How to avoid scammers on Facebook Marketplace

You post a couch on Facebook Marketplace. Fifteen messages come in. Ten are “is this still available??” One is a paragraph in perfect English asking for your PayPal so they can “send extra to cover the shipping.” One is a screenshot of a Zelle payment they haven’t actually sent yet. One offers to send their brother-in-law to pick it up. The rest ghost.

Some of those messages are scams. Not most, but more than none.

The reason FBM scams work is that the platform doesn’t force a commitment before you release the item or share your address. Every scam in the playbook runs on the gap between “agreed” and “paid.” Close the gap and the scams stop working.

Here is the actual playbook, and how to close the gap without moving off Marketplace.

The five scams that actually cost sellers money

1. The Zelle “I sent extra” scam

A buyer offers to Zelle you more than the asking price. They want the difference sent back to their “mover” or a “family friend.” The Zelle notification is either a phishing email dressed up to look like Zelle, or a real payment they will reverse hours later. You send real money to the “mover” and never see it again.

Rule: Zelle is for people you already trust. If someone offers to overpay, walk away.

2. The fake payment screenshot

Buyer sends a screenshot: “PayPal payment sent, $150 to your.email@.” It is a photo, not a receipt. Or the payment is real and they will dispute the charge in the morning. You release the item; the money never lands or gets clawed back.

Rule: Screenshots are not payment. Open your own PayPal or Venmo or bank app and confirm the money is actually there before the item leaves your hands.

3. The check that clears in three days

The buyer wants to mail a check. Or drop off a “certified” cashier’s check. Two days later your bank tells you the check was fake. By then the item is gone and often the buyer is too.

Rule: No checks. Not even certified. For a private used-goods sale under $500, checks have exactly one purpose, and it is to give a scammer time to disappear.

4. The address collector

The “buyer” gets your address, then never shows. Most of these are ordinary no-shows. A very small number are casing the house for a return visit. It is uncommon, but it is a real reason the default of sharing your address before commitment is a bad default.

Rule: Nobody gets your exact address until they have committed to a specific pickup time. Cross-streets or a neighborhood is enough for them to decide if they want to drive.

5. The chargeback after pickup

The buyer pays with a card, picks up the item, then disputes the charge with their bank claiming it was unauthorized. Because you cannot produce a signature or delivery confirmation on a private sale, you often lose.

Rule: This is the hardest scam for a private seller to defend against on any platform. The mitigation is to accept card through a legitimate processor (Stripe, PayPal Goods & Services) that has dispute rules built in, and to keep a durable record of the sale: item, price, buyer name, pickup time, ideally a photo.

The trick all five run on

Look at the rules above. They are variations of one rule:

Money in your account, item still with you, address still private.

Every FBM scam works by breaking that order. The Zelle scam gets you to send money before you have money. The screenshot scam gets you to release the item before payment lands. The check scam introduces days between “paid” and “cleared.” The address collector gets your address before any commitment. The chargeback exploits the fact that pickup happens before the dispute window closes.

Any move that keeps money-in-account and address-private on your side of the trade, until the buyer actually shows up, closes the gap the scams live in.

What works today on FBM alone

Some of these are free, and you can start using them tomorrow:

Cash at pickup only, in person. Not perfect (fake bills exist) but the friction stops most scam economics.
No off-platform payment negotiation. If a buyer wants to move to Zelle, CashApp, WhatsApp, or their “special escrow service,” that is the scam. Stay in Messenger.
Meet in a public place for small items. Coffee shop, grocery store lot, or a police-station “safe transaction” spot. Most cities have designated ones.
Screenshots are not payment. Open your own app.
Never accept a check. Not for anything.
Filter with a real question. Instead of “yes, still available,” reply: “Yes, still here. Can you pick up Saturday between 1 and 4? What is your name?” Someone running a scam does not want to answer specific questions.
Cross-streets, not address. “Novato, near San Marin” is enough to decide if the drive is worth it. Full address after commitment.

That handles most of the scam volume without changing platforms or paying for anything.

What Available!^™ specifically closes off

Available!^™ (yesavailable.link) was built to close the gap the scam playbook lives in. Full disclosure that this guide is on our site; the tactics above still work without us, and if the free tactics are enough, you do not need a tool.

Here is what Available!^™ does that FBM alone does not:

Buyers verify their phone by text before they can commit. No burner-email accounts get through. If they cannot pass a 6-digit code, they cannot reserve or pay.
Card payment clears through Stripe before the address unlocks. For Buy Now, the address is shared with the buyer the moment the card clears. For a reservation, the address is released about two hours before the pickup window. Either way, the address stays private until the buyer has actually committed.
No off-platform payment negotiation. Card checkout happens inside the mechanic. Cash, Venmo, or PayPal happen in person at pickup, on your terms.
Reservation windows expire. The buyer picks from a window you set. If they do not show, the reservation clears and the item comes back to the top.
A durable record. Item, price, buyer name, buyer phone, pickup time. Not a legal shield, but real evidence if a chargeback comes later.

What Available!^™ does not solve

Being honest here matters more than being flattering:

Chargebacks after pickup. Card disputes are Stripe’s territory. If a buyer picks up an item and then disputes the charge weeks later, we cannot make Stripe rule your way. What we can do is keep the record straight so you can fight it.
Physical safety at pickup. Verification and commitment reduce the risk profile, but they do not guarantee safety. If a bad actor is willing to pay $80 and verify a phone to get to your door, that is a much higher- effort attack, but it is not impossible. Have someone home. Meet outside for smaller items. Do not do pickups alone. See our furniture-selling safety guide for the physical playbook.
Perfect scam elimination. Nothing does. What the mechanic does is close the specific gaps the common playbook uses.

The bottom line

You cannot make Facebook Marketplace scam-free. You can make the scam economics stop working for you specifically.

Every scam in the playbook needs the same trade: your item or your address moving before the money is actually yours. Refuse that trade, with or without a tool, and most of the scam volume goes away on its own.