Facebook scammers are prevalent nowadays. They are mostly pretending to be online-resellers. Resellers are key to product distribution and consumer awareness. In Indonesia, online resellers are the unseen engine on e-commerce says McKinsey. They are new layer in the transactions and they arise in numbers during pandemic. They take opportunities monetizing from the trust or ignorance of new users.
Here’s some tips how to recognize them:
- Account is mere 2 -5 months opened.
- Friends are hidden or no friends at all.
- If with friends, likely limited and the contact or friend are of level 1 only. Friends has no friend at all.
- Limited photo or their profile photo are signage or logo. Example , saucy sauce online seller. If the profile picture is a logo, be warned.
- Posing to be beautiful person.
- No address and posting of prior transactions.
To avoid being scammed, here’s some few tips:
- Investigate the Facebook page. Unless with prior transactions and friends, do not transact.
- Identify the threshold of verification and transacting. Please see step 3 or step 4 below.
- Assuming with friends, and the amount to risk is within the acceptable threshold use ride aggregators like lalamove or grab. Do the booking.
- Visit the business location, check the permit and necessary documents. For long term engagement meet business owners or representatives.
- Negotiate for half deposit and half payment upon receipt.
- Let the ride aggregator pay first.
Fraudsters evolve and some of them are smart. Always incline to the side of caution. Avoid rush orders.
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