BEWARE: Scam alert! Fake Facebook Profiles Selling Airplane Parts!
Some of you have fallen victim, like myself, to these sneaky Facebook scams. Recently it has been swarming the aviation market. I have personally been scammed, not once, but TWICE. This was on a reputable avionics group page too. What’s crazy is these scammers can talk the talk and walk the walk. They really come off as the real deal.
There are some things to do before exchange money for aviation parts on Facebook.
- If this person has a business or works for a business, ie. Fast Aviation, pick up the phone and give them a call. Typically I don’t do transactions through Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, or Paypal. We use a secured payment system through our invoicing program. Most businesses work like this because it is easier to keep track of their sales. If the person is private, it is still ok to ask for a phone number to talk to them on the phone. You don’t need to be all weird and do FaceTime haha! 9 times out of 10, if they are a scammer, they won’t talk to you on the phone.
- Look at this persons profile and do a search on Facebook for the same person. How many friends do they have? Facebook shows when they joined too, so if they are new to Facebook, like 2022, chances are it’s a scam.
- IF you decide that this person is safe to do a transaction with, I highly recommend using Paypal. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, choose the “friends and family” option, as you will be ineligible for a scam refund in the event it ends badly. (Ask me how I know.) It is always safer to pay the little % they charge for that protection.
- Also note that after you have been scammed, you could be profiled for the scammer to make a fake one of you. That’s what happened to me. Good thing I am known in the business and a previous client reached out and was like hey this seems weird. Ironically the scammer was selling him a KX155, which is what I was scammed on.
- Be weary of business scammer emails too. Most companies like mine don’t use gmail or yahoo. for example: rachel@fastaviationflorida.com
- Always remember that old saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
I created a group page on Facebook called HangarSwap years ago so that there was a safe, aviation only FB group page. We have over 11,400 members now. Other industries leaders like BAS Parts are one of my moderators. We have a good group of moderators that remove non-aviation related items, scammers, and your typical ego-driven jerk that HAD to give his peace of mind. We are strict on this aviation only policy. You will be banned if you post something non-aviation. Everyone is allowed to advertise their airplane parts, aviation parts business, aviation collectables, and projects. I run it like a bar, 3 things we don’t talk about: Religion, Politics, and Race. You go down any of those roads for one split second and you’re gone.
Feel free to join here and make sure you answer all the questions otherwise we won’t approve you: HangarSwap: It’s Not Hoarding If Your Stuff Is Cool
Also, there is a new group page for aviation scams only. Very helpful. Click here to request to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aviationscams
Another good article written is by the guys at BAS. They even have scammers posing to BE their company! https://baspartsales.com/blog/social-media-scams
If you have any questions or concerns, hit me up at Rachel@fastaviationflorida.com
