Among the furniture and electronics for sale on Facebook marketplace, are a number of properties up for rent in ideal Manchester locations, but upon further inspection it comes to light that some of these flats are not what they seem. Scammers are stealing images from a range of real estate and hotel booking websites and posting them on Facebook marketplace as they're own properties, with many on the site falling into the trap of believing the properties and those advertising them are genuine. Facebook marketplace is a buy and sell site available to use through Facebook, a social media platform created by Mark Zuckerberg and now owned by company Meta.
One victim's experience The MEN was alerted to the scam following a gentleman speaking of his experience of being scammed out of £650 for a central Manchester flat which was actually located in Glasgow. Once the scammer had the money, the property and their Facebook account 'vanished'. Speaking of being scammed, he said: "I saw the images and they all looked real, I could even see out of the windows and I recognised that it was central Manchester.
The guy's profile had a real picture for his profile image and I was that desperate to find somewhere I didn't look into it any further." Facebook marketplace warns buyers to never reveal their email and instead keep conversations and deals on their platform, yet many users miss this warning. READ NEXT: Greater Manchester Police officer suspended over disturbing Manchester Airport vid.