Community page targeted by online scammer

Traditionally trustworthy Christchurch community group social media pages are becoming another hunting ground for online scammers.

Redcliffs resident Kirsten Iliffe learned this the hard way last week after being cheated out of $200.

While scrolling Facebook she came across the ‘Sumner, New Zealand’ Facebook community page.

She saw a post advertising outdoor furniture and contacted the seller who requested a $100 deposit.

Although initially happy to oblige, Iliffe grew suspicious when asked to pay the full amount upfront – but proceeded anyway.

Iliffe also queried the name on the seller’s bank account which was different from her Facebook alias.

“I thought for $200, it’s not worth the worry. It looked like good furniture, so I put it through,” she said.

An hour later, Iliffe saw the original post had been deleted and re-uploaded, this time with a $300 price.

She did not hear from the seller after that.

“I feel a bit embarrassed about it, but I think we should get it out there because it’s so sad this is happening on these pages that do so much good for the community.

“Most people are pretty aware that there’s scammers on Marketplace, but you just wouldn’t expect it on a community page.

“I suppose it’s just another level people are going to that we need to be aware of,” Iliffe said.

She rang her bank that night to ensure the scammer could not gain access into her account.

Iliffe was informed the scammer had an ASB account so she called the bank’s fraud line and told them to look into the account’s transactions.

She also logged the situation with police.

“$200 is not a big deal to me, but it’s about the principle. That’s a lot of money for some people.

“It’s just wrong, you want to be able to trust that sort of stuff on your community page,” she said.

Iliffe believes the scammer may have been able to hijack the Facebook profile of an existing group member in order to bypass any vetting carried out by the page’s administrators.

Another group member who wished to remain anonymous narrowly avoided being tricked by the same scammer.

She was sceptical about sending the money before seeing the furniture in person.

In a photo sent by the seller, the furniture was pictured on a balcony. Feeling suspicious, she visited the seller’s supposed address, only to find there was no balcony.

The buyer immediately put a stop to the transaction.

She then took to the community page to inform members of her experience and raise awareness of the issue.

Sumner, New Zealand page administrator, Dan Vann, said the scammer had managed to re-upload the fraudulent post five times before he was able to ban the account.

While he tries to monitor for scams, Vann admitted it’s difficult to catch all fraudulent posts.

He advised members to look at the seller’s account before proceeding with a transaction. If the profile has been recently created or has only a few friends, it is an indicator of a scammer.