Here’s a scam that savvy travelers need to watch out for. The internet, and especially Facebook Marketplace, has exploded with deals offering to sell unclaimed luggage and all of its contents at a deep discount – think $10. Sometimes they say it’s for charity, other times the $10 even includes shipping, but it’s too good to be true and these offers are not real.
Is this not absolutely INSANE??
omg. pic.twitter.com/IjJBAMO5ei
— ꨄ (@TeaghanIris) December 27, 2023
There’s an online account that claims to be Dallas – Fort Worth airport,
Dallas Fort Wоrth Internatiоnal Airport ✈️ Sales start in 2023! The airport warеhouse is being urgently emptied, and all luggage left unattended for more than six months will be sold. They are legally recyclable, but we’re running a charity event and offering them for just 9.95$
People are creating fake accounts on Facebook in order to sell through Facebook marketplace. They indicate some connection to an airport (using myriad different airports). Airports don’t generally have ‘lost luggage sales’ in any case. Sometimes they claim that airport lost and found needs the free up space. But lost luggage is generally handled by the airline.
There is an unclaimed baggage store which buys unclaimed bags, usually held for a minimum of 90 days. The Unclaimed Baggage Center has built a monopoly in the niche business of selling used items out of luggage.
The store is in Scottsboro, Alabama. They buy bags sight unseen. They comb through the bags to find what to sell, and claim to dry clean clothing they plan to sell and wipe electronics before making those available. The store is a tourist attraction.
They’ve recovered moose antlers, wedding rings, and even Rolex watches as well as “a suit of armor, a 40-carat emerald, a Chinese dragon kite and a puppet created at Henson’s Creative Workshop.” Once in awhile customers have come in and found their own stuff which has been forfeited. (They’ve likely already received payment from the airline or a credit card, and it’s considered abandoned in any case.)
You can search their inventory online, buying phones, luggage, jewelry, someone else’s bikinis.
But airports are not going on Facebook Marketplace to sell suitcases full of clothing and electronics for pennies.
(HT: Golden Rule Travel)
It’s safe to assume that anything advertised on Facebook is a scam.
Unclaimed luggage is usually a disappointment for some unlucky travelers. It is usually not that the traveler did not want what they put in their luggage and did not want the luggage itself but rather the luggage was not labeled sufficiently to match it with a traveler or that the airline did not do a good job of having it available when the traveler came looking for it.
These have been doing the rounds for nearly all of 2023 including marketplace and supposed official Facebook advertising.
It’s a scam! Simple as that
However, as one contributer said about all marketplace items are a scam. They not. I’ve managed to sell some unwanted items from a Panasonic camera to well worn Levi 501s – my rules – cash on collection only. Etc.
A buddy of mine got married in Huntsville, AL, so I made a side trip to the unclaimed baggage store in Scotsboro. It was pretty interesting. I bought a couple of new shirts with their tags.
I’ve visited the store in AL a couple of times, but never found anything good, except the excellent banana cake in their cafe 🙂 (Off topic, but I think that AL in general is a great state to tourist in. It probably makes my top 5 US states to visit, having visited all several times.)
There are tons of these ads on Facebook.
Facebook could easily block them, but that would negatively impact their ad revenue.
https://brothke.medium.com/facebook-doesnt-care-about-fraud-a9273d55c905?sk=6c6a5bb2ec998ef42570b1894da26fda
Thank you for this. Just saw an ad on Facebook just as you mentioned: Lost luggages for $9.95! It smelled too good to be true and when I searched, I found your article. Thanks for the confirming that it is a scam!