There's another red flag I've seen: buyers ask to pre-pay on the spot without having seen the item. They usually want to use Zelle or Venmo, and say they're going to have a relative come pickup the item.
Happened to me the other day. I got a weird feeling when they responded with a long message within seconds of me messaging (maybe it’s partially automated?), then when they wanted to pay upfront with Zelle and asked for my email I knew it was a scam.
At that point they’d send you a fake Zelle/Venmo phishing email, saying you need to upgrade to a business account, or “login” and do something else to accept the payment.
I almost got scammed by a couple on Facebook Marketplace. They had a Mac Mini they were selling for about $20 less than the going rate I had found on ebay so I initiated contact and we agreed on the price. I asked how they do payment, Paypal, Venmo, Stripe?
None of the above. The husband kept telling me sob stories about why they don't use any of them - only Zelle. I was like, I don't have that, and I'm not setting up another payment app just for one purchase.
That's when the scam and the sketchy feelings started creeping into my brain. They told me to go get a prepaid card, and then send it and they'll ship the Mac Mini when they get it. They were a few cities over and just like OP said, they didn't want to arrange a pickup. I was like, "Yeah, fuck that, you send the PC first and THEN I'll send the money." Then the husband told me if they were going to do that, I can just scratch off the security label and send then the code for safe keeping, and then they'll send the Mac Mini when they get the code.
That was the last straw - I told them to fuck off and go scam someone else. I got few nasty texts from the husband before blocking them.
Scammers use Zelle because nobody else uses it, which then forces people to go to great lengths to get something and will start to jump through hoops. I was wondering how many other people this couple had scammed before I contacted them.
I had an eBay sell once for an expensive camera and the buyer asked if I could change into pickup and have a relative pick it up. Was suuuuuuuper sus but because it was local and paid through eBay I figured sure let’s see where it goes. Went totally fine. Had the person sign a an invoice not that it would do anything on the eBay front.
Scammers know it’s hard to judge sometimes. Heck there’s always the risk someone just comes and runs off without paying.
Now on marketplace I say cash only in person in public and when the person shows up then I offer Zelle or cash whatever. That seems to have stopped most of the automatic scam attempts.
At that point they’d send you a fake Zelle/Venmo phishing email, saying you need to upgrade to a business account, or “login” and do something else to accept the payment.