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Bailiwick Law Enforcement are reminding islanders to vigilant on social media after a spate of attempted scams.
The warning comes weeks after Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, launched a campaign to help users spot online scams across the social media platforms.
DC Kieran Walsh warned islanders of attempted scams using online sales platforms.
“People selling items on social media platforms should be as vigilant as possible of fraudulent activity,” he said.
Pictured: Guernsey Police have warned islanders that "anyone in the world" can email sellers on some sites.
DC Walsh continued: “Recently, sellers of high value property have experienced fraudulent buyers requesting items to be sent via freight to France on receipt of Euro cheques. The perpetrators typically give the cheque a higher value of the purchase price of the item and subsequently request the seller to pay a reimbursement before the cheque fails to clear.”
DC Walsh said targeted sites had “limited capabilities” to prevent fraudulent buyers.
“There is no requirement for a buyer to register of become account holders; essentially, anyone in the world can email a seller via the online trading platforms,” he said.
“Guernsey Police would remind people that they need to take caution when dealing with buyers that hold limited background information and when transactions come from abroad, whether the transaction is small or large in scale.”
Pictured: Scammers are targeting islanders with cheques in excess of the purchase price, then asking for refunds.
An islander, who did not wish to be named, said he experienced an attempted scam after listing an item on a local selling page.
“I listed an advertisement to sell a bike with TIG (Trade It Guernsey) and paid an extra £8 to have the ad promoted on Facebook. Soon after the advert was listed on Facebook I received an email from a scammer; I believe the scammer found my email address as the Facebook post was linked to the TIG advert,” he said.
“It is utterly disgusting that there are people trying these scams; there should be a way to track and punish them. To think that someone could be robbed of an item is a devastating thought to anyone.
“The scam emails are often poorly worded and some elements don’t make sense. My advice would be that, if it seems dodgy, it probably is. If you’re not sure, run it by someone who might be able to give you a better idea of whether it is a scam.”
Pictured: Islanders in Jersey have been scammed out of almost £300,000 since the beginning of the year.
According to a Which? nationally representative survey, an estimated nine million people have been targeted by a scan on social media.
The Jersey Fraud Prevention Forum are also raising awareness on the latest fraud and scams targeting local residents in their latest island wide newsletter.
Since the beginning of the year, the States of Jersey Police have received reports of 19 scams resulting in the combined financial loss of almost £300,000, which was close to the total amount lost through the whole of 2021.
Meta announced at the beginning of April that it would be partnering with Stop Scams UK.
A statement issued by Meta said: “We are launching an awareness campaign on Facebook & Instagram to help people spot some of the more prevalent scams online as well as offering some resources they can use if they are scammed.
“The campaign features a series of educational videos designed to help people spot and avoid scams online and includes some of the more prevalent methods including romance, investment, cash flipping, money mule and friend in need scams."
Pictured: Some islanders have received attempted scams via "poorly worded" emails.
The statement continued: "This is part of our longer-term commitments to fighting scams. As well as tackling scams that make it onto our platforms, we’re also focused on prevention and giving direct support to people impacted by this criminal behaviour."
The social media conglomerate also donated £3m to Citizen’s Advice to run an anti-online scams initiative for three years, including a helpline service for scam victims.
You can find out more about the campaign HERE.
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