Most Swedes today have an account on Meta’s mega-platform Facebook. According to The Internet Foundation every second Swede used Facebook daily during the last year.
Since 2017, Meta’s built-in buying and selling function, Marketplace, has also been available to Swedes.
Here, users can post ads for goods they want to sell. Everything from furniture and furnishings to leases and vehicles. Interested buyers can contact the seller via their Facebook account to agree on a deal.
Facebook Marketplace can be considered both an environmentally friendly alternative and at the same time it can be kinder to the wallet.
But in an age where fraudsters are increasingly one step ahead, ad trading comes with a warning.
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Accounts for more than half of all ad fraud
Nina Jelver, head of security at Svensk Handel, worked for many years with fraud crimes with the police. She believes that about half of all reported ad fraud comes from the Marketplace.
– On other sites such as Blocket and Tradera, you have to create an account that is linked to the item, which implies a certain security and control. There is nothing like that on Marketplace, she says in an interview with News24.
She continues:
– This means that anyone can post an ad, without being regulated.
Swedish trade has no collaboration with Facebook Marketplace. And as a rule, very little of what is posted on Facebook is actually reviewed.
– To put it mildly, Facebook is not very cooperative when it comes to fraudulent ads on their platform, says Jelver.
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There may be warning signals in the ad
Telling whether an ad is fake or not can be difficult. Especially since there is more than one way for the scammer to trick you.
Fraudsters can, among other things, ask for advance payments to secure the goods. But when you sent the advance payment, the seller stops contacting you.
– It’s very common to sell things that don’t exist, then the profile goes up in smoke, says Nina Jelver.
Although some ads are more sophisticated than others, there may be warning bells already in the ad. She believes that the first thing you can do is check when the account selling the product was created.
If it’s a fairly new account, that could be a red flag. If the image for the advertisement is taken from an e-commerce site and does not represent the actual product, this is also a warning sign according to Jelver.
– You must not be as gullible as you often are. Many of the other sites offer a payment guarantee, Marketplace does not, she says.
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The head of security: “I myself was deceived”
Today’s fraudsters are so sophisticated that there is no longer any shame in falling victim to them. Navigating the ads can be difficult even for the most experienced buyer.
– I myself was cheated once, although it was a very long time ago. I was going to buy a Playstation and was a little too quick. By then, the fraudsters had even created a fake payment page that resembled the real one. So it can really happen to anyone, she says.
Nina Jelver believes that as long as this type of page exists, the fraudsters will continue. And they are usually one step ahead when it comes to technology.
She emphasizes the importance of you being skeptical and checking the ads as best you can before you pay.
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The security manager’s best tips
After all, there are ads on Marketplace that are not posted by scammers. Nina Jelvers believes that there are measures you can take to reduce the risk of being deceived:
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