Danielle Pickett, from Oldham, described how she opened her front door to a man who convinced her he had transferred her £400 for the phone but when the money failed to appear, the threats started
A woman has told how selling her phone on Facebook Marketplace led to her being scammed out of £400 before the scammer told her “I will make your life a living hell” and “I know where you live”.
The nightmare ordeal saw Danielle Pickett, from Oldham, open her front door to a man on an e-scooter to collect the phone – after chatting to someone she thought was a woman on the site about the purchase. The man showed her what seemed like legitimate proof of the funds being sent to her and handed over the phone.
But a day later the money had still not landed in her account and Danielle went back to the buyer to raise her concerns. She was assured that it “One hundred percent wasn’t” a scam and the buyer promised to return and “sort it as soon as possible”.
However as the buyer and money both failed to appear causing Danielle to message them again, prompting things to get nasty. “Keep acting smart and I will not go to your home address,” the buyer wrote, before adding a sinister threat.
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When Danielle stated she would be contacting the police, the account then told her: “You do whatever you want, just remember I know where you live and I will make your life a living hell.”
However Danielle was not put off and shared home CCTV footage of the man appearing at her house to social media as well as a picture of the £400 bank transfer confirmation he showed her at her doorstep – later suspected to have been fake.
Following the incident, Danielle said she has been contacted by multiple women since sharing it on social media, claiming they were also targeted by the same man in the Chadderton area.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Danielle said: “He first messaged using a woman’s profile asking about the phone, and I followed it up on Sunday. We agreed 2pm, and the ‘woman’ said she would be sending her son over.
“He’s obviously arrived and checked the phone over, was happy, and did the transfer. I am usually quite open to spotting a scam, but it looked genuine. He showed me his screen which indicated the payment had been sent and there was a reference number.
“We were stood at the door for ages and no payment had come through, but I had seen confirmation with a reference so I felt safe. He seemed trustworthy and legitimate.”
Overnight the £400 payment for the iPhone, which was listed by Danielle on Facebook Marketplace, still failed to land in her bank account. She reached out to the account, named Megan, who insisted they had called the bank and would return to pay in cash the following morning if not resolved.
By Monday, two days after the marketplace exchange, Danielle then reached out again and was told by the buyer that they would visit at around 11am ‘on the dot’ – however still didn’t show.
“I don’t work in the banks but if you don’t believe me, that’s your own business,” the buyer said. When Danielle then threated to call the police, they responded: “You call whoever you want this is a civil matter do you not understand this? Keep acting smart I will not go to your home address.”
Danielle said: “I had started to get sceptical as he told me he banked with Nationwide, and I realised the confirmation page for payment looked really different. I had a feeling I’d been done over.”
“I felt really uneasy but was told they’d come and sort it out. Then he just turned, making threats. I said if he wasn’t going to bother coming then I’d tell the police and share it on social media to stop him doing it to other people.
“That’s when he started saying that now he knew where I lived and that he could make my life a living hell. It’s a personal threat that invaded my safe space and my home.
“It’s unsettling, and I shouldn’t have to feel like that. For a man I don’t know to know my name and address and to send a message like that makes me feel on edge. I am tough, but it still made me feel uneasy.
“I have my three dogs here and my home is my pride and joy. My car is on the drive. It’s the unknown of whether he would come back or actually take it further. It’s scary to think about.”
She called Greater Manchester Police and since made a complaint after claiming no officers came out to speak to her within two days and told her to ‘call 999’ instead if she was in danger.
She added: “I have bought things from Marketplace before, and you never expect you’ll be the person getting scammed. Sometimes we are just too trusting. I am so set on getting to the bottom of who this guy is, and he has messed with the wrong person now. I learnt the hard way.”
Greater Manchester Police confirmed a complaint was submitted to them. It’s understood the crime report is being allocated to an officer to investigate.
Meta, which owns Facebook, said the platform has launched a number of ‘anti-scam features’ this year. Verification checkpoints are put in place for accounts engaging in suspicious behaviour picked up by the social media site, which they must pass to continue using Marketplace.
Marketplace Messenger also filters messages from accounts that have suspicious elements into a spam folder using behaviour tools and message data signals to pick out risky accounts. Sellers will not be notified about these messages.
Facebook urges sellers or buyers to check if the profile of the other person appears new or incomplete, as this could be a sign that the account has been set up for scamming, check reviews of the online sellers to see what previous customers have said and insist on meeting in a public place to view the product before completing a transaction. Payment options with strong protections like PayPal are also advised.
