I'm going to be blunt: if you're sending Interac e-Transfers to strangers on Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji before seeing an item in person, you are gambling. And the odds are not in your favour.
This isn't hypothetical. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reported over $600 million in fraud losses in 2025, with online marketplace scams consistently ranking among the top categories. A huge portion of those losses share one thing in common, the buyer sent an e-Transfer before verifying the item existed.
Why E-Transfers Are a Scammer's Best Friend
Interac e-Transfers were designed for splitting dinner bills and paying your landlord. They were not designed for transactions between strangers. Here's why they're dangerous in a marketplace context:
- They're irreversible. Once accepted, the money is gone. Your bank will tell you this. The police will tell you this. There is essentially no recourse.
- Auto-deposit makes it worse. Most Canadians now have auto-deposit enabled, meaning the money arrives instantly without a security question. A scammer doesn't even need to guess a password.
- They create false trust. Because e-Transfers feel official and "bank-level," buyers assume there's some protection built in. There isn't. Not for this.
The Most Common Scam Patterns Right Now
The "ship it to you" scam. A seller lists a high-demand item, a PS5, an e-bike, a designer bag, at a reasonable but tempting price. They claim they'll ship it after receiving payment. The buyer sends $300, $500, sometimes $1,000+. The seller vanishes. The listing was fake. Sometimes the photos were stolen from a legitimate listing in another city.
The deposit scam. A seller says multiple people are interested and asks for a $50–$100 "deposit" to hold the item. The item either doesn't exist or they collect deposits from five people and ghost all of them.
The overpayment/refund scam. This one targets sellers too. A "buyer" sends more than the asking price, then asks you to refund the difference, except their original payment was fraudulent and gets clawed back, leaving you out the refund amount.
So What Should You Actually Do?
Here's my honest opinion on how to handle marketplace payments safely:
- Cash in person is still king. Meet in a public place, inspect the item, and pay cash. It's old school and it works.
- Never pay before seeing the item. Full stop. No exceptions. Not even a deposit. If a seller won't hold an item without prepayment, walk away, there will be another one.
- Use an escrow system for remote purchases. This is the approach we take at aerrand. When you buy through us, your payment is held in escrow. An Aerrander inspects and picks up the item on your behalf. If it doesn't match the listing, you get your money back. The seller only gets paid when you confirm you're satisfied. It's what e-Transfers *should* work like for stranger transactions, but don't.
- Trust your gut. If a deal seems unusually good, if the seller is pressuring you to pay quickly, if they refuse to video call or meet in public, those aren't red flags, they're sirens.
This Isn't About Being Paranoid
Most people selling on Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace are honest Canadians clearing out their homes. The secondhand economy is genuinely great. But the small percentage of bad actors exploit the same trust that makes these communities work.
Protecting yourself doesn't mean being suspicious of everyone. It means having a simple rule: never send money until you or someone you trust has verified the item in person. That one rule alone would eliminate the majority of marketplace fraud in Canada overnight.
Be smart out there, Windsor.