Stranger lists Auckland man's car for sale on Facebook Marketplace
Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Auckland man Tony Bing only found out his 2008 BMW was being sold on Facebook by a stranger when a buyer contacted him offering a significantly lower price than he had asked in his Trade Me listing.
Bing’s Trade Me listing was copied and posted by a profile claiming to be a car reseller, who listed the car as his own for less than half the price. The Facebook Marketplace seller’s account was created last week, under the name Amrit Patel.
“The buyer contacted me wanting to negotiate the price down to $6000, which got me a bit confused because I had listed it on Trade Me for $15,000. I eventually figured out the buyer was referring to a Facebook listing which I had no idea about,” Bing said.
Bing said he contacted the police, Netsafe and alerted Facebook on Saturday but on Wednesday morning the Facebook Marketplace listing was still available.
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Bing said he was concerned about people falling prey to what appeared to be a scam.
“It is a little frustrating that no-one has been able to do anything. My concern is more for other people who could potentially fall for it and pay money to buy my car, and they lose money.
“The only contact they have if they are scammed is mine on my Trade Me listing or the car registration, which points back to me not the person running the scam.”
Facebook has been approached for comment. Patel has also been approached for comment.
The reseller had also listed two other cars, a 2015 Mazda Altenza for $8000 with the description “cheap price need gone” and a 2008 Audi A4 for $6000.
Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker said Facebook Marketplace was unregulated as it was more like an online classifieds section than an e-commerce website like Trade Me.
“A lot of scams are constructed from real adverts. It is not uncommon for people to steal information from other sites to sell their scam. For buyers it can be a compelling scam,” Cocker said.
“In this case there are multiple victims, the buyer and the legitimate owner of the product who is having their identity stolen.”
A police spokeswoman said online scams on Facebook Marketplace were common.
“If a deal is too good to be true, then it probably is. Whenever purchasing goods online, there is always a risk that the person selling the goods is not who or what they say they are,” the spokeswoman said.
She said shoppers should search the seller’s profile, ask for a photo of the item with something dated like a newspaper or with the seller in it, and check the account number matched the name given with the bank.