Hi everyone!
I am new to this community but the reason I joined is because I do not want anyone else becoming a victim of scams and phishing. On 01/07/2017, I received a text message from an individual (phone#: [Removed due to privacy concerns] asking if I still had a certain item available for sale. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY if this "buyer" starts making up sentences like "I'm in Europe for a conference", "I am currently out of state having cancer surgery", "I am in Africa but would like to purchase this for my cousin", etc. You will know that it is a scam if they are overly persistent about the transaction - they will text you constantly asking if you had gotten so and so done. PLEASE BE AWARE of emails coming from ones not verified to be safe. These phishing/scamming emails will almost always have incorrect grammer, punctuation, and spelling. They are hard to miss if you are skimming over the email and not reading it carefully.
This individual told me to send the package to someone in Mississippi. I received an email from the invalid PayPal email stating that $350 has been transferred to my account - I was naive and did not check my account before shipping out the package. He then goes on saying that the amount has been deducted from his account and to send it FedEx/USPS only. Keep in mind, they are SUPER PERSISTENT and will keep following up with you and will call/text you if you do not reply within a matter of a few minutes. So continuing on, the account of $350 was still not in my account and I receive another email stating that my credit of $350 is on hold and that my PayPal account is not a business user which makes my account have a limit and that $350 is above my limit...this is where things started getting strange. The scammer texts back and says that he/she has called PayPal and has taken care of everything, saying this has happened to them before when they were in Europe. Do not, do not, do not listen to them when they ask you to send money through MoneyGram or Western Union.
Gist of the story is...I had already sent my package and sent in a package intercept request through USPS probably after 4 hours after being sent and USPS's package intercept is just a whole new 'nother post. I luckily got in contact with a customer service representative at USPS (I know it's difficult to get a hold of one) and they assured me that they got into contact with the post office in Mississippi to have my package not delivered and to be sent back to me immediately. I have reported the scammer's email to PayPal, but that's all I could do on my end.
I hope this helps someone or anyone out there. Please do not let yourself become a victim as I did. This was my first time ever getting scammed/phished - lesson learned.
