SAN DIEGO (FOX5/KUSI) — Fritz Batiduan considers himself pretty savvy but says he is now the victim of being ripped off and scammed by a con-man he engaged on the popular, Facebook marketplace.

“I’ve actually dealt with the people in the Facebook marketplace before, and this is the first time that I’ve dealt something not very pleasant,” said Batiduan.

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Fritz used Facebook marketplace to sell an LED light and after numerous conversations with a buyer and an agreed amount of $45 the two decided to meet in a public parking lot.

Fritz’s car even captured video of the two meeting.

“He asked me if we could take Zelle, which, you know, my gut feeling was saying, gosh, I should just like said cash, because it wasn’t that much in the first place,” he said.

Going against his intuition, Batiduan agreed to receiving a Zelle payment and a few seconds later he got this text message that confirmed a $45 payment was sent to him.

He gave the buyer the light and the man sped off, but a couple minutes later Batiduan says he received a new text message saying only one cent was now being deposited. Before he could stop the scammer, the man drove off and then deleted his Facebook profile or blocked Batiduan from messaging him.

“There’s always loopholes that people find or workarounds, if you’re not on top of it all the time, you don’t know about it. And most legitimate people who are doing, you know, just using the platform as intended don’t know about these workarounds,” said Corey Snyder with the better business bureau.

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Snyder recommends using credit card for all transactions if you can or using cash.

“Just take cash. And then if it’s much larger amount, make sure that the transaction goes through. Call your financial institution. Make sure that the transaction got processed and went through legitimate before you hand off your items that you’re selling,” said Batiduan.

Batiduan filed a police report and the San Diego police department says he’s a victim of petty theft.

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