Scams on Wallapop have always been stalking buyers who thought they had found some bargains, but in recent times it has also become an unsafe environment for sellers who want to make a few euros on the trading platform and end up with less balance in their account than they had when uploading the ad.
As time goes by, the excuses and methods that some scammers use evolve, so it’s a good idea to be aware of how they are acting so that it doesn’t happen to you.
Money to unlock payment
The case comes from a trial that is now taking place in the Criminal Court 2 of Ourense. The complainant is a seller who decided to place an advertisement for a bicycle valued at 1,850 euros. A potential client interested in the article contacted him (in the middle of August 2020, which was useful for playing sports during the time of isolation due to the pandemic).
After talking with the buyer, they reached an agreement that the user sent the product and the buyer agreed to pay the 1,850 euros into the affected party’s current purchase. However, after the affected person sent the bicycle to Sestao (Vizcaya), the delivery was confirmed, but he did not see the money in his account. Far from having lost the item and not getting paid for it, the story got worse.
The seller contacted the buyer and a new technique is produced to steal even more money. “He told me that I had to deposit 450 euros to unlock the account in which my 1,850 euros were, so I was suspicious.”
Civil Guard warns: “these scams are frequent”
This bizarre excuse is not a specific case. The technique of asking for money to unblock payments or checking accounts causes many sellers to give in and, inexplicably, send products and an amount of money with the intention of collecting the full amount.
Upon reporting, the Civil Guard agents confirmed that it was a scam and the criminals not only had no intention of paying him his money, but also tried to take another amount from him. “These types of scams are quite frequent,” the Civil Guard agent who investigated the matter said at the hearing. By pulling the thread, they reached three suspects, two men and a woman who had agreed to harm the complainant.
One of them is the man who had contracted the prepaid telephone line from which he had contacted the affected person through the messaging application. The other, the owner of the account in which the victim had to deposit the 450 euros in order to collect the money from her, and the third, a woman who would have received the bicycle, and who gave her ID to the delivery man. For each of them, the Ourense Prosecutor’s Office demands a sentence of eighteen months in prison, in addition to the delivery to the injured party of the money for his vehicle.
The defense alleged that the three involved did not even have a relationship to consider that there is a plot and that there is no evidence to corroborate the participation of their clients in the events that are now being tried. In addition, they mocked and reproached the complainant for his “clumsiness” when managing the sale and sending a product without having charged for it.
