Be cyber-aware, be vigilant, and always trust your gut!

Based on a true story…….As the holiday shopping season continues, this is meant to be a public service announcement to keep you, your family members, your friends, complete strangers, and anyone else who is important to you in life, both safe and secure…..

The year was 2025 and the day was Friday.  I was going through my typical routine of after work online shopping.  With the advent of Facebook Marketplace (*no longer living in a Craigslist world), I was on the hunt for a brand new (or like new) iPhone Air.  Similar to buying a car, it’s always wise to look at a brand new product, with an eye towards a gently used one.  In the midst of post-Black Friday sales, I had an eye on purchasing the best price for the money.  While I’ve been raised to always buy brand new (you know what you get from it and trust that someone else hasn’t reconfigured or damaged it), my lifetime push towards looking for affordable (*Not cheap) deals, led me to Facebook Marketplace on this Friday.

As a cybersecurity professional, I’ve always been coached that a deal that’s too good to be true, probably always end up that way.  On this day though, I found the deal of the year.  A like new iPhone Air that was half the price of it’s brand new counterpart.  Brand new iPhones of this stature are normally over $1,000, and this phone was less than $1,000 and had “only” been opened.

The beauty of Facebook Marketplace is that you can see, message, and view the profile of the person who is selling each product, which nearly guarantees that you’ll be buying the product from the same individual.  I looked up the seller who had a few common Facebook connections, had multiple five star reviews, and was also fully transparent with being on LinkedIn too (also with many common connections).

I messaged the seller and started going through the awkward back and forth negotiation.  The seller stated why they were selling, confirmed the pictures of the product, and then emphasized the great deal that he had.  We exchanged a few messages back and forth throughout the day, while I was also browsing other similar products on Marketplace.  I kept coming back to this iPhone because of how good of a deal it was…..almost half off and literally unused!  I was caught up in human emotions.  If you’ve been there, you’ll know what I mean.  

Looking back on the early stages of this interaction, what I’ll say next is something I’m ashamed to share and I trust you will not judge or take this experience in the wrong way.  Later that day, I had finally decided I wanted to purchase this iPhone from the seller, who I now trusted (almost my life) with him after having a pleasant back and forth exchange.  I saw that he was generally located in a local suburb and told him that I could be there in 30 minutes. He then agreed to drop the price even more if I would come directly to him.  

On my drive there, he changed his tone and told me that two other buyers had reached out to him and when I asked him more questions and what that meant, he simply stated, “We’ve had too much back and forth, and I’m ready to move on”.  Back to the human emotion, my brain waves were elevated and by now, since there were other potential buyers, I wanted the iPhone even more.  I told him, I’ll still be there and I did the cybersecurity no-no of giving him my number as he said he had an afternoon full of meetings and would call me when he was done.  

The location he was supposedly close to was near an Apple Store, so I went there to wait, thinking it would be a “safe” exchange spot.  I waited for 20, 30, 40 minutes, after he messaged me back a few times and said i’ll call you soon, again not following the example of the golden rule of never giving out personal contact information on Marketplace.  After an hour of patiently waiting (my mindset and human adrenaline still on a high of the possibility of grabbing a phenomenal “deal”), he finally called and said, “I just got off work, I’ve been busy all day” and then gave me a meeting point, which wasn’t one I had planned on and appeared to still be in a safe area of town.  

The one thing I didn’t mention earlier was that every time I talked to him, the story of why he was selling the phone had changed, but I led myself to believe that maybe he had a long day and forgot the details.  By that point, I had trusted him so much with all of the factors mentioned above.  The meet up spot was to be around 10 minutes away, so I started driving that way, and got to less than a mile from the meet up location, and he called back to simply say, “I just called our IT department (*another story for another day….) and they said this phone didn’t come by via UPS today, it may be here tomorrow or Monday.  Now I was really confused, and simply responded to the fact that the product pictures were on his listing and he said, “Oh, we’ve been selling phones all day, etc.”  I was truly disappointed and didn’t realize at the time that this was likely a blessing in disguise.  

I went home that night and re-told my story to numerous friends and family members.  The looks on their faces, the shock, and the genuine concern that they all had, caused me to reflect on how much I got caught up in a psychological game of convincing myself that a good price or a “deal” was worth more than my personal safety.  Cybersecurity hacking, device tracking, message hijacking, and so many more IT practices are real these days, and I’m not sure what I would have been walking into.  A friend of mine said he was glad that I didn’t get robbed or shot that night.  I had a guardian angel working overtime and I’ll never know why the seller backed out so quick or what made them not want to execute on their end of the deal.

I bring this up to hopefully help you and the most important people in your lives continue to be cyber-aware, online shopping aware, and public safety aware when purchasing items through an online marketplace where you physically meet up with someone.  

In closing, I appreciate you giving me the genuine space to share, bring awareness the ever-changing IT world we live in, and for taking time to read my message today!  

If you take away anything from my journey, I would strongly recommend following these tips to help you stay safe this holiday shopping season.

1. Communicate only on Facebook marketplace only (never call or text potential sellers outside of the app)

2. Look for consistencies and inconsistencies in the seller’s story or background of what they are selling 

3. Don't let the seller choose the meetup location, choose your own and stick to it (always choose a public space during the day, avoid evenings if you can, and even meet at police stations if you can)

4. Trust your gut and surroundings always!

5. Be ok with leaving a location and/or a potential deal if it doesn't "look" or "feel" right)