ok i just got scammed on facebook market place for lead acid batteries? can they be restored ?

Why didn't you test it before he dropped it off. Lessons learnt not to buy machinery from Facebook or buy anything in general.

Are these the kind that have filler caps on top?  Lead Acid implies liquid  electrolyte, and they don't ship batteries with that in them.  Did the directions say you needed to add the acid?  If so, you can get it at auto parts stores.  Read up on how to do it, you can get severely burned, or ruin anything the battery acid touches.

All you can do is bin the batteries and learn from your mistake. If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

The money is gone and it's just too bad. You can try slow charging on an automatic charger that has desulfate function. Good luck, but it sounds like you got taken. Rattling batteries are junk and shoud be safely discarded. Some stores offer a core refund when buying new batteries and the old ones might get you a discount that way on new batteries.

this guy sold me 12 nonfunctioning lead acid batteries

I don't see the problem. You bought nonfunctioning batteries..  You got what you wanted did you not?

You seem to think you can fix them?  That is your fault for not knowing how to do that. They can be fixed when you know how to do that.

You can't report your "stupidity"

Yes, there's plenty of Youtube videos on how to refurbish lead acid batteries.   The general procedure is you filter the liquid inside and remove any scaling that occured. It's not something I would want to do, but you can try.

you may be able to recvoer one or more using a so called 'smart' charger, opne that can desulphate the plates in the battery

but there are no guarantees, the batteries mnay well be to far gone.

see:- https://www.chargingchargers.com/tutorials/battery...

There is no way to "fix" batteries in that condition.   

Take them to a battery rebuilder/recycler 

and turn them in for the value of the lead.    

Any money you can't recover is the price of the lesson learned. 

If these were advertised as used batteries, No, you didn't get scammed.

Advertised as "new", that would depend on if electrolyte was ever added.

Lead acid batteries of suffer sulfation and that can be fixed with a hard charge of high current If they are structurally broken down (bloated cells) all they are worth is the lead content.

If you are going to buy lead acid batteries or any other chemistry of battery, learn about what you are buying.

Past experience: Awful rare to get scammed on FB marketplace, easier on ebay, and Craigslist is haven to scammers.

This is a question to asl Facebook Marketplace, not Yahoo Answers.  We have nothing to do with getting your money back.