In our last edition we reviewed a few different scams and some tips on ways you can protect yourself and what to do if you think you were the victim of a scam.
If you missed our first alert, just stop by our East Wareham branch and we’ll give you a copy
It is more important than ever to make sure that you are aware of the many scams fraudsters are trying to get away with. This mont, we are going to review a different type of scam and what you can do to protect yourself if you believe you are being scammed, or have been a scam victim.
One of the more common scams that we are seeing almost once per week is the “Advertisement for Sale” scam. This scam is very common on nearly any website someone can advertise something for sale.
Some very common websites we see this from are Facebook, Craigslist, Offer-up, sometimes we even see these on websites for rental properties.
The way this scam works is you may be browsing Facebook Marketplace for a specific item, let’s say a new boat. You found someone selling a boat but the deal just looks a little bit TOO good to be true. The scammers know that an attractive price will bring in more possible people to scam.
The most important thing to be careful of is if anyone selling a
product wants you to send money via Venmo, Zelle, or Cashapp. These apps send your hard earned money electronically and the funds leave your account instantaneously.
Part of the agreement to use these applications indicates that you are solely responsible for any transactions that are sent and there is ZERO recourse if you hit that send button. Once you send the funds to the scammer, they will no longer answer you, they will block your number, or even worse completely disconnect the original number you were communicating with. They use a fake name, and fake profile to stay under the radar. You are out your money and you definitely aren’t going to get the boat.
How can you protect yourself from this scam? To start, if you are buying an item from a third party online it’s very important to make sure this is a legitimate person. It sounds silly but look at their Facebook, do they have a lot of friends? If they are selling the item locally, do they have any friends locally?
These are big red flags, as scammers will typically create a new account to do a new scam. Another great tip is to NOT send any money until you can see the item you are buying, make sure you can verify that the item physically exists.
My final tip, which is the most important… Never ever send a Zelle, Venmo, or Cashapp to someone you do not 100% know and trust. These apps can be very helpful, but only with people you know, they are easy methods for fraudsters to get funds!
Vincent A Pircio, Branch Manager II
Rockland Trust
2995 Cranberry Highway
East Wareham, MA 02538
Phone (508) 295-6900
Fax (508) 295-7178
Vincent.Pircio@RocklandTrust.com