Is this a Facebook Marketplace Scam?

[TechSaviour]

Purchases that have any African overtones that involve Paypal can follow a very specific pattern, leaving you the victim heavily in debt.

First you are solicited for your goods and offered PayPal, next the payment is made to you, but through a phished PayPal account, or one specifically set up for the scam which may involve a stolen credit card at some point. This would of course be unknown to you.

Just after receiving the payment the buyer says they have changed their mind, and do not want the goods any more. There is a problem with their PayPal account, so they ask for a refund via Western Union. This is the point where you actually lose money.

The mechanism is the same as the Overpayment Scam which usually involves a fake check, only here it is the PayPal account being used like a check. If you were to refund the payment, that money is gone for ever, but when PayPal discover the fraud, (and/or the Credit Card), then they will claw it back FROM YOU! Leaving you twice out of pocket and with no hope of getting any of it back.

Alternatively, the PayPal account would have been Phished, or set up with a stolen credit card, and despite you getting paid, you may have sent the goods. By the time PayPal are alerted to the fraud, your goods have been collected, leaving you liable to pay back the money to PayPal, or they claw it back from your account if their are sufficient funds. If there are not sufficient funds, you will probably loose the PayPal account altogether. Here of course you loose both money AND goods.

There are more ways to be defrauded, but these two are very common.

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