Fake Facebook Marketplace buyer overpayment scam — scammer poses as buyer, claims accidental overpayment via Zelle/Venmo/Cash App/PayPal, asks seller to refund the difference; the original payment is fabricated
fake-facebook-marketplace-buyer-overpayment-scam
What this tier means
High-confidence threat indicator — phishing, impersonation, BEC, or scam pattern. Strong contributor to the trash decision.
How Gorganizer detects this
Overpayment scam targeting Facebook Marketplace sellers — the scammer contacts the seller posing as an interested buyer and claims they accidentally sent too much money via Zelle, Venmo, Cash App, or PayPal (e.g., $650 instead of $350) and asks the seller to refund the difference before pickup. The critical detail: the original payment either was never sent, is a fake screenshot, or will be reversed after the seller sends the "refund." The seller loses real money while the buyer's payment vanishes. Key facts: (1) Legitimate buyers do not overpay and then ask for refunds via email — they simply send the correct amount; (2) Peer-to-peer payment apps like Zelle have no buyer protection and cannot reverse sent funds — this is why scammers use them; (3) The "payment screenshot" attachment is either fabricated or shows a pending transfer that will never complete; (4) The scam exploits the social norm of being helpful to someone who "made a mistake." Warning signs: overpayment + refund request from unknown buyer, urgency ("come collect today once you return"), peer-to-peer payment app with no recourse.
False-positive guard
Every signal in Gorganizer feeds a multi-module score — never a sole verdict. This is a threat-tier signal — it adds a strong contribution to the trash score. The full pipeline still requires convergence across multiple modules + a margin over the safety floor before deletion happens, and Gmail's trash (30-day recovery) is always used — never permanent delete.
About the scoring engine
Gorganizer's scoring engine emits over 1,800 signals across six modules — headers, sender, subject, body, attachments, and structural metadata. Every email is scored by every module independently; the final verdict requires multiple modules to agree and the trash score to beat the safety floor by a margin.
Sacred safety guards — never delete starred emails, replies, calendar invites, receipts/invoices, or attachments — apply unconditionally regardless of any signal.
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