Help

[Zermott]

New to PayPal. Have some nice furniture on Craigslist in my area and an offer to purchase with a buyer that will pay only with PayPal and claims to add money for his shipper to my asking price. Any red flags here? Thanks for your advice.

[kernowlass]

@Zermott

 A TYPICAL PAYPAL SCAM.

They encourage you to use paypal.

They will wait till you agree and then say they need to send a courier to collect the item.

You will then get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't.

It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.

They will tell you in the spoof email that they have paid you extra and you must pay the shipping agent via western union / moneygram BEFORE the funds are released to you.

They are not interested in the item, they just want the western union etc funds and you will never see money in your paypal balance.

They also threaten legal action...have a laugh at that one and ignore it as its rubbish.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.

Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service.

[Zermott]

Is there a way to bust this guy if he's not legitimate? Go along with it until I recognize these PayPal scam steps? Appreciate your help.

[Zermott]

Tried to call him. The number is to text me, a free text and calling app.

[kernowlass]

@Zermott

He may not even be in your country,  they use hijacked ebay etc addresses and email accounts and throw away phones.

You can't report him on paypal as none of the transaction would be done using paypals site.

[Zermott]

Thank you very much for your replies. This character fits your scammer profile to the T.

[kernowlass]

@Zermott

Glad i got back from shopping and decided to log on then  

[Zermott]

Me, too. Funny, he's still trying to pull this off, in broken English in his texts.