Question 1

How do online marketplace and second-hand selling scams work?

Accepted Answer

Almost all of them exploit the **same structural weakness**: getting one party to give up money or goods **before** the other side of the exchange is irreversible. Recognising that pattern identifies nearly every variant.

**Scams against buyers:**

**Non-delivery**, the simplest — payment sent, nothing arrives, account disappears.

**Moving off-platform.** The seller asks to complete by bank transfer or a messaging app, which **removes every protection** the platform provided. This request is itself the warning sign, regardless of the reason given.

**Fake payment-protection pages**, where a link supposedly from the platform leads to a cloned site capturing card details.

**Counterfeits**, sold as genuine with convincing photographs taken from elsewhere.

**Bait and switch**, where the item differs materially and the return route is obstructed.

**Scams against sellers:**

**Overpayment.** The buyer "accidentally" pays too much and asks for a refund of the difference; the original payment is later reversed.

**Fake courier or payment confirmations**, arriving by email or text and looking legitimate, persuading a seller to release goods.

**Chargeback abuse**, where the buyer receives the item and disputes the payment.

**The verification-code scam**, where a "buyer" asks you to read out a code sent to your phone — this is them using your number to verify an account, and it is not about the sale at all.

**Empty-box claims**, disputing that the item was in the parcel.

**What actually protects you:**

**Stay on the platform** for messaging and payment, always.

**Use payment methods with protection** — card or the platform's own system — and understand that **bank transfer has no purchase protection**, which is why scammers insist on it.

**Do not accept overpayments**; ask for the correct amount to be resent.

**Never read out a code** sent to your phone.

**Photograph and record** the item, packaging and postage receipt.

**Use tracked, signed-for delivery**, which defeats most delivery disputes.

**For cash collection**, meet in a public place, take someone, and check the item before money moves.

**Report to the platform and to the fraud reporting service.**

Question 2

How do fake reviews actually work, and how do you spot them?

Accepted Answer

Through an industrial supply chain rather than isolated dishonesty — brokers, private groups, refund schemes and reviewer farms — and the scale is large enough that regulators in several countries

Question 3

What is social commerce, and why are platforms pushing it so hard?

Accepted Answer

Buying and selling inside a social app rather than clicking through to a retailer's website — and platforms are pushing it because it solves their two biggest commercial problems at once. Why

Question 4

What is brand safety in advertising?

Accepted Answer

Controlling what content an advertisement appears alongside, so that a brand is not associated with material that damages it — a concern created by programmatic advertising, where the advertiser does

Question 5

When does an influencer legally have to say it's an ad?

Accepted Answer

Whenever there has been payment or any other incentive, and the disclosure must be clear and upfront. This is a legal requirement, not a courtesy or a platform guideline. The legal basis in the UK.

Question 6

What is a dark pattern in an app or website?

Accepted Answer

A dark pattern — increasingly called a deceptive design pattern — is an interface deliberately designed to make you do something you did not intend, by exploiting how people actually behave rather

Question 7

Why do platforms now offer paid ad-free tiers?

Accepted Answer

Partly for revenue, and substantially because of privacy regulation — the "consent or pay" model emerged as an answer to a legal problem, not only as a product decision. The regulatory driver. Data

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