Unfortunately, there are a lot of scammers on Marketplace ... This week, Commissioner Bogaert discusses the case of Maxime, who was the victim of an attempted extortion via this sales platform.
There is no shortage of second-hand platforms. Marketplace is one of the most popular. However, it is overrun by all kinds of scammers, as evidenced by the testimony of Maxime (not his real first name), who had offered two pieces of furniture for sale. Commissioner Bogaert looks back on the case. "He was immediately contacted by a very interested lady. In the next message, she told him she did not live nearby and was going to ask a courier company to come and pick them up. An hour later, Maxime received a message from Bpost that his buyer had asked Bpost to come and pick up the furniture on offer to deliver it to Arlon. As he lived near Mons, he understood that it was difficult for his customer to travel," said Olivier Bogaert.
The message, purportedly from Bpost, further stated that the customer had paid the amount and that he was asked to give the details of his own credit card to receive the amount. His buyer stepped up the pressure and explained to him that if she cancelled the payment, she would not be refunded.
Then came another message using the identity of Bpost and informing him that he would have to pay 200 euros through the Neosurf service to validate the order ... An amount he would allegedly get back on delivery.
Misuse of identity
Fortunately, Maxime did not take it and cancelled the delivery. He was still threatened with police summons and prosecution and subsequently decided to contact the police. "When we looked up his customer's profile on Facebook, we found that the name and first name were linked to the profile of a lady in Africa. The profile appropriating this name was recently created and uses two photos linked to the profile of a lady in France. When we checked the messages from Bpost, we discovered that the phone numbers listed were not from that company. Moreover, Bpost's messages contained a lot of spelling mistakes," Commissioner Bogaert analysed.
This incident reminds us to take the time to make inquiries before making a purchase!
Source: Federal Police
