Dubizzle Scams : Please be careful

Opinion Pieces15 Comments

Over the last few weeks when we were trying to sell some things from home, we have been approached by several scammers. In case you are not aware of it – here’s how they work, and a few snapshots of the conversation so you don’t get scammed.

The approach is all similar :

  1. They will contact you through whatsapp.
  2. Often times their numbers are overseas. The ones we have received vary – some are +7 (Russia), +213 (Algeria), +977 (Nepal). This is not to say that every number from these countries are scammers (so don’t come and give me a hard time for this) – it’s just that the ones we have received are from there.
  3. They will ask questions about the item, so it seems they are fairly interested and genuine.
  4. They will then say they live in another city – Ajman is a common one, Dammam is another.
  5. They will then propose to arrange for courier and that they will pay for it – DHL, Emirates Post, Dubizzle Payment, Fedex.
  6. They will send you a payment link which appears legit, the payment page also appears legit.
  7. When you try and fill in the details, you will then be asked for your Credit Card number upon which the “funds will be deposited.”
  8. Well we all know what happens when you give someone your credit card number don’t we? 🙂

For the purpose of getting people to be more aware, we’ve played along with them so we could get a few screenshots of the payment options :

Emirates Post Group

Fake Emirates Post Group Payment (Scam)

Dubizzle Payment

Fake Dubizzle Payment Site

Fedex

CDEK

CDEK 

Please be careful. 
Never ever, in any circumstances, provide your credit card number to an online transaction where someone is supposed to be PAYING YOU.

And for your entertainment purposes, here are a few ways to respond to these idiots. Feel free to share more with us 🙂

And here’s another 🙂

And another. See last slide 🙂

Posted by

Dubai resident. Stays most of the time in the marina as she can't be bothered going anywhere else after work and in the weekends. Originally from the land of the orang utans, spent the latter half of her life in the land down under. Always on the look out for deals, loves organising get-togethers, and occasionally steals some time for a sip of wine or four at ladies nights.

15 thoughts on “Dubizzle Scams : Please be careful”

  1. Thanks To whoever has written this by taking efforts to make people aware about the fraudsters..

    I was saved today by reading this article else I would have been fooled big time…

    Reply

    1. Hi there Sunny. You are very welcome. I’m glad this helped you! Please feel free to share it with family and friends so they don’t get scammed by these people 💜

      Reply

    2. All of a sudden, i get similar response in Dubizzle, one from Ruwais, One from Ajman and another from Qatar. That is when i realised this should be a type of scam and surprisingly, found this article. I reposted my ads saying Scam trials not allowed.

      Reply

    3. Thanks for sharing with us this article. I was almost scammed. They use the same modus operandi as described above. I was very skeptical that is why i googled first. God bless u!

      Reply

  2. Thanks Lil. exactly like the way.. step by step just now 2 of them contacted me one thru Philippines number +639362625309 and other one Ukraine +380 997659599.

    Reply

    1. And one suggestion is when we post any ads in dubizzle better to hide our number and try to do all conversation thru dubizzle chat itself

      Reply

      1. Thanks for your message. Yeah can keep the conversation on Dubizzle too. But I guess some people don’t check their Dubizzle messages regularly so prefer to do it via WhatsApp. Saying that, it’s easy to spot the scammers now! Same old tricks

  5. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I got saved by your post. I just received an offer in Dubizzle. Upon the mention of ‘bank card’, I knew I have to google scams first. God bless you for sharing this.

    Reply

Leave a Reply