Mom shares scammer’s entire conversation to warn others after she got a message ‘within seconds’ when she tried to sell her teen’s clothes on the Facebook marketplace
- Mama warns online merchants to watch out for PayID scam
- The buyer says to pay with PayID, but the seller has to release money
- The seller is then prompted to deposit funds to release the payment
A bank executive has lifted the lid on an emerging scam she almost fell victim to after being approached by a scammer “within seconds” when she was trying to sell items on Facebook Marketplace.
Teonë Axougas, a senior credit manager at ANZ, shared her conversations with a person who tried to harass her through a PayID scam.
Axougas said she decided to sell her teen’s unwanted clothes, but felt “frazzled” when she got a message right after she posted the items on Facebook Marketplace.
said Axougas 9News that when she first got an automatic message saying “is this available?” she wasn’t too worried – but then the profile started asking if they could use PayID for payment.
Mother Teonë Axougas (pictured) has shared her ordeal with a Facebook marketplace scammer after she almost fell for a PayID scam increasingly used by people trying to scam sellers online
Axougas said that when she first got an automatic message saying “is this available?” she wasn’t too worried – but then the profile started asking if they could use PayID for payment (photo: conversations between Axougas and the scammer)
“I had never encountered anyone asking for PayID, and I’ve been in banking for 19 years,” Axougas said.
She (the scammer) told me to return her $500 to “lift the limit.” It didn’t quite make sense to me,” she said.
“Frazzled and distracted, I called one of my colleagues and he said ‘this is a scam’.”
After Axougas confronted the alleged scammer, they never responded and she now believes the Facebook profile was fake.
The scammer said that PayID is easy to set up and after initially thinking the sale was legit, the scammer sent a message that he is now $100 lost and she would need to deposit $500 to release the funds.
“You need to return 500 and then we’ll email PayID with a screenshot as proof of the refund so they can credit you the total of 600 and then credit me the 500 refund,” the scammer says.
During the ordeal, the con artist also belittled Axougas, saying, “I don’t think you can read and understand.”
Axougas felt pressured by the constant diatribe of messages and called her colleague just in time, realizing she was being scammed.
PayID is a payment method that banks use for money transfers that only allows users to provide a mobile number, email address, ABN or Organization Identifier for quick payments.
The PayID scam has become a popular tool in recent months with an NAB alert on the scam in late February.
The scammer persistently tried to get Axougas to deposit $500 into his account to release the funds
The PayID scam has become a popular tool in recent months with an NAB alert on the scam in late February. Scamwatch data shows Australians lost $260,000 to the PayID scam last year
“PayID impersonation often targets people selling items on second-hand websites,” said NAB Executive Group Executive and fraudster Chris Sheehan.
The scammer will insist on purchasing your item using PayID, but then claims that the transaction could not be completed because you do not have a PayID ‘business’ account.
They claim they sent extra money to upgrade the account, send you a fake email as proof and pressure you to pay them back. But no money will ever appear in your account.’
The scammer often says that they will now pay with PayID so that their child, partner or relative can pick up the goods without having to pay.
Data from Scamwatch shows Australians lost $260,000 to the PayID scam last year.
Axougas said she wanted to share her story as a warning to others looking to sell goods online.
“There are so many people who are vulnerable or don’t have a support network,” she said.
“I thought, ‘If this is my first time, what if no one else has had the experience,’ since I’ve been on Facebook Marketplace for so long and this has never happened.”