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Jair Aguirre

Trishia Briones

English 1301-120

07 September 2022

Is Facebook Marketplace Safe?

By October 2019, Facebook Marketplace was being used by over 800 million people

worldwide in 70 countries. The “average Facebook user spends 33 minutes a day on the platform

77% of Internet users use at least one meta platform” (Todorov). “It found that 14% of people

had made a purchase using Marketplace, as opposed to 6% for Craigslist” (Thompson/Elkind).

What attracted users to the service has also attracted criminals and con artists. According to law

enforcement, retail security executives, and independent experts who closely track incidents of

fraud, Marketplace's ease of use, integration into the dominant global social network, and

Facebook's pre-existing problem with fake and hacked accounts have made the platform a

favorite choice for organized retail crime gangs and international cybercriminals.

What is Facebook Marketplace? Facebook Marketplace specializes in assisting existing

businesses, dropshippers, and ordinary people to sell items they no longer need. Cars, equipment,

furniture, toys, and even houses can be sold. When selling something locally, there is the option

of messaging with the seller for more information about the product and where they are going to

meet, but it also has a shipping option where they just have to put in the information and it will

arrive at the chosen location. But is it safe? No. They do have excellent policies that ensure the

safety of both customers and sellers, as their "Prohibited Content'' ensures that no illegal or
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unsafe activity is permitted during the product's sale. Weapons, ammunition, explosives, stolen

property, ingestible supplements, gambling, body parts, fluids, alcohol, and adult products are all

illegal. They also have restricted content, which was added primarily as a result of the market's

abundance of scammers. The following is the restricted content. Event tickets and admission

Tickets are limited. Gift certificates and gift cards: It is illegal to buy or sell gift certificates or

cvgift cards.

As many know, scammers are a virus in the marketplace industry, especially in facebook

marketplace. Why? It may be related to all the accounts these scammers create. When one gets

terminated, they just switch to a new one. These scammers go out of their way to circumvent the

policies of the Facebook marketplace and take them off the platform. One popular scam that is

happening right now is the Zelle Scam. In essence, a potential buyer contacts a seller on

Facebook Marketplace and requests to buy the seller's item—with the disclaimer that they can

only pay with Zelle. However, after the purchaser "sends it to the customer," the customer will

receive an email from Zelle informing them that in order to authorize the transaction, the buyer

must send $200, which the customer promptly returns. The buyer then claims that this is due to

their using a business account and sending it quickly "sends the $200." They then demanded it

back. However, if the customer examines the emails they received while this is happening, one

from "Zelle" and one from a bank like Wells Fargo, they appear jumbled together with different

fonts, odd spacing, and an overall sketchy vibe. The money “sent” also never hits the customer's

account.

However, one of the negative aspects is that Facebook has no control over what happens

outside of the app, so they cannot ensure their safety when purchasing something locally. For
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instance, they claim that an armed robbery occurred during an attempt to purchase a vehicle from

the Facebook Marketplace. It happened around 2 p.m. on Skiff Street and the Hartford Turnpike,

according to police. The victim told police that they were meeting with the seller(s) to purchase a

vehicle. When four males armed with handguns attempted to rob them. The victim was able to

flee in their car and flag down a nearby officer, who canvassed the area but discovered nothing.

Most people will continue to use the Facebook marketplace because it is a simple app.

The market has a simple format that literally anyone can learn, but in order to avoid scammers

and dangerous people in general, there are some procedures that must be followed. Be wary of

giveaway offers and never enter personal information to gain access to them. Only use trusted

payment methods (PayPal, Facebook Checkout) through Facebook Messenger because they

allow the customer to dispute a payment. Fraudsters frequently request gift cards, wire transfers,

and payments through services such as Venmo and Zelle. And if in person, just make sure the

person gets good reviews and/or is trusted by the community. A legitimate buyer will have a

strong and healthy profile.

Overall, the Facebook Marketplace is a safe app for buying and selling things that are of

no need or want, and it's a great app to use to boost business and also for dropshippers to get a

convenient way to start their dropshipping journey, but be cautious when browsing to buy a

product from a person. Scam artists exist in any marketplace or e-commerce business, and their

numbers can be reduced but not completely eliminated.

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Works Cited

“8 Common Facebook Marketplace Scams and How to Avoid Them.” WeLiveSecurity, 13 July

2022,

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2022/07/06/8-common-facebook-marketplace-scams-ho

w-avoid/.

“Commerce.” Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/policies_center/commerce/.

Margolfo, Ken. “Armed Robbery during Facebook Marketplace Buy.” WTNH.com,

WTNH.com, 5 Sept. 2022,

https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/armed-robbery-during-facebook-ma

rketplace-buy/.

Petworth, Prince Of. “‘Zelle Scam - Facebook Marketplace.’” PoPville, 6 Sept. 2022,

https://www.popville.com/2022/09/zelle-scam-facebook-marketplace/.

Silverman, Craig, et al. “Facebook Grew Marketplace to 1 Billion Users. Now Scammers Are

Using It to Target People around the World.” ProPublica, 22 Sept. 2021,

https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-grew-marketplace-to-1-billion-users-now-sc

ammers-are-using-it-to-target-people-around-the-world.

Todorov, Georgi, and Georgi TodorovGeorgi Todorov is the founder of ThriveMyWay. “30

Interesting Facebook Marketplace Stats, Facts, and Trends.” Learn Digital Marketing, 31

Aug. 2022, https://thrivemyway.com/facebook-marketplace-stats.

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