After falling victim to a scam on Facebook Marketplace, Michel Janse (@michel.c.janse) hopped on TikTok to give everyone a heads-up so they don’t have to go through the same thing. “Be smarter than me!” she said in the video.
Janse posted some furniture on the marketplace and chatted with a woman who seemed interested in purchasing it. She even looked at her profile to get a “vibe check,” and everything seemed legit.
The potential buyer seemed to be careful to protect themselves as well. “For my safety, I just want to confirm that you’re a real person,” the buyer messaged Janse. “Are you ok if I voice call you from Google?”
Even though the request seemed odd, Janse went through with it. She subsequently got a message containing a Google Voice code. When the buyer asked Jane to send her the code, she did, only to quickly discover she had been duped.
It seems that Janse had a gut feeling that the woman was a scammer but didn’t act on it til it was too late.
Janse fell victim to a common scam through online marketplaces. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the scammer could use the Google Voice number to rip off other people and conceal their identity. “Sometimes these scammers are after a Google Voice verification code and other information about you,” the FTC wrote. “If they get enough of your information, they could pretend to be you to access your accounts or open new accounts in your name.”
