Examples of Suspected Fraud or Fake Emails

[PayPal_Andy]

Hey Everybody!

In an effort to make things easier to find and research, I'm going to consolidate as many threads as possible where we have examples of people trying to defraud hard working sellers (Craigslist emails, 'PayPal' emails asking you to send money outside of PayPal, etc).  This will also be used as a master thread for future posts regarding this same situation.

When you post your examples here, please remember to not include last names or contact information of whoever is sending these emails.  There's no way to confirm if that person has been defrauded as well and the name is being used fraudulently.

Thanks for your cooperation and remember, keep the conversation productive, on task, and above all, keep it clean. I know these things can be difficult and frustrating, but bleep filled posts or posts that look like government redacted files will never benefit anyone. 😄

Andy

[fantasyquill]

Same thing, but this one is on an "offshore rig" and wants it mailed to California.  So it's not just the overseas scamming.  Anyway, I've already had one scammer try to scam with a fake cashier's check.  Here they want you to cash the check for more than what you are asking, pay "their" shipper and keep the extra they add for the inconvenience.  Many days later, your bank will reverse the funds finding the check to be a fraudulent check.  These guys even were using a CHURCH bank account.  Contacted the church and they confirmed it was a scam, so I reported them and sent all the documents and fake check to the church.  Hope they find these people.

But I am wondering... doesn't paypal verify funds before they allow someone to pay you with them?  Can they pay you through paypal then get the money back or paypal find it is fraudulent and you are left with nothing?  OR are these guys just SAYING they pay, hope you go ahead and ship, and then nothing... Also, I noticed in the reply, they change their email address each time I correspond with them... just corresponding for fun at this point.  NOT falling for this and I would NEVER send an item until CASH or verified funds are already there and determined good.

[thefruit016]

"ok no problem i will be paying you with my PayPal account because it's attached to my bank account and its safe and very secure way to make payment. If my mode of payment is accepted just send me your paypal email address,(Paypal ID) so i can pay in right away. Make sure you get back to me so that i can make the payment. I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after payments has been made, so no shipping included. And if you dont have a paypal account, you can easily go to www.paypal.com and sign up. its very easy. I await your reply asap"

I got this the other day as I am trying to sell a truck on craigslist..Seems fishy to me..? I then asked him for a name and etc. and he replied with just an address, no name...

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi all,

I'm glad you're all on the ball and scrutinizing these circumstances closely before getting tangled up in them. Adrian's advice applies to each one of the situations described here. Nigerian check scams are not the only way that scammers operate on Craigslist, but they are a large portion of them. 

Remember that if a stolen bank account or credit card is used and it is discovered later, or if a buyer claims that an item has not been received, PayPal will absolutely protect the seller from loss - but only with online tracking that shows delivery to the address given in the transaction details. If the value is over $250, that delivery confirmation also has to include signature confirmation. Hand delivery does not satisfy this requirement, so you would be left holding the bag. Does that mean you should never sell to local buyers and take PayPal? That's up to you, but there is definitely a greater amount of risk to consider with hand-delivery. If you know the buyer well or have other good reasons to trust them, you may feel comfortable taking some risk. If your gut is telling you to be wary, it would be wise to listen.

 Olivia

[Bean2010]

I rec. this same e-mail word for word. It def sounded weird to me so I told her if you are seriously and this is legit please call me and we can work out details.  I figure if she won't talk on the phone at all that's an indication also that this is a scam.

[liuchess]

If you're not comfortable with it don't do it.

For $500+ PayPal transactions or more that aren't covered by PayPal seller protection means you have to protect yourself. This means getting the person's phone number, email verification, home address, and possibly even a photo ID and additional credentials. You shouldn't accept PP from anyone without talking to an expert first outside of eBay or you will get scammed.

[TetsuodaIronMan]

Yes, someone just offered to buy my iPhone 4 for $550 when I only asked for $450. No wonder they offered $100 more than I asked. Freakin' scam artists.

[christheartist]

My situation sounds similar to dexonu5's, but I posted it in another thread so I won't post it here. I want to sell an Ipod touch on craigslist and I got an e-mail from someone offering me 100 dollars more than I'm asking, it's for their son who was transfered to west Africa, and that payment is being withheld until there is shipping confirmation. I'm not sure what to do though I'm leaning towards thinking it's a scam. I get e-mails from this person asking me to send it as soon as possible, and that they've been scammed before, that's why they are doing it this way/ I've checked my account using the e-mail I supposedly got from Paypal and nothing is coming up. I have other interested buyers so I'd like to figure this out as soon as possible. Thanks for the help.

[alan6200]

there's so much scams coming out of africa, I just would do business with anyone that even mentioned africa.

[antiscammer]

its a scam absolutely one hundred percent, received the exact same thing investigated the ip address and found out this is a very commonplace scam. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SEND THAT ITEM. what a bunch of **bleep** eh?

[dotrosecrans]

May have someone using my account was a product of identity theft a few years ago but did not change my soc sec # or drivers lic. number or name what should I do this person has taken money off my debt card several times and they think it's me!???