Does Paypal ask me to send money via Moneygram before I receive my payment?

[Felix0201]

Good Afternoon,

I tried to sell my Minivan via Craigslist in Toronto and got a reply from a guy, who said he's in San Antonio and he would like to buy the Car. After a couple of messages he told me he would transfer the payment onto my paypal account including the money for a hauling agency he assigned.
Now he wants me to transfer 950$ (the amount he paid more than my price was) via MoneyGram. The money wont appear in my paypal account before I transfer the money.

The whole story is very suspicious, he didn't ask anything about the car, why would he buy a car that's located in Toronto and ship it to San Antonio? And his whole writing was kind of... weird.

Do you think he's a Scammer? I found 2 links in this forum and both confirm my suspicion...

Here are screenshots of the mail: 

http://www.pic-upload.de/gal-831693/d19pfc/1.html

I hope you can help me with this one, I'm no english native speaker and I really don't know what to do. Does anyone think I should also talk to the police?

I'd appreciate your answers, best Greetings,
Felix

[sharpiemarker]

@fernandezz831, you got scammed.  They are milking you dry.  Do not send anymore money!  

You are the seller, why are you paying? The buyer is supposed to pay you first and then you ship the item.  Have you never ordered anything online and know how it all works?  The merchant who is selling, requires you to pay first before they send your order.

You're not going to get your money back either. Once you send money with Western Union or MoneyGram, that's it.  It's gone. Since there was no PayPal transaction, you are not eligible for seller protection.  PayPal will never ask you to use Western Union or MoneyGram.  Scammers do.  When you see "ship to Nigeria" or "I'm working out if town or country so send payment for shipping carrier first, blah blah, blah."

Electronics, smart phones are high risk for scams too.

[fernandezz831]

It the first time I've sold anything online. So the first person that offered me the most i fell for it and accepted to what he offered me. At first i thought it was a good offer because i sold my iPod for $250 and he offered me $375 which included shipping to "Nigeria". Then my friend told me maybe it's a trap. But i ignored them. So i went along with him and kept paying. Now i realize it too late and i know there is no way i will recover my money. But i believe God will make justice. Thank you so much!! 🙂

[lancelotme]

why are you sending them money when they told you the phone did not arrive in Nigeria?

how did they pay you ?

Did they use Paypal?

[sharpiemarker]

I don't see anything in his explanation that he received any payment, only him paying out.

[WipedOut]

I still find it so hard to believe anyone in their right mind could still be falling for these scams.  

[fernandezz831]

I into know. They said the item did not arrive and that i needed to pay to the post office in Nigeria to deliver it to his cousin's house. So i paid so they can "complete" the transaction. 😞

[jsancen90]

Hello this is currently happening to me too. I jsut shipped an iPhone earlier today and now they are asking for a money gram but i stopped right there it sounded very suspicious to me.  I was wondering did you ever receive yor iphone back? That's all i'm worried about at the moment since it's a $500 phone... I can't believe I fell for this.

[sharpiemarker]

You are the seller.  The buyer pays you and you ship.  You do not pay anyone but the post office with shipping money the buyer provides. That is it.  No record of money in PayPal account, no talk.  Also note, smart phones are a magnet for these types of scams.  Check with the shipping carrier for any recall service.  USPS has one for $11 and I think UPS has one too.

[fernandezz831]

Do you think I can at least recover my iPod back? They told me its been shipped to Nigeria. And what do you mean by contacting UPS? What can they do?

[sharpiemarker]

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@fernandezz831 wrote:
Do you think I can at least recover my iPod back? They told me its been shipped to Nigeria. And what do you mean by contacting UPS? What can they do?

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However way you shipped out the iPod is my point. If u shipped by UPS, they may have a recall service.  If you shipped iPod by USPS tell them to recall the shipment.