She was trying to sell a play tent for $40. It ended up costing her $1,250

A woman in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island wants to warn others about an online phishing scam through Facebook Marketplace after a sale that was supposed to earn her $40 cost her $1,250 instead.

When Severine Nichols was getting rid of her daughter's play tent last week, she did what many people would: she posted it on a local buy and sell group through Facebook Marketplace.

A female buyer soon popped up online, asking if she could send an e-transfer to secure the item and then pick it up later. 

"I checked her profile. It was a local profile. She had a picture. She had kids. It wasn't a new profile, so I felt pretty good about that," Nichols told CBC News. 

When the e-transfer came into her inbox, Nichols says it looked legitimate and didn't raise any suspicions. 

So she clicked on the link and it took her to a page where she chose which bank she was with, as it usually does. Nichols says she checked the URL and it looked normal. She then typed in her banking details, just as she normally would.

"It looked exactly like a regular e-transfer when I send and receive stuff from to my bank," she said. "There was nothing different, nothing weird, nothing strange, no red flags."

But after Nichols filled in her banking information, an error screen came up. She sent a screenshot of it to the buyer and cancelled the sale. 

Minutes later, Nichols says, she received an email confirming an e-transfer for $1,250 to someone she didn't know. 

"The shock and then the tears, and then I immediately ... started having a panic attack," she said.

Fraudsters 'very good at it': RCMP

As a student who works part time, Nichols says the financial loss was significant for her. That sum was more than half of her rent and almost her entire biweekly pay cheque. 

Nichols posted about her ordeal on a local Facebook group. Some people responded to say the same thing had nearly happened to them, or someone they knew. 

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has also issued an alert warning people of these types of scams. It says fraudsters have been known to send fake emails to websites that then steal people's banking information so they can access their accounts in what is known as a phishing scam. 

RCMP Const. Monika Terragni says this is the third case of its kind in the Comox Valley so far this year. 

"The fraudsters and the scammers that are out there right now, they do this for a living and they're very, very good at it," Terragni told CBC News. 

"They're making it better and better to convince people to click these links and to provide their information." 

Slow down, or meet in person

Terragni recommends that people slow down before accepting an e-transfer and take their time to verify that everything is legitimate. 

If that's not possible, she recommends meeting in person in a public place and only accepting cash. 

"I think people should keep in mind as well when they're doing those Facebook transactions and they're on Marketplace, that sometimes legitimate Facebook accounts actually do get hacked," she said.

"So it can appear to be legitimate. It can appear to be that person that's been on Facebook since 2008."

As for Nichols, she's working with her landlord to pay her rent in instalments. She says she's not sure what else she could have done differently, and now she wants to warn people so they don't go through the same thing. 

"I don't want anybody else to go through this," Nichols said. "I don't think there's enough protection for us out there."