Marktplaats will warn users about links to unofficial payment sites

Marktplaats has implemented a new measure against phishing after the police received an increase in reports of payment request fraud related to the site. From now on, the site will warn if users open an unofficial payment environment.

Marktplaats now checks the address that a seller sends to a buyer. This should, among other things, prevent the form of fraud in which scammers ask the buyer to transfer a cent ‘for verification’. “If the address is the correct address of a payment environment of a well-known bank, you will be forwarded in one go. If it is a different address, Marktplaats will give you a warning that you have to pay attention and that you may be dealing with a phishing site,” says Marktplaats spokesperson Jan-Willem te Gussinklo.

Recently, the police received a relatively large number of reports from victims of payment request fraud via Marktplaats. The most common form of fraud in which a malicious person sends a link to the buyer with a claimed payment request for ‘cross the marketplace immediately’. In reality, the link leads to a phishing site. According to the police, some scammers even provide telephone support to victims. Due to the increase in the number of reports, the police, Marktplaats and the banks have consulted about measures to be taken, which resulted in the warning.