's $50 a log, $400 if you take all the logs". I told them politely that I wasn't interested and that their ad did not mention anything about it costing anything and that it had stated it was free. I was supposed to go today to pick up some pine....but the guy was making excuses prior that the ground was super wet and that my truck would get stuck. Hm 4wd Tacoma with AT tires I doubt it - but he cancelled on me today. I am leaning towards ignoring this guy.
I see ads for quads and tractors that are bait on FB marketplace. Great pictures and prices are so low it stinks from the get go. At least with FB marketplace you can check profiles and see if they have sold items. A little creeping never hurt to see if they are legit. All FB marketplace purchases have been fine. Good people too. I won't go back to CL.
I mentioned the ads where the price is real low for a great looking item and then you find out the price is a deposit! Anyone seen that or is it unique down here? And as I said, it seems it ends up being that the seller is a dealership of some sort. I don't understand why FB does not have the rule that the final selling price must be stated. It's just not efficient, it's a time waster; you have no idea how much the real final selling price ask is.
Lots of scams now on Marketplace. Mostly cars, trucks, tractors, ATV - anything vehicle. Crazy low price, sometimes the wrong picture of what they are selling. Often if you do a google-image search you'll find the exact same vehicle for sale all across the country. Same with craigslist.
I feel like the scam vehicle posts on FBMP have recently really ramped up , especially in my area. I've also seen a bunch of people selling archery items claiming they are nerf, which is fine; it just goes against FB policy of selling weapons. Seems the filters/computers of FBMP are letting more things slip through the cracks.
Most of those ads are incredibly obviously scams to anyone with half a brain. Yeah 0 miles driven, automatic transmission. No tractor owner would put car language in a tractor ad.
I've seen that exact ad here. Didn't open it because I figured that was just the downpayment. Not really a scam but I see alot of dealers putting similar ads were the 2k is monthly payment or down payment
