I’m selling a few items from cast iron pots/pans collection. Prospective buyers ask me for my cell phone number and then try to send me s Google verification txt with 6 digit number to verify I’m a REAL person. But the verification doesn’t work, it won’t verify my cell phone number not Dh’s. We’ve tried countless times with over 8 different prospective buyers. There is a Google app called “authentication “ I do that but don’t know how to use it, or if that’s the problem. This is driving me nuts! Would appreciate any advice, help, method to fix this problem. Am totally stuck! Thx
Why would they want to verify you? Lots of scams.
Andy
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You may be correct. I may have been caught. I did list them on FB market place and they were very persistent in trying to verify my cell phone number which apparently wouldn’t accept their 6 digit code. I’ve erased all the chats now but I was foolish and provided my cell number. Now I’ll have to really watch activity. Thx for pointing this out! Sigh…… I’m an idiot!
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Your not an idiot Tuni it’s just that these scammers are getting more and more inventive. I have to really think. The other day I was having problems with my Verizon cell phone service and couldn’t get decent speeds on my data. I called Verizon and went round and round with them and couldn’t get it solved. The very next day a scammer called me and told me I hadn’t paid my Verizon bill. I told them to give me the service they promised me. The scammer went right along and told me if I paid them through Zell I would get my service right away. That is when I started realizing it wasn’t Verizon. I told them I would just go on their website and pay and the scammer insisted I pay with Zell right away or I wouldn’t get my service. He almost got me. But it was the Zell thing that made me cautious. Once you pay with Zell that money is gone and you can’t get it back.
So just be careful out there. Make sure that you are the one who initiates the conversation with any business. Do not let someone contact you and ask you to do anything that can compromise your security.
Andy
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You are so right, however, in each case I listed the item for sale, they send me dm (chat) in FB marketplace saying they were interested and could “pick it up today) but they had to verify that I was really REAL! Then sent me verification code- 6 digit and my phone wouldn’t verify, so they asked for another number etc… stupidly I did give them my cell number, cause it sounded legitimate, now I’m watching everything on my cell and txt messages to see what, if any, harm is being done…. And I usually am so careful- but “i got took” - grrr….thx so much for your advice.
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Scams get very popular very quickly when the scammers find that they work. Then people fall for it, or hear about it, and that particular scam stops working and they move on to something else.
I had a guy try that with me. After a failed attempt I told him to go away. No repercussions since. (Why would you have to verify yourself? If anything the buyer should. I’ve had maybe 30% of “I want it! I want it!” buyers suddenly ghost or disappear over the years. I just assume they’re schmucks who lost interest and I move on to the next.)
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Yep, I had between 8-10 “prospective buyers” kept sending me txts ti verify with my cell. I told them to call me, (thinking) they were real (duh) couldn’t understand why they didn’t and wouldn’t. I told one that the risk is mine not theirs! Unfortunately I did give them my cell number so am trying to watch everything carefully. Lesson learned!
My wife sells stuff all the time on FB. She said it’s a scam regarding the verification number. She said she doesn’t accept zell because after they get the item they can reverse the charge and take the money back after you give them the item. She takes Venmo or cash only. She said there are a lot of scammers on FB so be careful…doc
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I didn’t know that. My bank told me it was done once you gave someone money with Zell and couldn’t get your money back. But I haven’t used it so I will have to go with your assessment.
Andy
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Andy
You may be right. This article says it’s like paying with cash…doc
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Except they weren’t “prospective buyers”, as you now know. I wish I was as creative as these scamsters; I’m constantly amazed at the lengths they will go to to try to get $100 from someone.
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I had this happen last spring. Very similar script. I gave him my cell number, he said that didn’t work and he wanted another cell number, which I did not give him. Shortly thereafter, I wised up and told him to forget the whole thing, I’d find another buyer. Surprisingly, another “buyer” attempted this with me on the same item shortly thereafter. I said I would sell it to them since the previous “buyer” had been difficult. As soon as they brought up the verification step, I immediately put a stop to that. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no repercussions. But yes, you do have to be skeptical nowadays.
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So I’ve been taken- teaches me humility. Lesson learned. I do have sone questions though:
When they (scammers) send me verification code and I don’t get it, they then say try again or let’s try another cell phone number, again they tell me my cell numbers don’t verify- what kind of info do they actually get?
Do they get any info inspite of the fact that verification didn’t work? They do get my cell phone number since I gave it to them, my bad… but they then try to verify and according to them the verification didn’t work - so what do they actually get???
Really don’t understand the purpose, obviously I never got as far as selling the items…. Didn’t get far enough in process for anything else since each time I got annoyed enough to tell them to forget it and/or they just got tired of playing the game with me…. I am watching cell phone very carefully
and checking everything I can think of for any odd stuff happening.
So what is their game and what, if anything, did they get from me and what can they do with it since “verification of my number” wouldn’t work? Thoughts?
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Simply put they wanted to get any information about you - they can sell that. So you phone number is now associated with your name in the dark web. If somebody else has your named and address or you name and your email, suddenly you can see how giving out one seemingly useless bit can snow ball. This is why the general advice is to not replay to send anything to anybody you do not know AND you are expecting to contact you. By definition in your situation you don’t know people (or Spamers) interested in your offer to sell cast iron pans.
I know PayPal takes a huge cut, but their process does prevent the buyer and selling from making direct contact – that prevents the kind of situation you are in or something worse like you providing account numbers to a hacker/Spammer. Short of getting another phone number, I do not think there is any way to undo what you have done.
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Thanks, obviously big mistake however what I am trying to find out is that since they were not able to verify my phone what were they able to get?
They have the IP address of your ISP modem/gateway
They know want city/zipcode you live in – or at least close to
I am guessing they know you name.
It is not clear, but they may have your email.
They also know everything you sent them in text/email communication.
You say they don’t know your phone number, didn’t you have to provide that so they could contact you with Google Authenticator?
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Not unless you have a static IP address which most people do not. Every internet provider uses dhcp which refreshes you ip daily.
Andy
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Perhaps a bit less often than daily?
Most residential customers have a dynamic IP address, meaning that it can change. These IP addresses are assigned by your ISP via the basic process outlined below. When your router receives a non-static DHCP assigned IP address from your ISP there is a pre-defined time limit built into the assignment, this time limit is called a DHCP Lease. The typical lease time for ISP’s in the United States is roughly 7 days. However in most instances your router will renegotiate this lease prior to its expiration. During the lease renegotiation, it is very common for the same IP to be reassigned to your router. In fact our research has discovered many homes that have theoretically dynamic IP’s, but have held the same IP for multiple years. Because of this recursive reassignment the typical location targeted by El Toro has held the same IP address for 7 months.
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When I worked for the telephone company we did it every night at midnight, but that was our procedure, I am sure some others could do it differently. Another way to get your IP address up dated is to Follow these commands.
Try it, it won’t hurt your internet service and you should see your ip address get updated and changed.
Actually I was wrong about that. After thinking it over that will only refresh your ip from your router. In order to reset your router IP you will either need to restart it by unplugging it or go into it and set it to renew your ip. Unplugging it is much easier.
Andy
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