It’s a Facebook Marketplace AusPost Scam xmas!

Currently I’m selling many a book on Facebook Marketplace. And the first five responses have all been from idiots tried to suck me into an Auspost Scam.

Now I suddenly remember why I haven’t put things on on Facebook for a while..

Sigh – It’s time to go, again..

Cards out of the moving box and onto the folding table here, I despise moving house. And not just the packing and the boxing but having to find somewhere to move to, scraping together enough coin for a bond, disconnecting and reconnecting services, bond cleaning, dealing with agents, exhausting myself etc etc. On average, I tend to lose about 3-5kgs every time I spend a couple of weeks racing around trying to get everything done.

And guess what we’ve just found out we’re doing in December? Yep, moving house. We’d just put the Xmas tree up when the email came through – our lease is coming to an end next month. Upon further investigation we’ve discovered the owner has family moving in and yeah, we can’t really argue with that can we? (So much better that ‘The owner has decided not to continue the lease’ only to find out a week later they’ve put it back on the market as soon as we moved out..) Time to hit the rental market again after three years and hopefully find something that ticks as many boxes as possible to move into. (And work out if I really want to drag this BBQ along with me..)

But before we hire the moving van, we’ve decided to declutter in a major way and I decided to part ways with a big chunk of my book collection that I’d probably never get round to re-reading. So I took some snaps and popped them up on Facebook Marketplace.

And within minutes, some enterprising idiots on Facebook jumped on board to pretend they wanted my books, each presenting me with some kind of Auspost Scam to try and make me part ways with my precious coin. But this is not my first Facebook selling rodeo and it didn’t take long for the alarm bells to start ringing here..

‘Can you send through Auspost Scam pls’

I’ll admit, I was excited when my phone buzzed shortly after posting up the ads. But my own buzz was short lived when I looked a little closer at the message and then the seller’s profile (I always do this.) Because nothing says ”I’m a legitimate buyer” that someone in a completely different country than the one you’re in. Because I’m not believing for a second you just happen to be browsing my town’s classifieds, all the way over in..

Now if you live in a town I’ve heard of in the same country, yes there might be a chance you’re legitimate. Possibly. Like old mate Manuel here:

Since Griffith is about three hours away from Albury, this could be legitimate. But Manuel’s Facebook page show’s absolutely nothing to do with any connection to Griffith or even Australia for that matter. In fact with the very sparse details on his profile created just last year, it’s doubtful he’s been anywhere near here. But he’s well aware of Auspost (Australia Post service) and sent me this, which made my alarm bells ring themselves so hard, they started to break away from their supports.

Because try as I might, I couldn’t find a single option over at Auspost.com.au that anywhere resembles what he sent me or anything that even suggests this is a thing. And when I Google Image Reverse searched this pic, wouldn’t you know it? The exact same pic turned up in a Reddit post about scams from less than a week ago, right down to the Facebook browser tab up the top.

A page from a scammers toolkit, how wonderful. And so instead of my email address, old mate Manuel copped a creative blasting from my good self before being reported as being a dirty dirty scamming lad and subsequently blocked from my social feed life.

But then there were more..

Elise popped up minutes later:

A coupon for free delivery? Where can I get my hands on such a wonderful thing? The product part was a dead giveaway here as was the instant Australia Post mention. Joy oh joy, another possible Auspost scam within minutes! How lucky am I?

It was M’s turn next, a supposed student with a new born. He too has a discount! But knowing full well where this was heading, I decided to test him by making up a fictional place to see what he would say.

Yes an international student slash dad in a tiny town of less than 200 people scrolling the classifieds for some book bargains without a single picture on his profile (or details) about anything to do with Australia. But he does have the much coveted Auspost scam discount!

If anything, I’m disappointed that he didn’t respond to my fake memory of a non existent café in Bearii.

On a positive note however, a few hours later I did have a couple of genuine enquires. And once enough investigation proved I wasn’t about to be hit by yet another Auspost scam or variant, sales were made. Hooray, my shelves are emptying!

Auspost scams and other dodgy deals to look out for on Facebook

People to avoid/block/ignore:

-Anyone who uses the word ‘Kindly’ in correspondence. ‘Kindly provide your..’ A fond crutch of Nigerian 419 scam fraudsters and other dodgy dealeos.

-Anyone who starts with ‘Calvary greetings’. Great intro, never met anyone who wasn’t a scammer using it.

-Anyone not even remotely close to your country of origin.

-Anyone asking about your product.

-Anyone who flat out ignores what you write and continually pushes what they want you to do next.

-Anyone with a dodgy looking profile lacking in any detail of who they’re pretending to be.

-Anyone who sends you the Auspost scam picture above. Block away!

Right, now that it’s blocks all round, time to get packing. Anyone want to help me move house here?

UPDATE:

As I continue to post up more things I want to sell, more of the Auspost Scam clowns and the like are crawling out of the woodwork. It’s almost laughable at this stage and my kids are amazed how quick it is between me posting and them trying to scam me (as I explained to Jackson (hi Jack!), they just refresh the Marketplace feed all the time and target the newest post, hoping to be the first person the seller deals with.)

ANOTHER UPDATE!

Meta AI sent me a message!

We restricted your marketplace account There was an issue processing your posting, so your account have been paused. This is because someone reported that your item does not comply with our Terms of Use. Below are things that are not allowed on Facebook. • Using other people’s nicknames/images. • Spread content that confuses other users. * Here are ways you can resolve this issue seamlessly and continue buy or sell on marketplace: 1. Verify your identity through the following link within 24 hours: LINK REMOVED BECAUSE IT WAS DODGIER THAN A 3RD HAND CAR DEALER •If we do not receive the information in the link in this message, your account may be temporarily disabled after 24 hours. The 24-hour period begins when we send you this notice. This is an automated message from Meta Business Support. If you have any questions, please visit our Help Center to learn more.

Hilariously their profile listed their location in Ghana Africa, which is probably a complete surprise to anyone who legitimately works at Meta. I forgot to take a snapshot of the profile but it’s not there anymore, so reporting it seemed to have worked! (And how Facebook approved a user called Meta AI is anyone’s guess..)

Yes indeedy, it’s another Facebook scam!

Also these idiots have no sense of humour. When I sent this in reply:

They took it as genuine and continued on like there was nothing strange happening at all. Nice to see they’re so attentive!