Facebook Marketplace scams: the tricks on both sides of a sale

Why Facebook comes up so often

Reports to the FTC point at social media as the place scams start most. In 2025, nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam said it began on social media, with reported losses of $2.1 billion, about eight times the 2020 figure. And the FTC says people reported more money lost to scams that started on Facebook than on any other social media platform, far more than they reported losing to text or email scams.

Shopping scams were the most reported kind on social media last year. That doesn't make Marketplace unsafe to use. It means the same handful of tricks keep repeating, and they are easy to spot once you know them. They split neatly by which side of the sale you are on.

If you are selling

The FTC describes three tricks aimed at people who post something for sale on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and similar sites.

The fake payment

A "buyer" insists on paying through a mobile payment app. Then you get a notification, an email or a screenshot that says the payment went through, and they hope you ship before you notice nothing arrived. A variation: they say they paid you twice by mistake and ask you to refund one of the payments.

Check the balance inside the payment app itself. A screenshot or an email is not money. The FTC's advice is blunt: don't accept a mobile payment from someone you don't know.

The check for more than your price

The buyer offers a check for more than you asked, and asks you to deposit it and send back the difference. The check is fake, but it will show up in your balance because banks must make deposited money available quickly, usually within two days.

"The check cleared" doesn't mean it was a good check. It can take weeks for the bank to find out it was fake. By then the scammer has your item and the money you sent back, and the bank takes the full amount of the fake check out of your account. Never deposit a check for more than the selling price.

"Can you verify you're real?"

A buyer says they've heard about fake listings and want to make sure you are a real person, so they'll text you a code. The code is a Google Voice verification code. If you read it back, they use it to set up a Google Voice number linked to your phone number, and use that number to cheat other people. If anyone traces it, it leads to you.

Don't share a verification code, from any service, with someone you don't know. That one rule covers this trick and many others.

What the FTC suggests for sellers

Many sites recommend selling to a local buyer you meet in person, and taking cash. If you aren't selling locally, look at what seller protections the site offers before you agree to anything.

If you are buying

The ad for something that never arrives

The FTC says more than 40% of people who lost money to a scam on social media in 2025 said it started when they ordered something they saw in an ad: clothes, makeup, car parts, even puppies. Many of those ads led to unfamiliar websites, or to sites pretending to be a well-known brand with a big discount. Most people said what they paid for simply never arrived. When something did arrive, it was often a counterfeit or nothing like the ad, and shipping it back cost too much to be worth it.

Before you buy from an ad, check it out. The FTC suggests searching the company's name with the word "scam" or "complaint." You can also paste the link into our checker before you open it. We open it in a browser that is not yours and tell you where it really goes, how many days old the site is, and whether it asks for a login or a payment. A store that was registered last week and is selling a famous brand at 70% off is telling you something.

The seller who wants payment first

Be careful with any seller who wants money before you have seen the item, and has a reason you can't pay any other way. The FTC notes that scammers want to be paid in ways that make it hard to get your money back: wire transfers, gift cards, payment apps and cryptocurrency.

Meet in a public place, look at the item, and pay when you have it in your hand. If the seller can't do that, walk away. If you want to know whether a seller's name, phone number or email has been reported, look it up on our Check Seller page. No reports is not a clean bill of health; most scammers have never been reported anywhere.

The rental that doesn't exist

Housing is where Facebook stands out most. In the 12 months ending in June 2025, about half of the people who reported a rental scam to the FTC said it started with a fake ad on Facebook. Since 2020, people have reported nearly 65,000 rental scams with about $65 million lost.

The FTC describes how these go:

• The listing is copied from a real one, with the contact details changed, and sometimes the home was really for sale, not for rent.
• Money before you see the place: an application fee, a deposit, or first month's rent to "hold" it.
• A "credit check" link that signs you up for a paid membership for about $1, which then keeps charging you, while the scammer earns a fee for your sign-up.
• An application that asks for everything: your Social Security number, a photo of your driver's license, pay stubs.
• No in-person showing, but sometimes a "self-guided tour" with a lockbox code taken from a real listing.

The FTC's checks: search the address online and see whether the same home is listed with different prices or contacts, or listed for sale. Don't share sensitive information until you have agreed to rent. Real landlords normally pull your credit themselves. And if the rent is far below everything nearby and someone is pressing you to decide fast, walk away.

People aged 18 to 29 were three times more likely than other adults to report losing money to a rental scam, and many described being targeted in Facebook groups that students use to find housing near campus.

Messages that move you off Marketplace

Several of these tricks need you somewhere else: a payment app, a "shipping" site, a link to sign in, a lockbox code. When a conversation moves from Marketplace to a link, slow down. That link is the thing to check.

If you already paid

1. Contact the payment service or your bank right away. Tell them you paid a scammer and ask for your money back. If it was a gift card, our gift card scam guide has the company numbers.
2. If you gave out a verification code or your password, change the password and turn on two-step verification.
3. Report the listing or profile to Facebook.
4. Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. More places to report are in where to report a scam.

If the scam used a website or a link, you can also report it here, so the next person who checks it sees your report.

Sources: FTC Data Spotlight: Reported losses to scams on social media eight times higher than in 2020 (Apr 2026) · FTC: Selling stuff online? Here's how to avoid a scam (Jul 2022) · FTC Data Spotlight: Rental scams hit home with $65 million in reported losses (Dec 2025) · FTC: What To Know About Romance Scams · FTC: What To Do if You Were Scammed