A mum has been left devastated after a sale she had arranged through Facebook Marketplace went wrong.

Sian Elliot was about to sell her iPhone 14 for £450 when her buyer snatched it from her hand as she stood at the doorstep to her home in Gillingham.

Ring doorbell footage caught the thief walking towards her house in Corporation Road and moments later running away again on Parr Avenue and towards Knight Avenue.

The mother-of-three had agreed to sell the phone after posting it on the social media site on Saturday evening.

Unlike other sites such as Etsy and eBay, the network is free of listing charges and fees, and Sian says she has used it many times before.

The man responded to her post on Sunday morning asking to buy the phone and said he would pick it up that afternoon.

Sian said: “He gave me updates on how long he would be. When he got here, he said he could not see where I was so I came outside.”

At 2.48pm she stepped into her front garden with her daughter Hallie.

The 29-year-old said: “He appeared out of the shadows, grabbed the phone and ran off with it.

“It happened outside my house in front of my 5-year-old screaming daughter.

“He must have been waiting and hiding somewhere."

Sian described the man as black, in his late teens to early twenties. He was wearing a black North Face tracksuit with the hood up.

A police spokesman confirmed inquiries are ongoing.

Sian, who says she has never had an issue with Facebook Marketplace before, wants to warn others to be wary of similar situations.

She added: “My rent’s increased and I just thought it would be good to have some extra money for my children’s Christmas presents.

“I just want people to be aware of these kinds of incidents – I always considered myself to be careful but there was nothing suspicious about this.”

Sian says the man had an ordinary profile picture and they had agreed he would make a bank transfer on the doorstep if he was satisfied with the phone.

Facebook Marketplace was launched in 2016 as a space dedicated to users buying and selling items directly through the social media network.

According to the company, by 2021 more than one billion people worldwide were using it each month.

But in more recent years the platform has garnered a reputation for attracting scammers.

This summer, KentOnline reported another Facebook Marketplace scam where a man conned victims out of thousands of pounds with fake listings.

Ashford-based Thomas Hopkins asked for money upfront for homemade carpentry products, but would never deliver the goods.

The fake sales of sheds and garden furniture were used to fund his cocaine and gambling addiction.

Last year, another woman also fell victim to a scam on the platform when a buyer faked a bank transfer in return for her iPhone.

The Rochester resident was fooled after a supposed bank transfer for payment proved to be not real.

She later said that she believed that the man had used a fake banking app

The social media giant, owned by Meta, has guidance on using the selling site. It says: “Scams come in different forms, so it's important to know what scams are and how to recognise them when buying and selling on Marketplace.”

“If you see any signs of suspicious activity, immediately cancel the transaction, report the listing or person, and call the local authorities if necessary.”

The social media giant says phishing, buyer, seller and listing scams all take place on their platform.

For those collecting or buying in person, Facebook recommends arranging the meeting in a public, well-lit area and to share the meeting plan with a trusted friend or family member through Facebook Messenger.