Latest TradeMe/FB scam

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jonb

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#321572 30-Aug-2025 09:30

This is a pretty worrying scam technique, easy to see how you can be caught by it:
Three people, one payment, no accountability: Inside a sophisticated new online fraud | Stuff

Also makes you wonder what the point of TradeMe is anymore, if they have no protections except using Ping where they take anextra cut of the sale. I would class sending onliner bank payment to the account of a verified seller with extensive feedback as one of the safer ways of buying and selling.

freitasm

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#3408728 30-Aug-2025 09:46

There are many things happening here. Small breaches, leading to a big con.

Someone's Trade Me account was breached (reused password? No 2fa? Password stealer malware?).
Someone won a seemingly valid auction listed by a bona fide, yet compromised account (should have used the more secure payment methods offered by Trade Me?).
Someone was selling cryptocurrencies in the wild, instead of using a recognised trading platform (was the seller trying to evade fees?)

The scammer successfully put all three together.

In my opinion Trade Me doens't do any more than the minimum in terms of safety. They obviously can identify account takeovers, as the article says they communicated with the buyer to stop the transaction, but usually it's too late as most transactions are pretty quick.

This is where Trade Me could take most action but also risk most of their client base.

Trade Me could require two-factor authentication in all accounts to make it harder for these to happen. But I guess their user-base would not welcome this as "too difficult" for them.

Trade Me could invest in faster account takeover and profile technology. But I guess this would reduce their margins and even need more people to be hired (horror!).

Any Trade Me action would likely be followed with fee increases. And once this happens, people would move to be scammed on Facebook Marketplace.

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mentalinc

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#3408809 30-Aug-2025 15:47

The person who sold their crypto to fiat provided their bank account for the money to be transfered into. Seems like a large risk here if they were 'in the wild'. But from scammer lens they had nothing to loose.

Wait for the cash to arrive in the account, then they receive the crypto, unlikely there was a clearing house.

Telling people to use recognised trading platforms for cytpo, half defeats the purpose.

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richms

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#3408811 30-Aug-2025 15:57

Trademe could do some things to help with this like require proof of bank account and require that people send it via trademe and not email afterwards and actually do something about sellers that do not use the payment instructions on site.

But that would mean that telling people to use ping would not work as well so affect income.

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#3408816 30-Aug-2025 16:12

"Ryan recommended that members use the Ping or Afterpay payment methods, which meant they were covered by buyer protection policies and could get refunded if anything went wrong."

Are those methods buyer choice or seller choice and do they cost extra?

On the plus side trademe picked up the issue and flagged it to the buyer. Waiting 24 hours before payment or longer if it's a weekend could be the next step in adding a little protection.

Spong

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#3408817 30-Aug-2025 16:17

Trademe appear to be making only a token effort to avoid accounts being pwned. I was scammed by someone who successfully pwned an account with 100% positive feedback early last year. The original account holder had used the same login and password on multiple sites so when one of the sites was compromised, the login details enabled the scammer to take over the account, change the email address and list a non-existent projector for $800. Payment was to a bank account with an ANZ "04" prefix that ended up being associated with a Wise card. Funds disappeared quickly, my bank (ASB) were no use, The Police were no help (too smaller issue) Trademe said I should have used PING or Afterpay (as if a scammer would do that!) so off to Disputes we went and Trademe eventually compensated myself and a co-complainant. It was a long and sorry process but it pays to keep at it.

Since then, Trademe still only have optional 2FA and I've heard from others scammed in a similar way. I guess it makes financial sense for TM to just pay out to those who really try than to make it safer. Here is the thread I started last year about this.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=48&topicid=315933

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freitasm

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#3408873 30-Aug-2025 17:03

OK, to avoid confusion, you folks meant "pwned" not "pawned", right?

Or are Trade Me users selling/pawning their accounts now?

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#3408887 30-Aug-2025 20:18

It's also worth noting that Ping only protects you for up to $2,500, but it can be used for purchases up to $10,000.

dafman

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#3408973 31-Aug-2025 10:21

Ask yourself, is this an amount of money I am prepared to risk losing? If the answer is no, never send $4,900 to a stranger crossing your fingers for them to do the right thing.

MadEngineer

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#3408993 31-Aug-2025 12:42

I wonder if there’s a way for trademe to take a person’s name and bank account number then mark the sellers account with an additional verification.

Scammers would then need to pwn both the trademe account and the bank account of the same person or business.

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#3409018 31-Aug-2025 15:50

A place that offers these as the filters for hard drives is clearly over 10 years behind the ball on that, so security is likely about as bad.

Richard rich.ms

Spong

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#3410939 3-Sep-2025 23:25

Stuff reporter Isaac Davison has written a follow-up article about my experience of pwned Trademe accounts published today for anyone interested. Pretty brave when Trademe now own 50% of Stuff Digital. Their photographer said they weren't afraid to bite the hand that feeds them, and helps to prove they are indeed independent. I wasn't keen to be in the spotlight, but feel Trademe really need to get their act together. They haven't updated information on their "Trust and Safety" page since October 2023!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360810594/im-not-easily-fooled-when-trusted-account-became-perfect-scam

Isaac has since been inundated with emails from people similar experiences.

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#3410941 4-Sep-2025 02:06

I've been flagging a number of Photography related auctions to TradeMe over the last few weeks. It's quite likely one person behind it as they all follow a similar pattern.

1. Otherwise normal account with perfect or near perfect feedback.

2. Item price below average, and reducing almost daily by huge amounts to entice a fast But Now sale.

3. No pickup (although it probably doesn't matter)

4. Cash or Bank transfer only.

5. Item photo taken from eBay, one with US plug sockets on the wall..

6. Unanswered auction questions

7. Users profile last logged in date shows as well in the past before the action was setup.

The last point has me thinking they are being setup via some API integration or similar.

TradeMe has removed all the ones I've flagged, although two occasions the online reporting via their App was broken and I had to use the desktop site. In all occasions it took many hours or days even over the weekend to remove them.

Spong

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#3411078 4-Sep-2025 13:48

Scammers have been going crazy on Trademe selling musical keyboards (stolen photos from ebay listings) expensive watches and now it seems photographic equipment.

It's become a bit of a game identifying them, but really should we be doing this. Making 2FA compulsory for Trademe accounts should go some way towards preventing this.

A friend in Japan where Yahoo auctions are big, advises me that all payments must go through them, and funds aren't released until the buyer is happy with what they receive.

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dafman

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#3411274 4-Sep-2025 16:57

If the item is relatively high value and the seller is 1. no pick up, and 2. bank transfer only.

Just no.

Every time.