“Send Me the Code So I Know You’re Real” — the Marketplace Buyer Who Wants Your Number

The message is disarming because it sounds like the sensible thing a cautious person would do. “There are so many scammers on here — I’ll send a code to your number, just send it back so I know you’re real.” Moments later a six-digit code arrives. It looks like exactly what they described.

It is a verification code triggered against your phone number, usually to register a new account in your name — a Google Voice number is the classic, because it gives the scammer a US number to run further frauds through, tied to you rather than to them. The same request is also used to take over an account you already own, where your number is the recovery method.

Nothing about the exchange feels like a scam while it is happening. There is no money involved, no link to click, no urgency beyond the chat. You read out six digits to a stranger who is about to buy your bookshelf, and the cost arrives weeks later as an account you cannot access or a number used in someone else’s fraud.

The rule is simpler than the trick: a code sent to your phone always authorises something on your account. It can never verify anything about someone else, which means there is no honest version of this request — including when it comes from a friend whose account has already been taken.