Prevent Marktplaats scams on your next purchase

Scams on Marktplaats occur, with these tips you can recognize them and save yourself a lot of misery.

In the Netherlands we all know Marktplaats and have we ever had one bought something. A very popular site where you can buy and sell stuff. Sometimes you hear of the horror stories when someone has been scammed and you just hope this never happens to you. You can reduce the chance of being scammed by these tips.

Prevent scams on Marktplaats

The most important tip is to stay on the platform. Scammers are out to get you from Marktplaats because it’s much easier to steal money out there. So always communicate via the platform itself. Never pay an amount outside of Marktplaats. For scammers, it is attractive to get money through other payment services. They often ask you to transfer a very small amount to show that you are reliable. But then the link they send is not real and they have your bank details because of this.

Another common occurrence is identity theft. Scammers ask for a copy of your ID. Many people send these almost automatically, but with that data they can develop criminal activities that you do not want. They can buy stuff under your name. Or worse, open a bank account. The money they withdraw there, they do under your name. So never send your ID.

Classic

This can always happen and happens regularly. You buy something, but you get something else. To compress. We know the sometimes hilarious photos where people have bought a sofa but get a sofa that fits in the palm of your hand. To prevent this, Marktplaats has the ‘right crossing principle’. Then you only pay when you are completely satisfied with the product. However, scammers also make smart use of this. They send a fake text and with that it looks like payment has been made, but that is not the case at all. So be alert.