Adam Donovan says he was not expecting to be targeted by six scammers within a few hours as he tried to sell an old couch on Facebook Marketplace.
Mr Donovan, who works at an IT shop in Noosa, said he was fortunately able to differentiate between scammers and potential buyers.
But he said he saw cases at his work where others were not as lucky.
"I've been privy to lots of scammers on Facebook, so my first thing to do is click on the person's profile who sent the message, and then scroll and see what information I can see," he said.
"All of them had posts probably from a year or two ago, and none of it was in English, so they were definitely not on the Sunshine Coast, and definitely not interested in buying a couch."
Mr Donovan said the fake accounts insisted on paying with PayID, which used a person's mobile number or email address to link to their bank account.
He said once he provided a mobile phone number, the scammers were insistent on trying to get his email address as well.
"When they get access to your email, they'll send you fake things, they'll send you a virus or … they'll send a PDF that's not a PDF, so then you'll download it and it'll plant some nasty bugs in your computer that'll give them access to it," he said.
He said he had also seen scammers try to convince people that they had transferred too much money, and requested they transfer the difference back.
"They'll send you a fake screenshot of them sending you this magical money, even though it's not in your account, and they'll just say it is," he said.
They were tactics that teacher Jamie Nagel said she encountered recently while moving house and selling some furniture she no longer needed.
She had used Facebook Marketplace to sell second-hand goods before but said she had noted a significant increase in dodgy accounts.
"I feel like Facebook is not doing enough, especially for the older generation," she said.
"I went and did research, but if I was naive I would have just sent my details to this person."
Scammers target rental groups
Facebook page administrators have also reported scammers targeting pages set up to help people find a rental property.
Michael Grinceri has been an admin for Facebook rental group, Sunshine Coast rooms for rent, since August 2022.
The engineer-by-day said he spent hours every week banning and reporting scammers from the page but said the sheer volume of them was concerning.
"This page was going to hell in a handbasket before I jumped on," he said.
He said he was blocking 30 to 40 scammers a day when he started but that had reduced to two or three.
"I'm looking at maybe 150 to 200 profiles a day — once you start looking at that many profiles trying to spot for scamming type stuff, you start to figure out pretty quick what to look for and stuff that's not quite right," he said.
Mr Grinceri said scammers would typically request a payment to secure a property that did not actually exist, or try to sell goods through the page.
He said adding extra safety measures to the page such as vetting every post and posting scammer alerts was making a big difference.
"If you're scamming or it looks like you're running a scam, well, that's it, there are no second chances," he said.
"There's a lot of people doing it tough and I've been able to try to stop it from being harder than it has to be."
Better safeguards
Mr Grinceri said Facebook was "not even remotely close" to doing enough to crack down on scammers.
"We just ban people as there's no way of actually reporting them as a scammer," he said.
University of the Sunshine Coast cybersecurity lecturer Dennis Desmond said it was unlikely that Facebook would change unless forced.
"That's where they make their money; through advertising, and increased revenue through bringing on more and more subscribers," Dr Desmond said.
He said it was concerning how quickly scammers were evolving, while legislation lagged.
"Not only are [scammers] students of human behaviour, but they're also up to date on the technologies that are being rolled out, such as ChatGPT, and AI tools," he said.
Dr Desmond said scammers typically used one of three approaches.
"One is to try to get identity or credential information, another is to try to get financial or banking account information, and then the third is basically trying to force the individual to click on a link or download malware in order to get network or device access," he said.
He said people using Facebook Marketplace should not conduct sales alone and should arrange them at a neutral, safe, and public space rather than at home.
Dr Desmond said he did not think current laws did enough to protect consumers.
He said he anticipated changes to regulations that might mandate companies to better protect their users and add preventative measures to stop them from falling victim to scammers and fraudsters.
he said Facebook was poor at protecting privavcy.
"They're very, very poor at protecting your financial security and integrity.
"And quite honestly, as such a massive organisation without legislation, policy and control, they're going to continue to do business as they have in the past," Dr Desmond said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Meta said the company was committed to safeguarding the integrity of its services.
"[Meta dedicates] substantial resources and technology solutions to protect our community from fake accounts and other inauthentic behaviour.
"We also encourage users to take steps to protect themselves, such as checking reviews of online sellers, not handing over money until you see the item for sale, and using payment options that provide strong protections," the statement read.
Meta said it removes content that is purposely deceptive, wilfully misrepresentative, or otherwise fraudulent or exploitative.
The company recommended people avoid sharing personal information such as password details or bank account information, avoid clicking on suspicious links, and do not reply to messages requesting personal information.
It also encouraged people to enable two-factor authentication on its platforms.
