You found something you want — a used iPhone on OLX, a chair on Facebook Marketplace, a guitar from an Instagram seller. The price is fair. The seller seems normal. You've moved to WhatsApp to coordinate. You're about to send a payment.
This is the 90-second moment where most marketplace scams happen. Here's the check that fits inside it.
The 60-second hard checks
1. Search their phone number outside the platform
Paste the number into Google. A real person has digital exhaust — old classified ads, a profile somewhere, a directory listing, even just appearance in a WhatsApp Business profile. A scammer's number usually returns either nothing, or a results page full of other recent scam reports from the same number.
Tools like Truecaller / Eyecon often surface tags like "Spam - OLX Scam" — those tags come from other buyers who got burned. Worth checking before money moves.
2. Reverse-image-search the listing photo
Right-click the listing image → search image with Google. If the same photo appears on another OLX listing in a different city with a different phone number, you've found a scam template being reused. If the same photo appears as a stock image or a random product page, you've found a fake listing entirely.
Takes 15 seconds. Catches a lot.
3. Ask for a live photo of the item with today's newspaper / a written sign with your name
The classic. A real seller has the item physically and can snap a new photo in 60 seconds. A scammer using stolen photos can't. If they push back ("I'm not home," "my phone camera is broken," "just trust the listing photos"), the test has already given you the answer.
Slight upgrade: ask them to send a 5-second video of the item. Harder to fake from stolen photos than a single image.
4. Insist on in-person handover for anything you can collect locally
The seller offering to ship a couch from another city to save you the inconvenience is the one most likely to disappear with your money. If the item is local and the seller is local, they should be happy to meet at a public place during daylight. Any elaborate explanation for why you can't is a red flag.
For genuine remote sellers, see check #6.
5. Pay only via methods with recourse
UPI direct to a phone number: zero recourse if they disappear. Bank transfer: very limited recourse. Cash on delivery: best. Card via a proper checkout (escrow, Razorpay, PayU, Stripe): full chargeback recourse.
Sellers will push for UPI because it's instant and irreversible. Push back. Legitimate sellers accept whatever method buyers prefer; only scammers strongly prefer the irreversible ones.
6. Ask for a verified identity (their trust profile)
For remote / shipped transactions where in-person handover isn't possible, the second-source identity check matters most. Ask: "send me your Realr or a verified ID — I'm not comfortable wiring without one." A real seller, especially a small business or repeat hobbyist, will have something portable. A drive-by scammer won't.
If they don't have one yet, they can claim a Realr in under a minute and send the link. The ask itself filters the field — bad actors don't bother to set up a real identity for a one-off scam.
The patterns specific to each platform
Most of the above generalizes. A few platform-specific additions:
- OLX: KYC-verified sellers have a verified tag in the platform. It's a fine first signal, but stays on OLX. Once you've moved to WhatsApp, ask for their portable trust profile too.
- Facebook Marketplace: click through to the seller's Facebook profile and check it's a real account — has friends, photos, posts going back years. Brand-new accounts with no friends are scam-typical.
- Instagram sellers: see our separate piece on verifying Instagram sellers — the workflow is slightly different because you're inside a social platform with more signal.
- WhatsApp-only sellers (no platform listing): highest risk category. No platform reputation, no listing permanence. Insist on either local pickup or a verified identity before any payment.
What to do if it goes wrong
First hour: try to contact them on every channel you have. Sometimes "they disappeared" is just a phone problem.
Second hour: if you paid via card / PayPal / bank, initiate a dispute / chargeback. The earlier you start the process, the better the recovery odds. Save screenshots of every message and the original listing.
Same day: file a complaint with the platform you found them on (OLX / FB Marketplace / Instagram). They can often remove the listing and ban the account, which stops the next victim even if it doesn't recover your money.
Cyber crime cell: for amounts that matter, file at cybercrime.gov.in (India) or your country's equivalent. Recovery is rare, but the report creates a paper trail that helps the next investigation.
The boring conclusion
90% of marketplace scams die at the "send me your Realr and a video of the item" ask. The other 10% need more careful work. Building the habit of asking — politely, with the "I'll send mine first" reciprocity move — costs you 60 seconds and a few awkward conversations a year. It also saves you the one ₹50,000 disaster that pays for the habit a hundred times over.
If you sell on marketplaces and want buyers to stop hesitating, have your trust profile ready to send. It closes the sale 30 seconds faster every time.