A Sydney mother has shared the entire conversation she had with an alleged scammer after she was contacted “within seconds” of listing items for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
Teonë Axougas, a senior lending manager with ANZ was hoping to sell some teenage girl clothing to make space in her garage when the “traumatic” ordeal occurred.
Axougas, who is from Campbelltown, said the decision to sell the clothing was already emotional as her family lost nearly everything in a house fire in 2009.
After the scammer pinged the mother-of-three, she was left her feeling confused and “frazzled”.
“She responded within 30 seconds, with that automatic message ‘is this available’,” Axougas told 9news.com.au.
“And then she started questioning me about PayID that was when I started thinking, ‘I’d rather not sell the clothes to her’.
“I had never come across someone requesting PayID before, and I’ve been in banking for 19 years.”
PayID is a method of payment banks use for money transfers.
It allows users to supply just a mobile number, email address, ABN or Organisation Identifier for quick payments.
But it was when the alleged scammer made a second request the alarm bells started ringing.
”She said I had to send her $500 back to ‘lift the limit’. It didn’t quite make sense to me,” she said.
“Frazzled and distracted, I rang one of my colleagues and he said ‘this is a scam.'”
After Axougas confronted the alleged scammer she said she “never heard back”. She believes she was messaged from a fake Facebook profile.
Data from the watchdog shows Australians lost $260,000 to this type of scam last year.
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“This email scam targets sellers of goods on online platforms,” an ACCC spokesperson said.
“A scammer using either a fake profile or a compromised profile on a platform will make an offer to purchase the goods for sale. These scammers often wont haggle over the price and will state they will send someone to pick up the goods without viewing them.
“They ask to pay by PayID and shortly after providing their PayID details, the seller receives the below email indicating an overpayment which needs to be repaid before they can receive the payment.”
If a seller is in doubt over a request they’re encouraged to reach out to their bank and avoid making payments.
Axougas said she wanted to share her story so others would be aware of the risks of selling online.
“There are so many people who are vulnerable, or don’t have a support network,” she said.
“I thought, ‘if this is the first time for me, what is no-one else has had the experience’, as I’ve been on Facebook Marketplace for so long no and this has never happened.”
The text message to look out for that could trick almost anyone
She said the ordeal was very traumatic.
“We had a housefire in December 2009, a few weeks before Christmas,” Axougas
“Since we’ve been back in our house, we had to get it redone, I struggle with letting go of things.
“It’s very emotional for me to go through this process in the first place.
“I felt very frazzled, I had some other items on Marketplace so I was fielding a lot of questions, as well as dealing with her.”
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