A laptop changes hands, a payment screenshot appears on a phone, and the seller goes home expecting the money to follow. The problem emerges when they check their own account.
In RNZ's 22 October report, Auckland seller Will Cheng described handing over a laptop after being shown apparent transfer confirmations. No payment arrived. Another seller, Fiona He, said a buyer showed an apparent overpayment for a lawn mower; she returned the supposed surplus and later found she had received nothing.
Police told RNZ that enquiries into Cheng's report were continuing and no arrests had been made at that stage. Netsafe's Sean Lyons advised sellers to verify receipt through their own bank account before releasing goods.
The platform and the seller see different things
Meta told RNZ it uses risk signals and identity checks for sellers flagged as risky in New Zealand. Those checks address account behaviour; the incidents described involve people posing as buyers. A profile or message therefore cannot establish that an individual payment has reached the seller.
The practical question at collection is simple: what does your own bank show? A picture on another person's screen does not answer it. Pressure to finish the exchange makes that check more important.
Other versions use a courier link
Netsafe's separate Marketplace guidance, updated in June, describes another approach: a supposed buyer offers to arrange delivery, then sends a fake courier website asking the seller for an insurance fee. The website is designed to collect banking information.
Netsafe recommends checking profiles and delivery companies, meeting in public, and avoiding banking-information forms sent by the other party. For an ordinary bank transfer, a buyer needs the receiving account number, not the seller's banking password.
These are useful checks whether the sale begins in English, a community language group or a neighbourhood page. None requires the seller to prove the other person is a scammer before pausing the transaction.
If the exchange has already gone wrong
Keep the listing, messages and transaction details. Netsafe advises contacting the bank promptly if money has been lost, reporting the account to Facebook, and reporting suspected fraud to Police through a local station or 105. Its role includes advice; it cannot investigate or track the person responsible.
Police guidance on scams and fraud also recognises buying and selling through social media as a setting for fraud. A familiar platform does not remove the need to check the payment yourself.
Asian Insider synthesis of RNZ reporting and published Netsafe and New Zealand Police guidance, checked 24 October 2026. The reported incidents were investigated by RNZ; Asian Insider has not independently interviewed the sellers.
