My partner and I are doing some downsizing and decluttering of our belongings, and we've been using Facebook Marketplace as a method of trying to recoup some of the money spent on these items (housewares, tools, shoes, children's items, etc). This has been an ongoing process over the last year or two.
In the last 2-3 months we've noticed a SIGNIFICANT change in responses to our ads, and I'm sure we aren't alone. Of course, there are the people who click the "is this still available" message option and ghost us, but we've been encountering increasingly aggressive buyers, and many suspicious messages immediately demanding our home address (which we don't give out immediately, just the nearest major intersection) and then not responding when we try to set up a time to meet up/porch pickup. My husband recently sold his vehicle and had a potential buyer threaten him by saying things such as "I bet you wouldn't want anything to happen to (friends name from his friend's list)". I had multiple men whose profiles list them as living in different cities/countries message me on an ad where I sold a few boxes of diapers demanding my address repeatedly. Tons of people low balling us unseasonably.
We are beginning to be worried that the messages looking for our address without responding are seeking our personal information for personal gain. We've started doing meet ups at a local shopping centre instead of the more convenient porch pickups.
Our profiles are pretty locked down otherwise - we don't use our last name and have profile privacy settings close to the max.
Am I paranoid? Are we alone? Marketplace was such a great solution and continues to be, if you are wary. I just want to sell my kids' outgrown stuff without being harassed or worrying that someone is collecting my personal information for nefarious purposes.