If you are a seller on the Le Bon Coin platform, be careful, a secure payment scam exists, warns UFC Que Choisir.
It’s an accident, reported UFC What to choosewhich ends well in the end, but also reminds us to always be vigilant when doing business on the internet.
A Bon Coin user is contacted to purchase the computer he has listed for sale on the platform. The buyer offers to pay the asking price, shipping costs and go through Bon Coin’s secure payment system, explains the consumer protection association. “After a few exchanges,” the buyer assures the seller who made the payment and should receive a message from the site that the money has been paid. Message that arrives in his box as an e-mail. An email that appears to be from Bon Coin, with its name, the price of the computer, its description and the address where the package must go to release the money, specifies the association.
The confirmation message must go through the site’s secure messaging system
But before the seller sends the computer, the seller informs and discovers that the payment confirmation message should have arrived in Le Bon Coin’s secure messaging system, and not by email. And learns that other sellers have already been scammed in this way. The email is not from the platform. Once reported, the “buyer” account was also deactivated by Le Bon Coin, explains UFC Que Choisir.
The association recalls that secure payment systems are “reliable procedures, provided they are used exactly as directed”. And encourages you to always be on the lookout, whether you’re buying or selling. “Beware of suspicious behavior, prefer a personal delivery and exchange through the messaging system integrated into the site. When in doubt, look for testimonials in the forums, ask the platform’s customer service for advice or don’t apply,” advises the association, which also gives some “clues” that can warn us, such as:
- Check the email address, because Le Bon Coin only uses three addresses to send its messages: @leboncoin.fr; @news.leboncoin.fr and @messagerie.leboncoin.fr. Any other address would be suspect;
- Transaction confirmations “mandatory via Bon Coin’s secure messaging system”;
- Always watch for grammatical or spelling errors in the message;
- If the buyer does not want to negotiate, or even offers to pay more than the original price, and “says he is willing to pay the delivery costs”.
