A third of buyers scammed on second-hand marketplaces

A third of buyers and a fifth of sellers say they were scammed on a second-hand marketplace, such as Depop and Shpock, in the past two years, Which? has found. 

Snapping up a bargain or making a bit of cash selling second-hand goods online might seem simple, but scammers are lurking on these platforms. 

Purchase scams are the most common form of authorised push payment (APP) fraud, accounting for 66% of all cases reported to banks in the first half of 2023, according to data collated by UK Finance. Both volume (76,946 cases) and value (losses of £41m) are at their highest point since the industry began collecting data in 2020.

Here we look at the most common scams reported by victims who shop online for second-hand goods, and reveal five signs of a dodgy seller. 

Sign up for scam alerts

Our emails will alert you to scams doing the rounds, and provide practical advice to keep you one step ahead of fraudsters.

Sign up for scam alerts

Marketplace scams

Overall, a third of buyers reported being scammed in the past two years. Some may have experienced multiple scams in that period.

Our research found that scam reports were particularly high among Depop (57%) buyers, followed closely by Shpock (53%), Preloved (51%) and Nextdoor (51%) buyers. 

This compares with only 24% of Facebook Marketplace and 22% of Vinted users.

Falling somewhere in the middle, 35% of those using Amazon Marketplace and 29% of eBay and Gumtree shoppers reported being scammed.

Most commonly, victims said they received incorrect goods (15%) or no goods at all (15%). Others said they’d received an empty package (11%) or counterfeit goods (10%).

Sellers can be caught out too. In our survey, one in five told us they were scammed, typically by being forced to refund buyers who falsely claimed that the items were damaged, not as described or counterfeit (13%).

Others said they shipped the items and never received the money (8%) or had to refund buyers who pretended the item didn't arrive (9%). Fewer said their account was hacked (2%). 

Read more: How to buy second-hand online

Vinted two-day window 

Although Vinted buyers were less likely to report being scammed in the past two years, we have concerns about its two-day window for raising issues. 

In our survey, Vinted was rated highly for ease of payment and scored well on areas such as communication between buyers and sellers, item search and postage options. 

But its rating dipped noticeably when it came to handling complaints. Of those who had raised a formal complaint in the past two years, three in 10 told us they were fairly or very dissatisfied with the dispute-raising process.

We spent weeks monitoring suspicious sellers on Vinted by looking for sellers with no reviews, selling designer goods at unrealistic prices, using photos and item descriptions that we found on other profiles. 

More often than not, these sellers were removed quickly by Vinted. We even attempted to buy items from a few dodgy sellers but they were later blocked and we received refunds.

So far, so good. But once an item has been recorded as delivered and you don’t flag an issue within two days, Vinted assumes you’re happy and releases your cash. 

Disgruntled Vinted users have set up a ‘Vinted UK Name and Shame’ Facebook group with 18,000 members. Forums can be a useful source of information, although we’d advise caution on any platform, particularly when buying premium goods. 

Read more: Best and worst places to shop second-hand online

5 signs of a marketplace scam

Stay safe when you're browsing second-hand marketplaces by looking out for these red flags:

1. The seller has negative, few or no reviews.
2. The seller has used stock images or copied them from elsewhere (use a reverse image search tool such as Google or TinEye to check).
3. The seller asks you to communicate outside of the platform.
4. The seller asks you to pay outside of the platform.
5. The price is too good to be true.

Read more: how to get your money back from a scam

What the marketplaces said

We shared our findings with each platform. 

Amazon said our survey is 'deeply flawed, the findings inaccurate and does not reflect its own internal data', telling Which? it has invested more than $1.2bn and employed more than 15,000 people dedicated to protecting customers, brands, selling partners, and its store from abuse. If said it offers full refunds if a product doesn’t arrive or isn’t as advertised, under its A-to-Z guarantee.

Depop told us it has a 'range of protection measures' to prevent buyers and sellers from falling victim to fraudulent behaviour, including Depop Protection whereby if an item you’ve bought or sold doesn’t arrive, arrives damaged, is not as described, or is lost or damaged in transit, you’ll get a full refund if you report the issue within 30 days of the date of purchase and meet its eligibility criteria.

Similarly, eBay said it uses technology and specialist investigative teams to protect users, along with its eBay Money Back Guarantee. It said: 'It is always important for customers to exercise care when shopping online, however, from our experience, Which?’s research is not an accurate reflection of the scale of the issue.'

Gumtree said illegal activity is never tolerated and it acts swiftly act against bad actors: 'Our latest transparency report found that 99% of our listings were without issue. We constantly monitor for and identify suspicious behaviour and actively encourage users to share anything they see through our one-click "Report" button in every advert.'

Nextdoor said it takes all reports of fraudulent and scam behaviour seriously and encourages neighbours to transact face to face to help protect from potential scams. It added: 'Unlike other marketplaces, Nextdoor does not process online payments, further limiting the likelihood of fraud.'

Vinted acknowledged that as customer-to-customer online platforms become more popular, the risk of scams also increases. It said its security teams work hard to ensure the best possible protection and  its security measures are 'regularly checked and improved upon'.  

Facebook Marketplace declined to comment. We didn't receive a response to our request for comment from Preloved or Shpock.