A woman has been left upset after a Facebook marketplace sale turned out to be fraudulent.

On Monday evening, Natalie Langford, of St. John's Way, Borstal, got a message from a man on Facebook who was interested in buying her iPhone 11 she had for sale.

She originally bought it for £899 directly from Apple, but accepted his offer of £250, after it was originally listed for £280, and he arranged to pick it up in the evening.

Natalie said: "When he arrived, he looked over the phone and then got his phone out and asked where to transfer money to.

"He handed me his phone and asked me to put my details in so they were entered correctly, then showed me his screen saying it had been transferred."

She checked her account and saw the money had not yet gone in, and after waiting a few minutes she told him she was not happy for him to leave before the payment had been confirmed on her end.

She said: "The man started Googling bank transfer times and showed me a screen that stated after 10pm would be next working day as he was transferring from building society to bank, and the transaction was made at 10:03pm.

"He apologised for being late and getting lost making this difficult, and he told my husband Wayne and I that he had payment reference from his bank which we could take down and any problems we could let him know in morning – foolishly, we let him go."

After the man left, she had a gut feeling and contacted her bank, who told her there was not a transaction pending.

She now believes that he could have used a fake banking app, after a woman on Facebook made the suggestion, which would have allowed the man to pretend to transfer the money

She has since messaged and called him several times, but has received no reply. One of her neighbours has provided her with CCTV footage, which she has forwarded on to police.

She said: "I am so upset as the money from the sale of the phone was to treat our daughters Kaisha and Ava-Mai to some days out and to pay towards school uniforms in the last couple of weeks of school holidays, it's sad how dishonest some people are."

She was advised by police to report the incident to Action Fraud.

Pauline Smith, head of action fraud confirmed that they have received the report, and it is currently being assessed by the City of London Police's National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.