Leboncoin: Seller loses €1,500 after his piano is stolen
In October, a resident of the Besançon region fell victim to a scam as a seller on Leboncoin. The scam was orchestrated by individuals who are experts in the art of Internet fraud. The victim was simply looking to sell his synthesiser on the classified ads site for €1,500. The victim was completely unaware of the scam, which is commonplace on the Internet, particularly on Leboncoin. This inhabitant of Besançon is therefore trying to warn Internet users of the dangers and scams on classified ad sites.
Scammer uses Paypal to scam you
Pierre Besson is still struggling to get over the scam he fell victim to on the Leboncoin ad site in October. The individual was used to making transactions on Leboncoin, as he regularly sold synthesizers on the site in order to buy better ones. After putting one of his pianos up for sale, an individual contacted him via the platform. He said he was very interested in the synthesiser, which was advertised for €1,500.
Pierre Besson then explained that they had communicated by text message to carry out the transaction. The individual then asked for a contribution towards the cost of sending the money to Paris, which the victim accepted. The victim quickly received an email from Paypal confirming that the transaction had been paid into his Paypal account. He then explained that he had not been suspicious of anything because everything seemed to be in order, to the point where he did not check on the site whether the payment had actually been made. In fact, he regularly uses Paypal for his online transactions, which reinforced his idea that there was no reason to be suspicious of the individual. He then decided to send the synthesiser by Chronopost late on the morning of 22 October.
Despite this, he tried to stop the delivery of the parcel.
The seller receives a message from the buyer the next day, informing him that if he wishes to receive the expected sum of €1,500, he must pay €250. This procedure, which is not usual, is absolutely not part of the online payment service. Pierre Besson realised that he was dealing with a scammer and did not respond to the fake buyer's request. He then hurried to contact Chronopost in the hope of stopping delivery of the parcel he had sent earlier. Unfortunately, he explains that when he contacted Chronopost, they told him there was nothing they could do as the parcel would be delivered 1.5 hours later. The distraught man then realised that the synthesiser had been lost and that he would never receive his money.
A fraud ring in Côte d'Ivoire
The seller, a victim of this Leboncoin scam like many others, decided to go to the Besançon police station to lodge a complaint. He provided the police with evidence, which they carefully studied. Thanks to the telephone number of the alleged buyer, the investigators were able to trace the transaction back to a vast African network in Côte d'Ivoire. The police then passed the investigation on to their colleagues in Paris. They discovered that the delivery address for the parcel did exist, but that the synthesiser had disappeared. As for the Paypal emails that the two individuals had exchanged, they were in fact just imitations, reproduced with excellence.
In order to get his money back, the seller nevertheless tried to appeal to the online payment service Paypal, but to no avail. What's more, Chronopost will not be reimbursing the shipping costs. It was a harmless transaction for him, but it ended up costing him a lot of money. To warn people about this scam, Pierre Besson posted his ad on Leboncoin. In it, he explained that he had been scammed via the Leboncoin advertising platform.
Beware of scams between individuals on Leboncoin
To avoid this type of common Internet scam, it is essential to use a secure payment method. Paypal is not a secure payment method and is often used by scammers. Obvy, the secure payment solution, was created to combat online fraud. With Obvy you can turn around without any problem if the seller or buyer tries to scam you. And all at no cost to you. What's more, Obvy guarantees the security of your online payments as well as your own security by providing you with all the information you need about the individual to lodge a complaint in the event of a problem.