Fake banking apps make scamming a breeze

Harry appeared on BBC Radio Bristol on 17th April 2025 to discuss the BBC's investigation into seller scams. Read more here.

Ever sold something in the classifieds or, if you were born after 1985, on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree? Someone turns up at your door to pick up your old Playstation or gold necklace or underused drill then comes the awkward British feeling of "can I have my money please?

With cash, it feels grubby but you can at least hold it in your hands. But who has £300 in cash lying around? And so an in-person bank transfer is offered - the buyer using the mobile app to wire you the money in real time.

Except while the buyer claims to have sent the money, your phone hasn't given you the exciting ping that says "you have more money than you did this morning". But "don't worry", says the buyer, "my bank's always a bit slow - but look, you can see the money's left my account". You look at the phone and see something a bit like this:

"Prank" banking app screen.

But don't handover that X-Box just yet! It's now easier than ever for scammers to "fake" a bank transfer with one of dozens of fake apps available online. These are frequently removed from the official app stores but 10 seconds on Google will find you third-party app stores that are awash with dodgy apps.

These promote themselves as "prank" tools - but I can't imagine there's quite so many Ashton Kutcher wannabes out there to make that purpose worth the effort of development.

These apps basically give you full control to say how much you've transferred and to whom, as well as providing a thorough "legend" - plenty of existing account transactions to sell the story.

In short, don't trust what you see on someone else's phone. It's like someone drawing a picture of a fiver and saying "here's your cash".

Ideally, use services like eBay for local selling. But if you want to rely on sites like FB Marketplace, insist on transactions taking place via Paypal (NOT the Friends and Family mode). There are extra fees but it's worth it for the extra protections that you AND the buyer get.