Clever New Facebook Scam Has People in Maine, New Hampshire, & Massachusetts Concerned

These days, it feels like we are hearing about a new social media scam every single day.

Yes, there have always been scams and con artists, but it feels like, in recent years, there are more scammers and they have gotten increasingly brazen.

While scammers do use text messages, email, and (occasionally) phone calls, the majority of scams seem to be committed on social media.

The Latest Facebook Scam That You Need to Be Concerned About

Recently, one of our radio stations in New Jersey brought the 'estate sale scam' to our attention.

Basically, the scammers either hack (or clone) a person's Facebook account.  They then make a post about an estate sale.  This post generally includes at least a few highly sought after items that are listed way below their actual value.

The scammer (using the fake or hacked account) explains that they want a deposit in order to hold the items till they can be picked up.  This seems legit because, after all, you are probably at least somewhat familiar with them if you are friends with the person on Facebook.  Of course, the sale is not real and the money given as a deposit is just taken by the scammer.

After asking around on social media, it appears this new scam is happening across the northeast.

How do you protect yourself against something like this?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do I know this person well enough to send them a text or to call them to confirm this is real?
• Is the offer (price) to good to be true?
• Has this person recently opened a new account because they lost access to the old one?
• Has this specific account posted other, non-sale, content recently?

Have you ever fallen victim to a scam like this?  What happened?