Is it safe to buy shipped items on Facebook Marketplace?

How Facebook checkout works for buyers

Facebook checkout is Marketplace’s own way to buy an item and have it shipped. You pay Facebook, the seller ships, and Meta’s Purchase Protection sits behind the order. It’s offered mainly in the US. In Canada, the UK and most other countries, nearly every Marketplace deal is a local pickup, and nothing Facebook offers covers it.

1. Choose a listing that offers shipping and a Buy now button. If a seller offers to ship but the listing has no checkout, the deal is outside Facebook.
2. Pay in Facebook’s own payment form, never on a page a seller links you to.
3. Follow the order from your Marketplace purchases. Check the tracking number on the carrier’s website too.
4. If something’s wrong, message the seller from the order first, then file a claim. Meta’s seller policy says buyers should contact the seller within 3 days of delivery and file a claim within 7 days of delivery (60 days for an unauthorized purchase).

Purchase Protection covers orders that never arrive, arrive damaged or different from the listing, a seller who ignores their stated refund policy, an unauthorized purchase, and a seller removed from Facebook. If Meta approves your claim, you get back the full price and shipping. Meta is just as clear about what isn’t covered: purchases made through third-party sites, local pickups, Messenger transactions and other messaging services. Our buyer protection guide covers claims in full.

The fake courier and escrow scam

This is the shipping scam that costs people the most, because it usually involves cars, motorbikes, trailers and other big-ticket items. The Better Business Bureau describes the pattern:

1. A great price and an absent seller. The seller is overseas, in the military, on an offshore job, or has just moved. The item is “already with a shipping company”.
2. An official-looking middleman. The seller suggests “Facebook delivery”, an escrow service, or a protection program from eBay or Amazon. You get an invoice or a link with stolen logos.
3. A promise that sounds safe. You can inspect it on delivery and get a full refund if you don’t like it.
4. Payment you can’t reverse. The “escrow” wants a wire, a gift card, a prepaid card or a bank transfer.
5. Fees that keep growing. Insurance, customs, a delivery problem. Each payment leads to the next ask, until you stop.

None of these middlemen exist. Facebook doesn’t run escrow for private sales, and Kijiji says plainly that it does not partner with any shipping, inspection or escrow companies. The BBB’s advice is the simplest version of this whole guide: meet the seller and see the item before you buy, and avoid any deal that involves shipping or escrow arranged by the seller.

How to check a tracking number

A tracking number is only proof if you check it yourself. Meta’s advice is to verify tracking numbers on the shipping company’s website.

1. Type the carrier’s address yourself, for example canadapost.ca, usps.com, ups.com, fedex.com, royalmail.com or auspost.com.au. Don’t use a link from the seller or a text.
2. Paste the number and check that the destination city and dates match your order.
3. Stop if it doesn’t match. “Delivered” to another city, a carrier you’ve never heard of, or a site that only works with this one number all mean the tracking is fake or someone else’s.
4. Don’t pay customs or redelivery fees from a text link. Go to the carrier’s site and look the parcel up there.

Buying a shipped item outside checkout

Sometimes the thing you want only exists three provinces away, and the listing has no checkout. If you decide to go ahead anyway, give yourself a way back:

• Pay with a method that has a dispute process: PayPal Goods and Services, or a credit card on a real shop’s own website. Never e-Transfer, Zelle, Cash App or PayPal Friends and Family for something you can’t see. Our guide to Marketplace payment methods compares them all.
• Ask for a short video of the item, with today’s date written on a piece of paper beside it. Stolen photos can’t do that.
• Run the photos through Google Lens. If the same pictures turn up in an old listing somewhere else, stop.
• Keep everything: screenshots of the listing, the seller’s profile link, the whole chat, and the payment receipt.
• Check for a local one first. The same model is often for sale nearby, and a pickup removes the whole problem.

One special case: since 2025, Marketplace in the US, Germany and France shows some eBay listings. You pay on eBay, and eBay’s protection applies, not Facebook’s.

Notes by country

• Canada. Shipped Marketplace deals usually end up paid by e-Transfer, which has no buyer protection, so treat any shipped item from a stranger as high risk. Kijiji has no shipping or escrow partners at all.
• United States. Checkout and Purchase Protection exist, so use them. Zelle and Cash App payments for shipped items are effectively unprotected.
• United Kingdom. Bank transfers sent to a fraudster can be reimbursed under the Payment Systems Regulator’s rules, up to £85,000 if you report within 13 months, but a genuine seller who sends a faulty item is a civil matter. Report online shopping fraud to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud). MoneyHelper has a good guide to spotting fake Marketplace messages.
• Australia. Watch for fake PayID emails as well as fake delivery sites; report to Scamwatch.

How Sift helps

Sift, a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, marks the listings where this scam usually starts. A “Check this” chip appears when a seller says they’re moving out of the country or out of town, when a pickup-type item like a sofa or a car is offered shipping only, when a listing pushes you to WhatsApp, text or email, or when the price is far below the other listings on the page. One click opens Google Lens on the listing photo, to see whether it was taken from somewhere else.

If you only want things you can collect, Sift can also hide “Ships to you” listings from every search; our guide to hiding sponsored and shipped listings explains the native filter too. Sift runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer.