Police would like to speak this man after a series of incidents which have seen users of Facebook Marketplace conned out of money they thought had been sent to their accounts

POLICE are circulating an image of a man they want to speak to in relation to a Facebook fraud.

Officers from the joint Camden and Islington ranks are investigating 13 incidents in which people selling their belongings on the “marketplace” section of the social media site were duped by a conman.

On each occasion, the suspect arranged to buy an item listed for sale and to meet for them to be handed over.

But police said in both a warning to would-be sellers and an appeal to help catch the culprit: “When meeting the sellers in person, the suspect uses a false driving licence and shows fake evidence of a bank transfer that he says he’s made to pay for the items.

“The man then walks away, without paying the sellers, with the items in his possession.”

The items have been grabbed from victims across London and include sought after electronics such as mobile phones, cameras and gaming equipment. Although some of the offences have taken place in Camden, the swindler has given a false address in the West Drayton area and has used the aliases Ben Hudson and Joshua Harris.

The big social media sites have hoovered up the “small ads” which used to largely appear in local newspapers and the now defunct buy-and-sell magazine Loot.

But online users have fallen foul of simple scams when trying to earn extra money by unloading unwanted belongings.

General advice has been to check when the Facebook profile of the apparent buyer was created – alarm bells should ring if it was very recently – and to only accept verified methods of payments.

Anyone who may know the man in the image released by detectives this week or with information that could help the investigation can call 101 quoting ref 5560/26APR. Or to remain anonymous contact Crimestoppers online or call 0800 555 111.