Description

I saw the free upright Yamaha white piano on FB marketplace. I'd been looking for a piano like that. It said "free" which I didn't really believe, so I clicked on it to find out about it. The facebook person said she was only listing it for her sister who had recently lost her husband. The sister didn't want to "sell it to the highest bidder," but instead wanted to give it to someone who would use it. The sister gave the woman's email address so I could speak to her directly. Her email address was: [email protected]. After some emails back and forth, she said she called the moving company and all I had to do was pay for shipping and to reach out to the company as the piano was already there and packed up. She told me to use the chat option because it was faster. Ultimately, they had me pay through Paypal and told me to be sure to use "friends and family." I sent $450 for moving. That seemed real. Then, they told me they couldn't send it because it hadn't been insured. I could get that. They wanted me to use their insurance person through zelle. I wouldn't. Finally tried Venmo and I couldn't find @Jenny-Bruce. So, back to paypal we went. Again, friends and family. That keeps them from being bound under FB's merchant guarantee. I literally paid $1302 for insurance. I know better than this. My dog had just died in my arms and I had been so mentally cloudy for 3 days that it never occurred to me how ridiculous this was. It wasn't until I told a friend and he said it sounded like a scam. At that exact moment, I realized it had to have been. All the weird pieces fell into place. I never received a tracking number, the piano listing on Facebook Market place chat was changed to my name-piano with their profile deleted. I do have some screenshots of the "website" chat.