Summer is the perfect time to get rid of household clutter and make a little money while doing so. If you don’t have the time or desire to brave the heat during a garage sale, I recommend using shopping apps such as Mercari or Poshmark for selling secondhand clothes. Not only are the apps easy to use, but they’re also a little safer than community boards such as Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.
Selling to local buyers in person and only accepting cash is the best way to avoid a scammer. But not everyone lives in an area where garage sales or clothing swaps are popular or even possible. Apps for buying and selling used goods offer convenience for buyers and sellers, as well as various seller protections in the form of money-back guarantees or customer support protocols for recouping losses in a scam.
You might be able to move your items faster by selling locally with the community boards, but you risk allowing scammers to trick you into connecting your account to a crime.
Don’t Become a Digital Accomplice
According to a report from Marissa Bodnar at WGME in Portland, Maine, scammers use community boards to obtain Google Voice phone numbers(Opens in a new window) from sellers. They then use the hijacked number to scam other unsuspecting sellers.
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) breaks down the scam(Opens in a new window) as follows:
“Scammers look for people selling items online and then message them as if they are an interested buyer. The criminals proceed to…
