One in three buyers scammed on second-hand sites

A third of buyers have experienced a scam on popular second-hand marketplaces in the last two years, with Depop being the most complained about by customers who experienced fraudsters.

Buyers reported receiving incorrect goods (15%) or no goods at all (15%), according to a survey by Which?. Others said they had received an empty package (11%) or counterfeit goods (10%).

According to the latest UK Finance data, purchase scams were the most common form of authorised push payment fraud, accounting for 66% of all cases reported to banks – with 76,946 cases and £40.9m lost to these scams in the first half of 2023.

Depop buyers were most likely to experience a scam – with nearly six in 10 surveyed (57%) telling Which? they had experienced a scam on the site. This compares to around half of Shpock (53%), Preloved (51%), and Nextdoor (51%) buyers surveyed, around a third of Amazon Marketplace (35%), Gumtree (29%) and eBay (29%) purchasers surveyed, a quarter (24%) of Facebook marketplace purchasers surveyed and a fifth of Vinted (22%) buyers surveyed who had experienced a scam in the two years to January 2024.

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When selling an item, Nextdoor sellers were most likely to say they had encountered potential fraudsters – with four in 10 (39%) of those surveyed saying had experienced a scam in the previous two years.

Around a quarter of those selling on Preloved (26%), Shpock (26%) and Depop (23%), a fifth of those selling on Amazon Marketplace (21%), Facebook (20%) and eBay (20%), one in six (16%) of Gumtree sellers and one in 10 (11%) of Vinted sellers surveyed also said they had experienced a scam in the two years to January 2024.

Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said: “Second-hand marketplaces can be a great way to save money and shop in a more sustainable way so it's worrying that a third of buyers have experienced a scam in the last two years.

“When buying and selling second-hand goods online, it’s important that people properly check the seller’s reviews and profile – especially if they are on the hunt for expensive goods.

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“However, the responsibility should not fall wholly on consumers to protect themselves from scammers. Second-hand marketplaces need to ensure there are proper checks in place to prevent scammers from advertising in the first place and that any scam profiles are quickly removed.”

A significant number of buyers and sellers also told Which? they had raised complaints about their transactions with the marketplaces.

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