Montgomery County Police are investigating a scam related to the Poshmark social commerce marketplace and believe there may be additional victims in what is known as triangulation fraud.
Triangulation fraud is an online shoplifting scheme in which a buyer makes a legitimate purchase on a marketplace while the seller fraudulently acquires the product from another merchant or e-commerce site.
Since Krebs On Security first posted about triangulation fraud in 2015, the scam has become increasingly sophisticated.
Last September, a victim informed Montgomery County Police that their bank card had been used fraudulently for an online purchase at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Detectives conducted an investigation that revealed the package purchased from Dick’s Sporting Goods was delivered to a different recipient. They confirmed that the individual who received the package had bought the item on Poshmark from the seller “@Valdez310.”
The item had indeed been sent from Dick’s Sporting Goods, MCPD said.
Detectives discovered that the original victim’s bank card was used to purchase an item at Dick’s Sporting Goods, which the suspect falsely claimed was bought from Poshmark. After further investigation, detectives determined that “@Valdez310” had used stolen credit card information to list and sell fraudulent orders on the Poshmark platform.
Police are urging those who believe they may be victims to contact 4th District detectives at (240) 773-5476.
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