Are you an avid viewer of online marketplaces? Market places like Facebook, Kijiji, eBay, and Amazon all contain deranged people that are ready to steal your data, sensitive information and sometimes identity! There are scam product posts that can occur more frequently.
Like a more commonly seen one;
The buyer seemingly is "away right now" and wants to send you a "transfer or cheque"
Odds are, you could be selling or buying vehicles, for family members, friends or personal use. But sadly the scammers have no remorse.
They at first claim they are not in the direct area or "Not in the province due to work" or some other reason and want to "send a money order and send someone from eBay to pick up the car". Majority of these are scams looking to get your information, money, and sometimes car.
Refusing to meet up in person
You may also be old school and just want to meet in person. If the buyer or seller is refusing to meet in person there is a very good chance that they do not have the vehicle or the means to purchase. They are ready to take your money or data and run.
The best way to avoid this is never go through with a purchase or a sale unless they are willing to see the product or let you see it. Try not to buy "sight unseen", even though there are influencers that get lucky with doing so, it doesn't mean they haven't been scammed.
Avoid sending money or advance payments
Another one not so uncommon, is the "I need a deposit for me to hold this item".
In most cases it may make sense, if you want someone to hold something a small fee can be asked for almost like a retainer. Although there are people taking advantage of this.
They will ask you for a deposit and sell the car anyway while refusing to give your money back.
If this happens it is almost impossible to get the money back as the police will tell you its a civil matter and banks refuse to give money back on something like this, so it is best to avoid these situations all together and, look for the product or service after you have the funds to do so.
Avoid all external links
When buying or selling a product if a person is extremely persistent about you clinking a link that they send. They are looking to get your information or obtain the permissions to be able to completely take over your device and or account. It is becoming a lot more common to see sketchy links in buy and sell groups online. The best practice is to completely avoid suspicious links as most are scammers looking to phish or activate malware that takes control of your device in the background, or steal your information to take over your Facebook or Instagram accounts. if this happens it is best to reach out to customer support depending on the application, or recreating a new account with more secure privacy measures. Unfortunately this happens a lot more frequently than you would think.
In some cases its better to have a system or practice in place to avoid these types of situations, We at C3 Solutions use Trend Micro to allow a worry free online experience. We suggest using this because of its thorough reports, keeping us aware of the vulnerabilities that may effect our workspace.
If you would like to test your business we offer a Test Phishing Service through Trend Micro that send out SAFE TEST phishing emails to check for vulnerabilities within your business.
