Bracknell woman scammed out of games console as fraudster 'seemed genuine'
ITV News Meridian's Juliette Fletcher speaks to a woman who fears she may not be the only person who has fallen victim to this type of scam.
A woman, who was scammed out of a games console, is warning people to watch out for different methods which fraudsters use, both online and in person.
Debs Walters from Bracknell put an advert on Facebook Marketplace and had arranged for the buyer to pick it up in person.
When he arrived at her house, she says he was chatty and "seemed genuine", which is why, when he asked to pay for the item with a bank transfer, she agreed.
He appeared to transfer the money in front of her, but it never arrived.
Now Ms Walters is out of pocket and has reported the incident. Thames Valley Police say they are aware of the allegation and will be investigating.
Ms Walters spoke to ITV News Meridian about how she did not realise she was being scammed.
Debs Walters said: "I thought he was genuine, he seemed like a nice lad. Normally scammers aren't chatty, they cut you off or can't wait to get away, so he seemed really genuine.
"He said, 'Would you take £430 instead of £450?', he seemed genuine, so I said 'ok'.
"He stood there and unboxed everything and said, 'Do you mind if I pay by bank transfer?'.
"I said, 'That's great because it saves us having to go to the bank to pay cash in'."
After the money never arrived, alarm bells started ringing and Ms Walters told her partner they had been scammed.
She believes she is not the only victim of the fraudster and wants to protect others.
A consumer expert from Which? spoke about how to protect against online fraudsters.
Consumer expert from Which?, Harry Kind said: "One of the most useful things is to rely on a marketplace that has some kind of dispute service and protected payment mechanism built into it.
"Places like eBay have that kind of structure that Facebook Marketplace really lacks.
"So you then don’t end up in these really difficult situations where you have someone in your house, and they aren’t sending you the money."
Facebook Marketplace says it is a local meet up and collection service, so they don't facilitate payments or shipping.
They told ITV News Meridian that they encourage their community to report scams immediately and are committed to continuing to invest in protections against fraud for people who use their platforms.
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