Interac e-Transfer scams on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji

Scams that target buyers

Most buyer-side e-Transfer scams are one scam in different clothes: getting you to send money before you’ve seen anything.

• The deposit to hold it. “Lots of interest, e-transfer $50 and it’s yours.” The listing may be real photos of someone else’s item, or nothing at all. Our deposit scam guide walks through the script and what to say instead.
• The Request Money. Instead of asking you to send, the seller sends you an Interac Request Money for the deposit. It feels official because it comes through your bank. Fulfilling it is still you paying a stranger for something you haven’t seen.
• The away-from-home car. A car priced well under similar ones, a seller who is away for work or the military, and a story about the car waiting with a shipping company. Kijiji’s vehicle safety page is direct about this: never send a deposit before inspecting the vehicle, and Kijiji does not partner with any shipping, inspection or escrow companies.
• The rental. An apartment at a good rent, a landlord who can’t show it, and a request to e-transfer first month and deposit to “secure” it. Never pay before a viewing, and confirm the person actually owns or manages the place.

Scams that target sellers (so you recognize them)

You’re a buyer today, but sooner or later you’ll sell something. These also explain why some sellers are wary when you offer an e-Transfer.

• The fake payment link. In Ottawa, police told CBC that scams aimed at Marketplace sellers were the “hot fraud”. In one case a woman selling a $100 coat accepted an e-Transfer link from a buyer; by the next morning $700 had been taken from her bank account, with an attempt at $2,200 more. The link led to a copy of a bank login page.
• The fake notification. The “buyer” pays with an email that looks like Interac but isn’t, sometimes saying the money is held until you send the item or pay a fee to raise your limit.
• The cancelled transfer. CBC Go Public reported on an Edmonton woman selling power tools on Kijiji who watched the buyer send $480 to her autodeposit email and saw a confirmation number. Her bank later told her it had been cancelled about 90 minutes after it was sent. Go Public’s own test found some e-Transfers can be cancelled even with autodeposit, depending on the sender’s bank.
• The overpayment. A buyer sends more than the price “by mistake” and asks for the difference back. Meta lists overpayment among common Marketplace scams, and Interac warns about it too. The first payment is fake or later reversed; your refund is real.

If anyone says Kijiji or Facebook needs you to send an e-Transfer to “verify” your account or release a payment, it isn’t Kijiji or Facebook.

How to spot a fake e-Transfer

Run through this before you click anything, whether it arrives by email or text.

1. Check the real sender address. Interac says a genuine notification comes from [email protected]. The display name can be faked, so look at the address itself.
2. Look for the sender’s full legal name. Interac says real notifications show it. “Dear customer” or a first name only is a warning.
3. Look for attachments. Real e-Transfer notifications never have them, according to New Brunswick’s financial regulator. Any PDF or HTML file means it’s fake.
4. Watch for fees and conditions. No real e-Transfer is held until you ship, pay a fee, or upgrade a limit.
5. Don’t log in through the link. Open your banking app yourself and check whether the money has arrived. With autodeposit, it simply appears; there’s nothing to accept.
6. Report it. Forward suspicious emails or texts to [email protected].

How autodeposit and cancelled transfers work

Autodeposit sends incoming e-Transfers straight into the account you chose, with no link to click and no security question. Interac points out that this cuts your exposure to phishing, and it’s worth turning on in your banking app if you sell things.

For a buyer, autodeposit is also why an e-Transfer is final. Send one to someone who has it on and the money lands within moments. Without autodeposit, you can cancel a transfer from your banking app until the recipient deposits it, which is the only window you have.

For a seller, the lesson from the Go Public case runs the other way. “Sent” is not the same as “settled”. Hand over the item once the money shows in your account balance, not when you see a confirmation screen on the buyer’s phone.

For a big purchase, like a car, check your daily e-Transfer limit before you meet. If it’s lower than the price, finish the deal at a bank instead. Our guide to paying safely on Marketplace compares every option.

If you sent money to a scammer

Move fast. Some transfers can still be stopped in the first hours.

1. Call your bank now, on the number on the back of your card. If the transfer hasn’t been deposited, ask them to cancel it. Either way, ask them to flag the recipient.
2. If you entered your banking password on a link, change it, and tell the bank so they can watch or lock the account.
3. Forward the fake message to [email protected].
4. Report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre online or at 1-888-495-8501, and to your local police.
5. Report the ad on Kijiji or the listing and profile on Facebook, with screenshots of the chat.
6. Ignore recovery offers. The CAFC counted $25.9 million lost in 2025 to people promising to get victims’ money back for a fee.

Reporting matters even when the money is gone. Canadians reported more than $704 million lost to fraud in 2025, a record, and the CAFC estimates only 5 to 10% of fraud is ever reported. Merchandise fraud alone accounted for 2,596 reports and $11.7 million. More on getting help after a scam is in our guide to buyer protection, and the Kijiji side is covered in Kijiji scams.

How Sift flags it

Sift, a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, reads each listing for payment-first wording. When a listing says “e-transfer first”, asks for a deposit, or names gift cards, wire, Zelle or PayPal friends, Sift puts a “Check this” chip on the photo. Click it to see the words it matched. It reads English and French, which matters on Kijiji in Quebec.

Sift reads listings only, never your messages, so a seller who asks for an e-Transfer in chat is still yours to catch. It runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer, on Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace.