Unfortunately, scammers are using social media more frequently to steal money. This new scam involves individuals posing as Facebook Marketplace buyers to steal a seller’s money. Scammers have been tricking customers into upgrading to a "business account" and transferring more money than the item is posted for by exploiting payment platforms like Zelle ®

The scam is:

• Through Facebook Marketplace messaging, the buyer (a scammer) approaches the seller and offers to buy the item via Zelle® payments.
• When the seller accepts, the buyer requests the seller's email address to submit the payment, but the buyer never really does so.
• The buyer then sends the seller a phony email from Zelle® to the seller’s email. The phony email alerts the seller that they have a pending payment. To credit the payment to their account from the buyer’s account, the seller must send additional money to upgrade their account to a Zelle® business account. The email also notes that the buyer used a Zelle® business account to make their purchase.
• After claiming to have gotten an identical phony email from Zelle®, the buyer contacts the seller directly and advises the seller that they sent enough money via Zelle® to cover the original purchase and the phony business account upgrade fee.
• The buyer then asks to be refunded the business account upgrade fee. The buyer provides more fake screenshots and emails stating they have sent over to cover the original purchase and the phony business account upgrade fee. This is done in hopes of enticing the seller to refund the money without checking his/her account for the receipt of the actual funds.

Please do not fall victim to this scam and always check your account for the receipt of funds. Scammers have also used other payment apps such as Venmo or Cash App to perform this same scam.