If you use Facebook to buy or sell things on the marketplace, or if you are part of many of the for sale or informational groups on the site – you should be aware of a scam that isn’t new, but seems to be resurging lately – at least here in the Morongo Basin.
Here’s the situation – let’s say you list something for sale on Facebook and you leave your phone number as a contact Someone messages you on Facebook saying they are interested in the item, and they just want to verify that the phone number you gave them is real – so they are going to send a verification text to your phone. Then, they simply ask you to tell them the 4 or 6 digit number, and pending a match, you are a verified human and they will supposedly continue on with the sale.
What’s actually happening is that a scammer is using your phone number to sign up for their own online phone service – and the code that was texted to you is actually the code they need to start it up..
If the scammer is able to get that verification code, then they now have a new phone number to use on whatever other predatory scams they are almost certainly pulling.
This con is also targeting people posting about lost pets or other personal items – mostly because these posts usually include a phone number as the contact.
If you are getting targeted by these messages – report the user to Facebook and stick to messenger or email for contacting other people during a transaction.
If you have been targeted by this scam – don’t worry – there isn’t much that a scammer can do with the code you sent them other than activate their new phone number. However, you’ll want to reclaim your phone number from Google. You can read more about this scam and how to do just that at the FTC’s website here:
