Can anyone stop these scam ads?

[FlyingPanda]

I’m amazed at how many obvious scams keep appearing on Facebook marketplace. Fortunately they’re very obvious (far too cheap, cut and paste descriptions etc). I used to try and report them but I don’t think anybody cares.





Etc etc

[Summit_Detailing]

I too used to report some of them and submit for review but it would appear FB don't give a damn, they claim they don't fall outside of their permitted guidelines!

I did send a message to one seller with a dodgy description / photo's out of curiosity and it appears they had their account hacked.

[georgeyboy12345]

“Excellent on electric” had me loling.

I suppose if you are dumb enough to fall for such an ad, then you kind of deserve to be relieved of your money.

[anonymous-user]

It's a pain trying to find anything legit on the car side of FB marketplace now.

[steveo3002]

at least theyre easy to spot with their tires and titles etc , with some better English and a closer to real price they might catch more suckers

[vikingaero]

The #TAGS are the biggest giveaway of trying to bump up the FB algorithm (if you can call it that).

This is the classic 500+ cars for sale on the profile which is more than most dealers! They claim the car is popular and can be reserved for a deposit. Plenty of mugs will pay say a £500 deposit thinking they can get a nice car for the fraction of the price.

And the other problem is that the cheap price encourages more clicks with further boosts the dodgy ads.

[JQ]

steveo3002 said:

at least theyre easy to spot with their tires and titles etc , with some better English and a closer to real price they might catch more suckers

If their prices weren't ridiculously cheap far less people would be prepared to pay the £500 holding deposit by bank transfer. I also wonder if the bad English is deliberate - the people being scammed think they're actually the one's doing the scamming, as they've found someone more stupid than them who clearly doesn't know the value of their car.

I've totally given up on looking for cars on Facebook, literally every ad seems to be fake.

[Fastdruid]

Summit_Detailing said:

I too used to report some of them and submit for review but it would appear FB don't give a damn, they claim they don't fall outside of their permitted guidelines!

Yep, this. FB don't give a crap. Hacked accounts, spam, scams, porn. Report it but nothing gets taken down.

But you dare criticise the marketing side of Honda USA using a swear word and you'll get a 7 day ban....

[rich146]

georgeyboy12345 said:

“Excellent on electric” had me loling.

I suppose if you are dumb enough to fall for such an ad, then you kind of deserve to be relieved of your money.

Agreed !

[rich146]

JQ said:

If their prices weren't ridiculously cheap far less people would be prepared to pay the £500 holding deposit by bank transfer. I also wonder if the bad English is deliberate - the people being scammed think they're actually the one's doing the scamming, as they've found someone more stupid than them who clearly doesn't know the value of their car.

I've totally given up on looking for cars on Facebook, literally every ad seems to be fake.

Its not just cars. Facebook marketplace in general is a scammy site. Full of dishonesty

[Jamescrs]

I tried messaging one knowing it qould be a scam but I wanted to.see what would happen.

Basically got sent a sketchy looking link where the "seller" said it was his sisters car and I needed to.message her. I didnt bother clicking on it as assumed it was some kind of link to steal my FB account.

[KungFuPanda]

To be fair, I wouldn't even go for that Bentley Continental GT even if I was offered it at that price.

[blueovercream]

What I don’t understand is why the scammers set wildly low prices? I’d have thought they’d have more success in whatever their objective is if the asking prices were low but still believable?

[lornemalvo]

It's scandalous. They're so easy to spot. I'd go as far as to say thet Facebook are facilitating these scams, almost complicity.

[vikingaero]

About 10 days ago I got pished off with a scam car advert, shouted loudly at the clouds and reported it. 7 days later I got an email saying they were looking into it. 3 days later the ad was still up when I last checked. Clicks and ads must make it worthwhile for FB. It simply isn't work the effort in reporting because they do sweet FA.

[E63eeeeee...]

I've been reporting these too, but every day there's a whole new batch, so I've pretty much given up on looking at marketplace for cars now because there's more scam ads than real ones. All FB would have to do would be to limit how many ads you can post in a day otherwise they'll just keep swamping the real ads with fake ones.

[bennno]

almost too good to be true, especially with pictures lifted from another advert

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/16705331

[ED209]

I have reported a few, nothing ever gets done by Facebook