Kirkcaldy woman warns others after being scammed on Facebook

Penny Anderson thought she was buying a second-hand sofa from a lady claiming to work for a charity.

But, after sending money via a Tesco charity e-card, and paying extra for delivery, she failed to deliver the couch - leaving Penny out of pocket.

After contacting Police Scotland and the administrator of the selling page, Penny has spoken out to warn others to be vigilant and to not suffer the same fate as she has.

She said: “A friend had tagged me in a post on the Facebay Fife/Local selling page as she knew I was looking for items for my daughter.

"The post had said it was a charity that couldn’t re-open and that it was looking to sell all of their stock.

"I asked the seller if the couch was still available and they then sent me instructions on how to pay with a charity e-card, telling me it would be delivered a few days later.

"I waited at my house and they never showed up – I messaged them multiple times but never received a response. I also phoned the police and contacted the admins of the selling page but both were very unhelpful.”

Penny said that she had used her rainy day money to buy the sofa that she was saving up in case her cat needed to go to the vet for treatment.

"I don’t have a lot as I’m on benefits. I used money that I had saved in case my cat got ill,” she said.

"I’m very upset about this. They made it look very professional and the post looked genuine – I feel very foolish.

"I want to warn others who buy from selling pages on Facebook, I don’t think the people who run these pages do their job very well and just let scammers continue to rip people off.”

A spokesperson from Advice Direct Scotland said: “Scammers sometimes use vouchers and gift cards as a way of perpetrating scams against people, as these are more difficult to trace than traditional methods such as bank transfer or credit/debit cards.

"In situations where items are being offered for sale through marketplaces or social media sites, we can protect ourselves by checking reviews for previous sales, watching out for repetitive language used in different reviews, or evidence of short trading history of the seller.

"In any situation where we feel that our personal information has been compromised, or money taken from a bank account, we can get in contact with the bank’s fraud team to see if there is any way to stop any payments to protect from further fraudulent activity.

"People in Scotland can report suspected scams and suspicious activity using our Quick Reporting Tool at www.scamwatch.scot, or by contacting consumeradvice.scot on 0808 164 6000.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “On Wednesday, 26 January, 2022, police received a report of an incident of fraud in Kirkcaldy. Enquiries are at an early stage.”

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