Facebook Marketplace Scams: Fake Buyers, Deposits & Google Voice Codes

You list a sofa. Within minutes a buyer messages: interested, can collect tomorrow, but they have been scammed before and want to check you are a real person. They will send a code to your phone — could you just read it back?

The request sounds cautious, even considerate. It is the most common scam on the platform, and what it actually does is use your phone number to create a Google Voice account controlled by the scammer. The code arrives from Google because they entered your number on Google's own verification screen; passing it back completes the setup. They now hold a phone number verified against you, which is used to run further scams while the trail leads to your number.

Marketplace fraud is unusually worth understanding because both sides are targeted, and the schemes are highly formulaic. The stories change; the mechanisms do not. Learn six patterns and essentially everything you encounter is a variation on one of them.

Scams that target sellers

1. The verification code

Covered above. Any buyer requesting a code is hijacking your number, most often for Google Voice. There is no scenario in which a genuine buyer needs a code sent to your phone, and no verification feature on any marketplace works this way. The correct answer is always no.

2. The fake payment screenshot

The buyer arrives, shows a convincing "payment sent" screen, and takes the item. No money moves. The screen is either edited or a lookalike page. A variant sends a fake email claiming the payment is held in escrow and will be released once you provide tracking or a shipping fee. Verify inside your own app, refreshed, before anything changes hands.

3. The overpayment refund

The buyer sends more than the asking price, blames a typo, and asks you to return the difference. The original payment is later reversed as stolen; the refund you sent is not. This is identical in structure to the accidental transfer scam and to fake check employment fraud.

4. The shipping-only buyer

They cannot collect in person, and offer to arrange a courier — sometimes with a relative or an agent paying on their behalf. This exists to move the transaction out of local, cash, face-to-face conditions where fraud is hardest. On a local marketplace, an insistence on shipping for a bulky item is a signal in itself.

Scams that target buyers

5. The deposit to hold

A listing priced below market, high interest, and a request for a Zelle or Cash App deposit to hold it. The photos are stolen from a genuine listing elsewhere. Because these transfers are authorized by you and settle almost instantly, recovery is close to zero. This is the dominant scam in rentals, event tickets, puppies and vehicles.

6. The rental and vehicle variant

An apartment or car priced attractively, an owner conveniently out of state, and a request for a deposit before viewing. Sometimes an inspection or shipping service is invented as an escrow. Never pay a deposit on a property or vehicle you have not physically seen, and treat any third-party escrow suggested by the seller as fake unless you independently verified it exists.

Selling safely

1. Keep all communication inside the platform. Off-platform chats leave no record for disputes and are where pressure tactics work.
2. Take cash for local sales, and count it before the item leaves. If you prefer electronic payment, confirm it inside your own app, refreshed, before handover.
3. Meet in a public place with cameras. Many police departments operate designated exchange zones in their parking lots — search for one in your area.
4. Bring someone with you, and tell a third person where you are going and when you expect to be back.
5. Never invite a buyer into your home. For furniture and appliances, meet at the door or in the driveway.
6. Refuse every code request, every overpayment, and every proposal to ship a locally listed bulky item.
7. Screenshot the profile and conversation before you meet, since accounts are frequently deleted after a scam.

Buying safely

1. Never pay a deposit for something you have not seen in person. This single rule eliminates most buyer-side losses.
2. Reverse image search the listing photos. Stolen images appearing on other listings or stock sites is conclusive.
3. Pay in person, in cash, after inspecting — or use a credit card or PayPal goods-and-services if the sale must be remote.
4. Check the profile age and history. Accounts created days ago with no activity are the norm for scam listings.
5. Insist on a video call showing the item, with something specific held up. Scammers using stolen photos cannot comply.
6. Verify vehicles and rentals independently: run the VIN, check the property against county records, and confirm the seller actually owns it.
7. Treat any escrow, shipping or inspection service the seller proposes as fake unless you found it independently and verified it exists.

If you have already been caught

Marketplace fraud rewards a small number of habits far more than vigilance. Meet in public, take cash, verify funds in your own app rather than on someone else's screen, never pay for something unseen, and never read out a code. Those five rules cover essentially every pattern above, and none of them require you to correctly judge whether a particular stranger is honest — which is the judgment these scams are specifically designed to defeat.

Editorial note: This guide is general consumer education, not legal or financial advice. Dispute deadlines, liability limits and reimbursement policies vary by institution and change over time. Confirm your specific rights with your bank or a qualified professional. See our editorial policy for how we research and review this content.