Jacksonville man catches scammer on letgo app

A Jacksonville man wants to warn people after someone tried to scam him while using letgo, a popular app that helps people sell their old stuff.

“It just ticks me off,” Adam Badt said.

A user on letgo said he sent Badt $90 on PayPal to ship a watch to Wisconsin.

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Badt got what he thought was a PayPal email confirming the transfer, so he shipped the watch.

“I looked at the email again and I thought about it and I said, ‘Something doesn’t just seem right here,’” Badt said.

While the name listed on the email is service@paypal.com, a closer look shows the actual email address is ppal.secured.service@gmail.com.

“No sooner did I send it to PayPal, they shot it back and said, ‘Yup, you’ve been scammed. It’s a spoof,’” Badt said.

Badt got the U.S. Postal Service to cancel the shipment and send it back to him.

“I may be out $30 in terms of shipping and stuff, but at least I get my watch back,” he said.

A letgo spokesman told Action News Jax the company has now blocked that user’s account.

“It’s not going to stop me from doing this kind of thing again, but it’s going to make me a lot more conservative and a lot more safe about doing these kinds of things,” Badt said.

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A letgo spokesman sent the following statement:

“Issues like this are extremely rare. letgo's tens of millions of users buy and sell billions of dollars' worth of items securely every month. Still, we of course recommend that users always take proper precautions, as they should any time they buy or sell online. And we proactively share tips with users about how to buy and sell securely.

"We always encourage users to meet in person -- in a public place like a coffee shop or bank lobby -- and use cash to complete a transaction. If a user has any doubts about another buyer or seller, they should find a different one.

"letgo's highest priority will always be the trust and safety of our users. That's why we've built things like in-app chat; user profiles, ratings and reviews; and account verification into the app. We use a combination of human and artificial intelligence to help moderate the marketplace. And we ask our user community to help us by flagging content or other users that raise concerns. When they do, we quickly take the appropriate action, which might include removing items and/or permanently blocking a user, in extremely rare cases where it's necessary.”

Cox Media Group