Marketplace Sales/Gifts

Sales, shipping, or other miscellaneous charge or gift scams are all types of social engineering scams. These scams are meant to receive personal information and money from targets by promising items in return. However, the attackers will steal your money and information without ever providing the items to you. Often these scams require using personal or private forms of communication (i.e. non-RIT email or phone).

Recognize

• Verify spelling and grammar on unexpected emails and requests.
• Be cautious when an email suggests using non-RIT-related contact methods to respond.
• Vague emails, or those not specifically addressed to you are a red flag. 
• Always double-check the full email address by hovering your mouse over the “From:” line in the email.

Respond

• Verify all unexpected requests or notifications by calling or texting a known source or meeting with the person face-to-face.
• Carefully look over the notification for the sender's email address or information as well as the context of the notification.
• Report any suspicious notifications to spam@rit.edu.

Report

• If you have fallen victim to this type of scam contact the RIT service Center by phone at 585-475-5000, or online at help.rit.edu to open an incident report.

Below are some examples that have been observed in the RIT community. Attackers continuously update their strategies. Therefore, these examples serve as a learning tool to help you recognize sales, shipping, and other types of charge/gift attacks.

Downsizing Camera and Musical Instrument 

While this may appear legitimate, always verify that the spelling and grammar are proper, the email is not vague, and the reference person is real. Additionally, this attacker requests using a “private” phone number to further communicate!

Baby Grand Piano Scam

While receiving a baby grand piano as a gift would be great, there are some red flags in this email that could help you keep yourself and your personal information safe. Verify the email address is real, and never use private means of communication after receiving something to your RIT email address.

These are some related resources to help keep you safe from giveaways, and sales scams online.

• FTC - Selling stuff online? (external)
• Business Insider - 10 common Facebook Marketplace scams (external)