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querying the hive mind

How do I safely sell stuff on a Facebook group?

I'm in a largeish US-wide Facebook group for mail-based buying, selling and trading of used gear for a mildly niche interest. I would like to also casually sell a few items, but as a newbie I feel clueless about the nuances of security, risk management and etiquette for this type of thing. Any tips, or a good online primer for how to sell one-offs and not get scammed?
The group is private but large, for individuals not professional sellers; but it moves fast, and everybody seems to be fairly experienced, so there are no helpful base-level FAQs or other documentation that I can see. It seems like people post things with pictures, prices and language like "$XX shipped anywhere in CONUS," other people reply, the transaction gets completed over PMs somehow, and that's that.

I'm especially wondering very basic things like:

I've done my Googling, but search is such crap these days that it overwhelmingly turns up listicles about pro-selling in Facebook groups, or else warnings to only ever do in-person pickups because safety. Anyone have advice to share, or links to pass along? Thanks!
posted by Bardolph on May 09, 2024 at 5:39 AM

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Does the group offer any kind of escrow?
posted by wenestvedt at 5:54 AM

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I think you have to accept that there is some possibility you may get scammed and have no recourse. But to reduce the chances of getting scammed -

- Trust your gut
- Don't move faster than you are comfortable with even if it means missing out on some sales
- Look at people's full facebook profiles to see if they seem to be real people (not foolproof - a real person may have their facebook locked down/just not use facebook for anything other than selling, and a faker may go to the effort of making a realistic fake profile - but it's better than nothing)
- Educate yourself about scams in general (like, you probably know the "oops, I sent you too much money, but it's OK just use it to buy me some BestBuy gift cards" grift)

What comes first, payment or shipping? How does the first mover trust that the second mover will hold up their end?
Personally I wouldn't send something unless I'd already received payment but this may depend on the conventions of the group. For larger value items you can use an escrow service.

What happens if the buyer claims they never received the item? What happens if they want to dispute its condition?
Use shipping methods with tracking and delivery confirmation (and insure the packages). If the buyer disputes the conditions, ask for photo or video evidence. Be very clear about the condition of the item during the sale/negotiation process.

What other security risks are involved in a person-to-person transaction like this? Do I need to be worried about a buyer having my return address? Do I need to scrub the metadata from my images?
Personally I don't worry about stuff like this (like, if I sell someone some Corningware and now they have my return address, now they know that... I am a person who exists who used to have some Corningware). But if you're worried it's very easy to use a PO Box and scrub the metadata. It's always possible that when you interact with someone online they could get mad and stalker-y at you, but that could happen over a metafilter post too.
posted by mskyle at 5:59 AM

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I've bought and sold a few items on a Facebook buy/sell/trade group for a specific bag brand. In addition to mskyle's advice, I'd search for the buyer's post history in the group - they may have some previous sales with other real human group members thanking them for a completed transaction in the comments or in a shoutout/vouch post. (You'll also sometimes see warnings from the mod team about scam accounts, but of course their thoroughness varies from group to group!)

Paypal Goods and Services (the one with the transaction fee) or sometimes Venmo Goods and Services) is always recommended as the payment method in said group because it at least has some limited buyer and seller protections; with Friends and Family there is no recourse for either party. I haven't had any conflicts to resolve, so I haven't dug deep into the terms and conditions for either sercice, but it's worth reading those documents to see what kind of proof of delivery, condition, etc. a seller would have to show if a buyer claimed it didn't show up.

My example group allows people to sell via Friends and Family, but it strongly recommends against it for newer members (buying or selling) and the people opting for that are the really hardcore collectors who have dozens of transactions already. I'd consider it potentially scammy behavior if someone tries to insist on switching from a more-protected to a less protected method.

I personally wouldn't worry about exposing my return address to a normal, polite buyer. I buy secondhand from a lot of Ebay, Poshmark, and Etsy sellers (as well as FB group members) and I've never seen one obfuscating their return address, and usually those packages are sent from a real-name person even if their reseller account had some cutesy name.
posted by fountainofdoubt at 6:59 AM

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Have you purchased any items through the group? Purchasing a few things from different buyers will expose you to group norms and also have the benefit of helping establish you as a reliable group member.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 9:03 AM

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To find scams, look for incongruities in their profile.

- Often scam profiles have a name and photo of one person, but the location city, or the friends, don't match that person. I've seen scam profiles using a middle-aged white woman's photo but the location is in India and all the person's friends are 25 year old Indian men. That's pretty unlikely.

- Check the interests - I've seen a young white American mom's profile photo in a mom group... but the banner photo is a muscle car parked in a lower income tropical country. That doesn't match.

- Check that the name matches the profile photo and gender. - Is it a white woman's profile pic but the pronoun is "he" and the name is Muslim? That's unusual. Google-search surnames you're not familiar with to see if they're from a country that doesn't seem to match the profile photo.

- Check the Facebook profile's URL too, some people have a vanity URL with their name embedded in it, and if it's wildly different from the name they're using, that's a red flag.

- Does the person make grammatical errors at odds with their name? In one group I'm in, there was recently a scammer using the name "Janet Davis", but their English grammar was mangled, making errors that no person with an Anglo name like "Janet Davis" would ever make. Far beyond bad spelling, it was a post like "My children needs nanny and his best childcare, start immediately, DM me."

- Search their name in the group and see if you can find other sales. If their profile links to their FB Marketplace profile, see what other items they're selling and how others have rated them.

- Check how many posts they've made in the group and how long they've been a member. If it's their first sale or they've been in the group less than a week, those are big red flags it's a scam.

- Does the person try to move to DMs really fast, or try to get off Facebook and move to WhatsApp? That COULD a sign of a scam (but could be normal too, I prefer texts because I don't always have Messenger alerts turned on).

- Does the person rush you or get irritated? Scammers do that to try to pressure you. Most real sellers don't care about speed and don't get annoyed, because they know their stuff will sell eventually whether you buy it or not, so they're pretty chill. If there is time pressure or heightened emotion attached to the transaction, it's a red flag.

- Are the photos grainy, as if they've been screenshot and reposted a lot? Bad sign. Ask for another weird angle to see if they actually have the item and can send an original photo - for instance, say, "Can you show me the part where the cord comes out of the back?" Or "Can I see a photo of the underside?" Make sure the new photo matches the ad photos in terms of lighting, background, etc. If it looks like it was taken in a totally different context that could be fishy.

- Does the person agree to a phone call? Usually a good sign. Note that if they agree to a phone call and then say they can't hear you, so you never actually speak with them, it's almost certainly a scam, that's a classic scam tactic. I like asking them to video chat me on fairly short notice and show me a walkaround of the item - that lets me see if their profile checks out with what I see in the video.

- Does the person call you "my dear" or "hon" or "my friend" etc? That's not very common for North Americans, so could be a sign of an overseas scam.

- Make some small purchases first, under $20, so you can afford to lose the money and you'll see what's typical.

- Use PayPal or another payment method where it's easy to get refunded if you get scammed. PayPal is great about this. I got scammed twice and they refunded very easily.

- Never ever share any passwords or numeric login authentication codes.

- Make sure your FB password is different from your email, bank, etc. That way if you accidentally give it up, you don't lose anything else.

- Always trust your gut. Better to lose the item than get scammed! But Marketplace and sale groups are great, I probably make $10K a year selling my clutter on Marketplace and almost everything I own, from books to furniture, to a car, to a tenant, have all come from Facebook!
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:12 AM

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I also occasionally buy/sell through a FB group for item collectors in a particular fairly narrow field. I've been tangentially involved in this niche for most of my life (had a parent who was a seller) and remember when all the transactions just involved a mailed check. So norms may be slightly more loosey goosey than they are in a bigger or more easily liquidated collectors area.


- PayPal Goods and Services seems to be the standard for buyer protection
- reverse searching the images in the listing or asking for additional photos will help eliminate the people who don't actually have the item in hand
- checking the seller's or buyer's other activity can be helpful.
- for high dollar items, asking for references is usually OK.
- there are usually a few high volume trusted sellers who are willing to act as brokers/consignors for items in exchange for a fee.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 11:29 AM

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