Selling safely on Facebook Marketplace: how to avoid the common scams

Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and OfferUp deals are built on speed and informality — that’s the appeal, and it’s also the attack surface. Scammers rely on you wanting the deal done quickly: a payment “pending”, a courier “already booked”, a buyer “five minutes away” who just needs one more thing from you. The scripts barely change from year to year, and a handful of habits stops essentially all of them.

1. The fake payment screenshot. A convincing Venmo or Zelle “payment sent” screen, or a spoofed text that looks like it came from your bank. The item leaves, the money never lands. Defense: the only proof of payment is your own app showing the money in your balance. Not “pending”, not a screenshot, not an email.
2. The business-account upgrade. A fake email says the buyer’s payment is held until you “upgrade” your account — and the upgrade requires the buyer (or you) to send money first. Payment apps don’t work that way. Defense: any message that makes receiving money cost money is a scam.
3. The overpayment. The buyer “accidentally” sends too much and asks you to refund the difference — your refund is real, their payment never was. Defense: never refund until the original payment has genuinely settled, and treat overpayment itself as a red flag.
4. The shipping bait. A remote buyer insists on shipping and sends a fake label or courier email demanding a fee or deposit. Defense: sell locally and in person; if you ship, you make the label and you wait for cleared payment first.

1. Goods that don’t exist. A tempting price, pressure to send a deposit “to hold it”, then silence. With near-irreversible payment apps, that money is usually gone. Defense: never send money for something you haven’t seen. Meet, inspect, then pay.
2. The item that isn’t what it was. Sealed boxes with the wrong contents, phones with carrier locks or hidden faults, counterfeits. Defense: inspect before paying — power it on, check serial numbers and IMEI, look inside the box. Private sales are as-is deals, so the inspection is your protection (see our guide to bills of sale and receipts).
3. The stolen item. Cheap, no provenance, seller in a hurry. Defense: for high-value items ask for the original receipt or proof of ownership, check serial numbers where registries exist, and get a receipt with the seller’s name on it — it documents that you bought in good faith.

• Meet in a public place in daylight. Many police departments offer designated safe exchange zones in their parking lots — camera-covered and made for exactly this.
• Keep the conversation on the platform. Moving to text or email early is a scammer’s first ask, and it deletes your evidence trail.
• Watch the money arrive. Open your own app, refresh, confirm the amount is in your balance — then hand over the item. Thirty seconds of mild awkwardness beats an unrecoverable loss.
• Never pay, refund or “verify” under time pressure. Urgency is the engine of every scam script. Anyone rushing you past a check is telling you which check matters.
• Write the deal down. Item, condition, price, payment reference, both names, both signatures. Two minutes, and “your word against mine” becomes a signed record.

A receipt doesn’t stop a fake Venmo screenshot — checking your own balance does. What it stops is the second wave: the disputes that surface days later. The buyer who claims the laptop was described as new. The seller who denies the meeting ever happened. The “mix-up” about the agreed price.

A co-signed receipt fixes the item, the condition, the price, the payment reference and both identities at the moment of handover — with both signatures, timestamps, and a document that can’t be quietly edited afterwards. And for anything at $500 or more, it doubles as the signed writing that makes the sale enforceable under UCC §2-201. For the two minutes it takes, it’s the cheapest insurance either side of a Marketplace deal can buy.