Facebook Marketplace has become one of the biggest places to buy and sell locally: furniture, electronics, concert tickets, even cars and apartments. It's convenient, it's local, and for the most part, it works. But it's also become a favorite hunting ground for scammers, precisely because it's so easy for anyone to create a listing or a fake profile and start messaging strangers.

If you've spent any time buying or selling on Marketplace, you've probably already run into at least one of the patterns below.

Common Facebook Marketplace Scams

The overpayment scam. A buyer "accidentally" sends more than the asking price (often via a fake payment confirmation screenshot) and asks the seller to refund the difference. The original payment was never real, but the refund the seller sends is.

The too-good-to-be-true listing. A high-demand item (a popular gaming console, a car, an apartment) is listed well below market value. The "seller" asks for a deposit or full payment before you can see it in person, then disappears.

The fake buyer, real no-show. A buyer seems eager, asks a seller to hold an item, and then never shows up, sometimes after the seller has already turned away other interested buyers.

The off-platform payment push. A buyer or seller insists on moving the conversation to text or email and paying through a method with little to no fraud protection, specifically to avoid any safeguards Facebook itself might offer.

The fake payment app screenshot. Similar to the overpayment scam, a buyer sends a screenshot that looks exactly like a real Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle confirmation, except the payment was never actually sent.

Why These Work So Well on Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace connects you with people you have no history with and, in most cases, will never interact with again. There's no seller rating system with real weight, no buyer protection built into most of the payment methods people actually use, and no way to independently confirm that the money someone claims to have sent, or is about to send, is real.

That last part is the common thread running through almost every scam on this list: someone has to trust a claim about money before they can verify it.

Verifying Before You Meet

This is the exact gap VeraHold was built to close. Instead of a buyer sending money, or a seller taking someone's word for it, VeraHold lets one party place an Authorization Hold for the agreed amount: a temporary authorization on a payment method, similar to how a hotel holds funds on your card at check-in. It confirms the funds are actually available, without transferring a single dollar.

The buyer keeps full control of their money. The seller gets real confirmation, not a screenshot. Both parties can then meet in person, exchange the item, and complete payment however they'd planned to (cash, a real payment app, whatever they agree on) with money never having moved through VeraHold at all.

If the deal doesn't happen, the hold releases and nothing was ever sent, so there's nothing to fake and nothing to claw back.

To be clear about the limits: VeraHold doesn't verify a person's identity, whether an item is as described, or whether either side will follow through on the actual exchange. That part is still between the two of you, same as any Marketplace deal. What it verifies is more specific: that the funds someone claims to have were actually available at the moment the agreement was made. That single fact removes one of the most common opportunities scammers rely on: asking someone to trust that money exists before there's any way to verify it.

A Few Habits Worth Keeping Regardless

Never accept a payment screenshot as proof. Check your actual account balance, not an image someone sent you.

Avoid moving payment off-platform to methods with no buyer or seller protection, especially for anything high-value.

Meet in person, in a public place, before any money or item changes hands. Many local police stations offer a designated safe-exchange spot.

If a deal feels rushed or pressured, that pressure is often the point. Scammers rely on you moving faster than you'd normally verify.

Trust your account balance, not a picture of someone else's.

Facebook Marketplace isn't going anywhere, and for the vast majority of transactions, it works exactly the way it's supposed to. A little verification up front is usually all it takes to keep it that way.

VeraHold helps both parties in a private transaction verify that agreed funds are available before meeting in person — without either side sending money first. [Learn how VeraHold works →]

How to Avoid Getting Scammed on Facebook Marketplace

Or, if you prefer,