paypal for craigslist items?

earlygirl
Contributor
Contributor

I listed some stuff on craigslist, and the buyer wanted to pay via paypal. I said I would set up an auction on ebay for her to purchase the items, and that I don't deal directly with craigslist buyers via paypal. She ignored what I said, and said she deposited into my account via paypal using the email address I'd been corresponding with her.

 

I did not click on the link that supposedly came from Paypal confirming the transaction, but logged in separately. The funds do seem to be there, but I'm still leery and POd that she disregarded my request - I've heard of tons of scams like this from "buyers" on craigslist. It's also taking me 3-5 tries now to log into Paypal, which seems weird. Any advice?

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15 REPLIES 15

dswb
New Community Member

I am having the exact same thing with a potential buyer. She has told me that the money has already been deducted from her account and wants me to send a western union to her shipping company to release the full balance of the funds. There is no pending transaction in my paypal account nor any activity. I have told her that the transaction is over and to kindly not contact me again. She has ignored that request and contacted me again. Think this one is a scam.

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

HI earlygirl and dswb, and welcome to the forums!

 

It sounds like your instincts are serving you well here. Taking steps to safeguard yourself in a transaction is highly important. When the circumstances don't feel right, go with your gut.

 

If a buyer asks you to send money back to them via Western Union, I would recommend strongly against it. If you ever find yourself in a position to need to refund a transaction, you can click the refund link in your PayPal account. This creates a record of the refund, so you are not held responsible for the money later if there is a dispute.

 

Read here to learn more about Seller Protection, and what's necessary to protect yourself.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Olivia

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terryfree
Contributor
Contributor

i am a seller on craiglist to and i have been dealing with a couple of weird transactions. when the buyers suposaly  pay the funds do not show up in my account but i recieve a email from paypal saying that the buyer paid and the funds are gonna be accredited to my account when i ship the item and send the tracking number. is this a scam?  

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sandypurins
Advisor
Advisor

@terryfree wrote:

i am a seller on craiglist to and i have been dealing with a couple of weird transactions. when the buyers suposaly  pay the funds do not show up in my account but i recieve a email from paypal saying that the buyer paid and the funds are gonna be accredited to my account when i ship the item and send the tracking number. is this a scam?  


Yes... it is most definitely a scam!

 

The "payment received" email message didn't come from PayPal... it came from the scamming buyer who is trying to trick you into shipping your merchandise.

 

~Sandy

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dezeldog
Contributor
Contributor

Is this person from Nigeria by chance??  Same thing is happening to me right now!  I am so glad I checked with the community first...have never had this issue. Not shipping anything without the money in my account and transferred into my bank account!!

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ladyluck2blue
Member
Member

Just had the same thing happen yesterday!!! didn't send my own money thankfully!!

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myavaz
Contributor
Contributor

It's a scam don't do it.  I have already been down that road.  There is no shipping company,  it is just away to get the money then close the account.  I was alomost taken and before funds were deposited I spoke to my bank.

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi earlygirl,

 

I answered the first part of your question in my other post, but I'd like to help with the second part. When you say it's taking 3-5 tries to log into PayPal, I'm not exactly sure what you mean. What error are you getting when you try to log in?

 

Please let us know so the Community can help!

 

Olivia

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earlygirl
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Olivia,

 

For some reason when I wrote my original post, I was getting repeated errors when trying to log into PayPal. Once I was able to successfully log in,  I ended up changing my password and email address just to be safe. Like I posted earlier, something just didn't seem right with this transaction.

 

For the record, the transaction ended up being legitimate (the buyer did send me funds). I still don't like that the buyer disregarded my request not to send funds directly to my Paypal account, because I've heard of numerous scams being perpetrated this way on Craigslist. I received a confirmation of the funds deposit from Paypal (and she sent more than the agreed-upon amount), but that came from the buyer's email account and not from PayPal, and it contained a link supposedly to PayPal for "more information" or whatever. I did not click on that link. I did log into my account directly to see that the funds had been deposited, and called customer service just to doublecheck. I'm also logging into my account daily to make sure that any activity is activity that I've initiated.

 

Thanks for everyone's responses - I appreciate them!

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