How to arrange an online sale without sharing your real number

Selling something secondhand is mostly fine until one moment: you’ve found a genuine buyer, and to arrange the handover you swap phone numbers. That is when your personal mobile ends up in a stranger’s phone, where it can be saved, shared, or used to find your other accounts, and where unwanted texts can keep arriving for months after the item is gone.

Keep first contact on the platform

You don’t need to give out a number to field enquiries. Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and eBay all have their own built-in messaging, so keep the early back-and-forth there. Most timewasters and scammers never get past that stage, and your real details are never involved.

Swap a FenceChat number, not your mobile

When a buyer is genuine and you need to coordinate pickup, payment or delivery, give them a FenceChat number instead of your mobile. You add the buyer as a contact, so their texts come through to you, filtered. Because only the people you add can reach your FenceChat number, random strangers and spam can’t get through at all, and your real mobile is never exposed. This is how FenceChat’s private relay works.

Why this protects you afterwards

Once the item is gone, you are not left with a stranger holding your real number. And if a buyer turns pushy or abusive when you decline an offer or a sale falls through, the hostile content is filtered before you read it, the practical part still reaches you, and every message is kept with a timestamp as a record.

Good habits for selling

• Keep initial enquiries in the platform’s own chat; don’t post any personal number publicly.
• Share your FenceChat number only once you’ve found a real buyer and need to arrange the handover.
• Add the buyer as a contact so their texts come through, then keep pickup and payment arrangements in writing.
• Remember the record is automatic if a buyer becomes abusive or a sale goes wrong.