Police are warning people to keep their wits about them when buying shipping containers.

A new scam is circulating offering shipping containers for sale on Facebook Marketplace and some community pages on social media.

The scammers are offering delivery at an additional cost, and will even offer cheaper delivery if you “buy now”, says a police spokesperson.

"The only problem being….there are no shipping containers.

"And the scammer will likely have blocked you or deactivated their Facebook account by the time you realise you’ve been scammed."

There are a number of steps you can take to protect yourselves from scammers when buying items via social media: 

• Insist on meeting in person so you can inspect the item for sale before you make a payment to someone you don’t know.

• Do not deposit money into another person’s account before you have received the item.

• Learn more about the person you are buying from – on Marketplace you can tap on a person’s profile on the product listing page to see if you have any friends in common, their marketplace activity, and any ratings they may have received.

• Trust your instincts – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

"If you are the victim of a scam, please do report it to Police – we can only investigate if we know about it, and it’s important that these offenders are held to account for their actions."

Reports can be made via 105 – either by phone, or online at 105.police.govt.nz

Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.