All my son wanted was to do was sell his scooter.
My son is almost 9. In exactly 25 days he will turn 9.
I know because he reminds me of this every day as we inch closer to the most important date on his calendar.
It’s such a nostalgic thing to look back and remember the innocence of a child who has so much excitement surrounding one day that it’s all they can think about.
And I really do appreciate his announcements and daily reminders, because with three kids, a husband, a dog, a calendar full of doctor appointments, school dates, after school activities, meetings with the marketing team, meetings with the development team, meetings with potential investors, meetings with teachers, Botox appointments, hair appointments, catch ups with my best friend, networking lunches/dinners, and a garnish of what I think is peri-menopause brain fog, I need reminding of the really important stuff.
Birthday’s in our home are a big deal.
Being such busy folk we love that there is one day a year for each kid that we all stop and centre the day around celebrating them. Who they are, and who they are growing up to be.
So with each birthday comes the list. At least 3 months before a birthday in our house, the birthday child will begin preparing their list of desired gifts. I will be sent screenshots of items wanted as birthday gifts, so that even with my old lady forgetfulness, I cannot fuck up the birthday gifts.
My son has seen his two older sisters receive birthday gifts over the years that he has kept in his back pocket as a mental wish-list so that when he is their age he too will receive x,y,z.
iPads, laptops, Apple Watches, gift cards… Around birthday time my son forgets he is 5 years younger than his teenage siblings. So when he asked for an upgrade to his, very well working iPad, I said, not only is that a crazy idea, but it’s too expensive.
Now he is almost nine, and understands more math than I ever computed, he proudly announced that he will happily contribute to the difference in the amount i was prepared to spend.
“And how I’ll you do that? You are too young to get a job”, I explained to him.
He tells me, “I’ll give dad money to put some bets on the horses”…
Not a fucking chance.
He tells me, “I’ll give dad money to buy and sell a few stocks for me”….
Son, you are not the wolf of Wall Street, and quite frankly, neither is dad!
“Ok fine, I’ll sell some of my stuff on Facebook marketplace, starting with my scooter, but I’ll need you to help me”.
“Done. Deal”.
I gotta give kudos to the “generation-alpha”, he is an avid entrepreneur in the making.
Marketplace or Scam-place?
Selling your “good-used-condition” items on marketplaces isn’t anything new, and these days, it’s the norm, but it’s also become one of the most highly-targeted platforms for scammers to hone their craft.
We cleaned and photographed the scooter (a gift for his 4th birthday), and uploaded all the details on the Marketplace. I made sure the scooter sale-ad was posted in every possible buy-sell-trade-group that was in my geographical vicinity, and told my son, now we wait for potential buyers to message us, and with any luck the messages will roll on in!
I didn’t have to wait long. Within minutes I had messages from many people enquiring about the scooter!
Naturally, the only fair thing to do was to work my way down the list, starting with whom had sent the first message, until a buyer confirmed that they were purchasing the scooter, and I could them mark the item as “sold”!
The conversation on Messenger was very normal for a Marketplace transaction.
“Where is the pick up location?”, “Are you available at 10am tomorrow?” etc…
All. Above. Board.
Then, the lady who is planning to buy the scooter lets me know that she won’t be able to pick it up personally, but will send her son.
No problem with that.
It was the discussion that surrounded the method of payment, when things started to get…… strange.
The potential purchaser informed me that she only had funds in her PayID, via her bank app. Being the avid online shopper that I am, I am far more experienced with paying for things online rather than selling, so I had never heard of PayID.
“What bank are you with?”, the buyer asks.
I tell her.
“They have PayID, set it up and I can transfer the money”, the buyer tells me.
I let the buyer know that cash is preferable, but i’d be happy to set up PayID if it will make things easier.
My comment goes ignored, and instead I receive a 6 step plan on how exactly to set up PayID within my banking app.
This was one persistent purchaser! The messages kept coming, chronically and impatiently asking me if I had set it up yet.
Admittedly, I was starting to get pissed off. I was selling a kids scooter for 50 bucks, not Taylor Swift tickets! Alas, I pressed on with setting up this system, thinking it may benefit me somehow in the long run.
Once it was all set up, I received a confirmation email from my bank informing me that I had been successful in setting up PayID.
Music to the impatient Buyers ears!
Here’s when things went from “strange” to “I think this doesn’t smell right”…….
The confirmation email I was waiting on to tell me that this buyer had transferred $50 was sitting in my junk folder.
As I mentioned previously, I do enough online shopping that I have become one of those rare folks that check my junk email regularly.
The email told me that the $50 payment was on hold. In order to release the payment, the email instructed me that the buyer would have to send an additional $450, which I would need to then immediately refund back to her.
What does this even mean?
A voice in my head thought, “In what banking situation, would a person have to transfer more money, only to unlock a pending payment clear?”, and another voice in my head thought, “well, you don't know shit about things like PayID, or banking, so who are you to question the science behind this?!”.
The buyer on messenger tells me that she had also received the same email, and that this was perfectly normal, she had done this before, many times. She followed this up asking me to promise I would send her money back.
Of course I would send her money back! All I want to do is sell a $50 kids scooter for my son so he can contribute to his crazy-expensive birthday wish list! Do I look like a marketplace scammer to you?!
I was offended, but didn’t have time to dwell because the buyer then informed me that she had sent through the additional funds and now I had to follow the instructions on the email below:
Honestly? This all feels way too difficult for a $50 kids scooter.
I had to question the science.
Call me daft, but I did not understand why I would be paying $450 to an account of someone named Kimberly, when this buyers’ name was Eleanor!
I check my bank app, there is no received nor pending amount to be received of $450.
Where is the transfer?
Am I missing something?
Why is there an “agent” involved?
WTF is Osko?
So. Many. Questions.
It suddenly dawned on me that I was in the midst of a scam in the making. And the only way to put this shit to bed was to call my bank and find out what the hell is this “PayID” business, and what I am supposed to do.
I was terrified that I was somehow in possession of this lady’s $500. I was terrified that I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t know how to transfer this money back to her. I was terrified that shortly I would be getting my front door knocked down by debt collectors, who were going to be after me for unwillingly sheistering $500 off some nice old lady on Facebook Marketplace!
I called my bank.
I was number 3 in the queue. This was going to take more time than I was prepared to give.
So, I decided to tell the lady the truth, that I couldn’t see her transaction. She tells me I am to pay the amount from my pocket, so that PayID would show and release her funds for me to be able to refund back to her.
Again. WTF?
I think back to previous situations I had been in that smelt dodgy.
I have shopped in markets in Bangkok side streets where the haggling had turned into me finding myself in a neon bar watching a line-up of girls popping balloons with darts shot out of their vaginas; I have been in Dubai and followed a robed man, that looked like a sheik, through back streets of a gold bazaar to an underground bunker to look at “real, genuine” Rolex watches; I have even successfully walked away from a lovely Nigerian family in Rome that tried to sell me the most realistic Goyard handbag i’d ever laid my eyes on! But it was this $50 kids scooter sale that was causing me intense Marketplace remorse.
It was time to cry poor.
My bank finally answers my call.
I explain the situation that was unfolding and ask the question, “am I being scammed”?
The dude on the end of the phone line says, “All I need to know is have you paid any money to this person”?
I tell him “No”.
“Have you given this person your bank account CRN, your birthday, or your PIN number”?
“Absolutely not”, I tell him.
“Thank goodness”, he responds.
“You are indeed being scammed”.
Fuck.
I knew it.
I felt a mixture of emotions, from relief that I had not been successfully scammed, to feeling like the biggest moron on earth for entertaining this madness for as long as I did!
PayID is a Real Thing.
I am told that PayID does indeed exist; That the email I received, confirming I had set up my PayID successfully, was legit. And that the other emails that followed were a total fabrication of any reasonable banking transactional notification.
I shut down the Messenger Chat, and blocked and reported the “buyer”.
The dude from the bank emailed me a whole lot of information about banking scams and what to do if you are faced with a scam.
If you are interested, you can check out the information here .
Marketplace Scams are a Major Thing Now
With all social platforms, the risk of being scammed, or not knowing if you can trust the source on the other end, is magnified.
As long as people have used any platform to sell their junk, from newspaper ads, to advertising in the Trading Post, Gumtree or CraigsList, there has been a risk that you may be wheeling and dealing with a scammer.
I guess the old adage, “buyer, beware” is the reality we are all living in.
*In case you were wondering, I did sell the scooter, to a really nice girl who paid me cash, and did not mention PayID.