Scam simulator · Computer, online and social media
You’ve put your old dining table up for sale online. A buyer replies within minutes and offers more than you asked. Practice each step, and see how a simple sale can turn into a scam.
Why it matters: In the UK in 2025, purchase scams, which often start on marketplace websites, made up 71% of all cases where people were tricked into sending money by bank transfer. (UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026)
You’re clearing out the dining room to make space. You take a photo of your old oak table and put it up for sale on an online marketplace.
Below, each step shows what you'd see, the choices people make, and why each one is safe or risky. The summary at the end tells you what to look for and what to do.
You'll see each message or call as it would really look. Choose what you'd do, and you'll find out why. Nothing here is real: no messages are sent and nothing you choose leaves your device.
Your listing is live. Before anyone replies, it’s worth deciding how you’ll be paid.
Your listingPost
Solid oak dining table, seats six. $150
Picture: A photo of a sturdy wooden dining table with six chairs, in a sunny dining room.
Good condition, a few small marks. Pickup only, from the north side of town.
Message seller
How will you take payment?
Which way of being paid lets you see the money before the table leaves your house?
Whatever the buyer prefers. I just want it gone.
Risky choice (your choice)
Letting the buyer choose puts them in charge, and a scammer will pick a way that lets them fake a payment. Deciding in advance, and sticking to it, protects you.
Put my phone number and email in the listing, so buyers can reach me easily.
Risky choice (your choice)
It’s handy for buyers, but just as handy for scammers. It lets them contact you away from the marketplace, where its warnings and report buttons can’t help, and it gives them an email address to send fake payment emails to. Keep chats inside the marketplace’s own messages.
Cash when the buyer collects, after they’ve seen the table, with someone else at home.
Safe choice (your choice)
That’s the simplest, safest way to sell locally. The buyer sees the table, you count the money, and nothing changes hands until you’re both happy. Having someone with you is sensible whenever a stranger comes to the house.
Red flags at this step
What's really going on
Fake buyers target all kinds of sellers, including people clearing out a home. Australia’s Scamwatch advises keeping your conversations inside the marketplace, and the FTC warns sellers not to accept a mobile payment from someone they don’t know. Cash on collection sidesteps most of the tricks that follow.
Within minutes of posting, a message arrives.
Joined this month. No ratings yet.
The buyer offers more than you asked, and will send a courier. What do you do?
Why would someone pay more than you asked for a table they’ve never seen?
Accept. $200 is more than I hoped for, and I won’t have to meet anyone.
Risky choice (your choice)
It’s a tempting offer, and that’s the point. A buyer who offers more than your price without seeing the item is a classic warning sign. The extra money and the courier story set up the tricks that come next.
Check the buyer’s profile before deciding.
Better, but not the safest (your choice)
A good habit. Here, the profile is brand new with no ratings, which is a warning sign. But a good-looking profile isn’t proof on its own, so stick to cash on collection either way.
Say thanks, but it’s cash when they collect, in person. No couriers.
Safe choice (your choice)
That’s the safe reply. A genuine local buyer can work with that. A scammer will make excuses, push for an online payment, or simply disappear, which tells you all you need to know.
Red flags at this step
What's really going on
An offer above the asking price makes you keen to agree, and the courier story explains why you’ll never meet. The FTC warns that scam buyers often insist on paying online and then “send you a fake payment notification and hope you send the item before you realize it’s a scam.”
Suppose you keep chatting. Before paying, the buyer asks for a small favor.
Joined this month. No ratings yet.
The buyer wants the code to prove you're real. What do you do?
Read the text with the code. Who is it meant for?
Send the code. I’ve got nothing to hide, and I want the sale.
Risky choice (your choice)
This is the trick. The code has nothing to do with proving you’re real. It lets the scammer finish setting up an account using your phone number. In the US, it’s often used to create a Google Voice number, which the scammer then uses to cheat other people while hiding who they are.
Send a photo of myself instead, to show I’m genuine.
Better, but not the safest (your choice)
It’s a kind thought, but you don’t owe a stranger proof. They’ll keep asking for the code, because the code is what they want. Keep your photo and your code to yourself, and stick to cash on collection.
Don’t share it. A code sent to my phone is like a key, and it’s only for me.
Safe choice (your choice)
Exactly right. The FTC’s advice is simple: don’t share any verification code with someone you don’t know. A real buyer has no need for one.
Red flags at this step
What's really going on
While you chat, the buyer starts setting up an account using your phone number, and the service texts the code to you. If you pass it on, the account is theirs. AARP says the scammer then uses the new number to hide their identity while they cheat others, so the trail can lead back to you, not them.
Suppose you agree to an online payment. The buyer says they’ve paid. Soon, an email arrives.
Dear Seller,
A payment of $200.00 has been sent to you by Jenna M.
Your account is not yet set up to receive payments from buyers. To release the funds, you must upgrade to a Business Account. The one-time upgrade fee of $50.00 will be refunded with your payment.
Funds are held for 24 hours only.
Upgrade and release funds
The email says the money is waiting for you. What do you do?
Where would you look to see whether money has really arrived?
Pay the $50 upgrade fee. It will be refunded with the payment.
Risky choice (your choice)
There is no upgrade and no refund. Zelle, a US payment service, says plainly that no one can upgrade your account because there are no upgrades, and PayID in Australia is free. The email is fake, and the $50 goes to the scammer.
Tap the button, just to see what it says. I won’t pay anything.
Risky choice (your choice)
The button leads to a fake payment page, built to collect your card or bank details. Once you’re there, it’s easy to be talked into the next step. Close the email and check your banking app instead.
Open my own banking app and check. If the money isn’t there, I haven’t been paid.
Safe choice (your choice)
That’s exactly right. Your own banking app, opened yourself, is the only place that tells you the truth about money you’ve received. An Australian bank, Westpac, gives the same advice about PayID emails, and reminds customers that PayID is a free service.
Red flags at this step
What's really going on
The email comes from the scammer, not from any bank or payment service. Real bank payments either show up in your account or they don’t. Nothing needs “releasing” by email, and no fee is needed to receive money from a buyer.
Suppose the buyer tries another way. A new message says they’ve paid too much by mistake.
Joined this month. No ratings yet.
The buyer asks you to send back $300 they "overpaid". What do you do?
Has any money actually arrived in your account?
Send the $300 back. It’s their money, and it’s the honest thing to do.
Risky choice (your choice)
Your honesty is exactly what this trick relies on. No $500 ever arrived, so the $300 you’d send is your own money. Once a bank transfer is made, it can be very hard to get back.
Send it, but only after the courier has collected the table.
Risky choice (your choice)
The timing doesn’t change anything, because the payment isn’t real. You’d lose the $300 and the table. No courier is coming for a real sale.
Check my banking app first. If the money isn’t there, I don’t send anything, and I stop replying.
Safe choice (your choice)
Right. The emails are fake. If there’s no payment in your own banking app, there’s nothing to refund. Then report the buyer to the marketplace.
Red flags at this step
What's really going on
The overpayment trick is one of the oldest selling scams. Scamwatch warns sellers about buyers who pay more than the agreed price and ask for the extra back, and the FTC warns about buyers who claim they “accidentally paid you twice”. Westpac warns of fake emails saying “you need to refund a deposit that has been credited to your account.”
Suppose you did send the $300. Two days pass.
Two days later
No courier has come. The buyer’s profile has disappeared, and your messages go unanswered. Your banking app shows no payment from the buyer, and the $300 you sent is gone.
What do you do now?
Who can act fastest to try to get your money back?
Wait a little longer. Maybe the payment is still coming.
Risky choice (your choice)
The payment was never real, so it won’t come. Waiting only gives the scammers more time to move your $300 on. Acting quickly gives you the best chance.
Reply to the payment email and demand my money.
Risky choice (your choice)
That email goes straight to the scammer. Replying tells them you’re still listening, and may bring a new story or a new fee. Delete it, and report it instead.
Call my bank on the number on my card, report the buyer to the marketplace, and report the scam.
Safe choice (your choice)
That’s exactly right. Your bank may be able to stop or recover the transfer, especially if you call quickly. In the UK, refund rules now cover most bank transfers made because of a scam. Reporting the profile helps protect the next seller.
Red flags at this step
What's really going on
This is how these sales end: no buyer, no payment, and sometimes a lost item too. If you shared a code at any point, secure that account as well. None of this means you were careless. These scripts are written by professionals.
There was no buyer, only a scammer with a script and a brand-new profile. The high offer and the courier story meant you would never meet. The code request tried to take over an account using your phone number. The emails from “Payments Service” were written by the scammer, and the only real payment in the whole story was the one you might have sent. Three habits stop all of it: take cash when the buyer collects, check your own banking app rather than an email, and never share a code.
Test your family
Send this simulator to a parent, grandparent or friend. They try it on their own phone or computer, and at the end they can send their score straight back to you, so you can see which steps caught them out. Then talk it over together.
Nothing is sent to us. Your first name and their score travel only inside the link you send, after the # sign, which web browsers never send to our website.
You were challenged
Finish the simulator above, then you can send your score back. They'll see which steps you got right, and which ones caught you out.
Only your first name and which answers you chose go in the link, after the # sign. Nothing is sent to us.
From simulator to confidence
This simulator is one scam. Scam-Proof puts 50 of today's scams in one calm, large-print book to keep by the phone, for you and the people you love.
This scam is in the book. Chapter 6 covers online shopping and marketplace scams, and scams 30, 31 and 47 in the book's 50-scam library cover the overpayment, the fake courier and the code request.
254 pages · 16-point large print · paperback and Kindle ebook · written for older adults and the families who help them
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Summary · keep this
Remember: Check your own banking app, not an email, to see whether you’ve been paid. And never share a code sent to your phone.
Don't be embarrassed. These scams are run by professionals, and acting fast gives you the best chance of stopping the damage.
Phone numbers and web addresses were checked on 28 September 2026. They can change; if one doesn't work, search for the organization's official website, and please let us know.
The people, numbers, companies and web addresses shown in this simulator are made up. The way the scam works is taken from real cases reported by police, regulators and consumer groups.
Practice spotting a fake "your plan has renewed" invoice: the phone number, the refund that needs your computer, the "overpayment" and the gift cards.
Practice spotting the fake unpaid-toll text step by step: the link, the "reply Y" trick, the fake payment page and the code that hands over your card.
Practice spotting a fake bank fraud alert: the "did you make this purchase?" text, the faked caller ID, the code, the "safe account" and the courier.
Printable wallet cards, a family safe-word sheet, easy AI prompts and a trusted-numbers sheet for beside the phone. Free when you join the Plainspoken Tech letter.
