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

[Julie28]

BEWARE OF THIS CHIEUN <removed> PERSON. I see that you posted this on Januuary 2011. I advertised a truck on Craigslist and got that exact message word for word. Today is June 15, 2011. So this person his been trying this dirty trick for a while. I almost fell for it and set up paypal to accept his payment. Thankfully I called paypal to ask how to do it and to ask if there was any risk. And thankfully the guy I talked to warned me about these scams. I typed the creeps name in google and found this site. Thank you guys for posting this!

[PayPal_Olivia]

---

@StupidDave wrote:

but she isn't too fond of the icon PayPal gave me.

---

That's easy enough to fix, if you'd like. Look in the upper right-hand area of this page, and click Preferences under your settings. Then choose the tab marked "Avatar" and you can change your image there.

Olivia

[Lillith]

It's good to know you're not alone, eh? I posted a propane water heater for sale and a 'Peter' contacted - a petroleum engineer with little time, who would have to send his courier to pick up and blah blah. Then....

"I have forwarded your address to my shipping company so they can calculate the pick up and delivery cost for me to make the payment. I'm sure they will contact you soon. I would like you to know that the payment will be made via PayPal because is fast and secured to send and received money online, All you have to do is send me your PayPal full Name and email address so I can make the payment immediately Also get back to me with your phone number so that i can Notify you via Text Once have made the payment.

Hope to hear back from you asap.

Best Regard

Peter"

...I had had doubts but thought I'd assume it was genuine up to this point but at this point I thought, hang on a minute this feels phoney to me...i finally told him it's cash only and there's no sale till the cash is in my bank account.  I was surprised to hear anything more - he/she/it wrote again, saying that it would have to be paypal because he didn't have a credit card over here yet (?) and so on, and I wrote back 'cash only'.  Exit "Peter".  I don't know precisely the scam he was pulling, but I'm so glad I never gave him any paypal details...who knows what he might have managed to do with them.

Another odd thing that happened to me on Craigslist  for which I could never figure out the motivation.  Someone wrote pretending to be interested in buying, then kept sending unconvincing excuses why she couldn't make it - she had a  flat tire, lots of apologies etc, till I realized it was just some prankster...meanwhile, I had found a buyer elsewhere.  Some instinct told me not to write saying, 'I know you're phoney' but to write politely saying it has been sold elsewhere.  No need to get into a confrontation of any kind with this idiot.  Esp as she had my street address.  But I just don't understand why she/he/it wanted to waste time in this way! a good laugh, I suppose, for a bored idiot.  

Stay safe, everyone.

[stm_sandiego]

yes, accept cash up front only

[monalisa1753]

I was contacted by a marine engineer.  wanting to buy my boat off craigs list.  he wanted me to wire money to his agent in the amount of 950 dollars and sent me a paypal message stating money was there and waiting for me to send this amount to his agent for pick up first. The boat was suppose to be for his father.  I informed him that I was not sending anything until I recieved payment.  His paypal message looked real until I read it over and clicked on links that did not exist ... he is still writiing me in hopes I will send him the money.  Why isn't there a way to catch these people ???

[dave357]

All of these sound just like that deal I got. Break it off tell them to call you if they what to continue. If no call they are scammers. Send them emails calling them every name you can think of. The one I really like is:

May the fleas of a thousand camels invade your left arm pit.

Perhaps if we all start sending that the scammers will see that we have them figured out and they will go away. Don't forget to send all the scammers email to spoof@paypal.com this allows paypal to lock down their accounts and maybe save someone else from loosing money.

[BurgdyRose]

I posted BB for $250.. Within 8 hours I received 2 emails... SAME scenario... OUT of town Use PAYPAL will send extra money for shipping... I am NOT SURE HOW they can scam through PAYPAL... But this IS A SCAM!.

MY QUESTION: ... How does that scam WORK.. How can they use PAYPAL to scam???.. AND HOW TO AVOID that scam? 

I HAVE used PAYPAL for the buyer to PAY in advance & physically pickup ITEM sold several days or a week later.  I had no problem.  COULD THERE BE A PROBLEM WITH THAT TYPE TRANSACTION?????  

[Lucky7_Deals]

To BurgdyRose, anyone who has comitted identity theft can open up a PayPal account in the victim's name, especially if they have also acquired the victim's credit card and bank account info. They can then easily run a scam buying items and charging it to the victim who may not even be aware that their good name is being soiled.

Also, PayPal has certain rules and guidelines that need to be followed if a seller wants to be protected under PayPal policy. One such rule is, they need to ensure that on any given transaction, they are eligible for seller protection. When you are logged in to your PayPal account, and click on a payment's detail page, it will tell you on the upper section of that page whether or not you are eligible for seller protection in regards to that specific transaction. If you're not, and you choose to go through with the transaction anyway, then you are taking a big risk. Because, this means that the buyer hasn't provided enough info. to PayPal to verify their account, and that they may infact be a scammer. So by sending an item to this buyer, you are risking losing it, as the buyer may turn out to be unauthorized, and PayPal could later on take away the money that the buyer sent you and give it to it's rightful owner. There are other rules as well, such as transactions $250 and over require you the seller to also get a signature confirmation from the buyer upon delivery of the product. If you fail to do this, then again this may result in you being scammed if the buyer files a claim against you and it turns out that you didn't follow the necessary rules to protect yourself. So always make sure that you are eligible for seller protection when dealing through PayPal, and follow all of their rules to the letter. Ship only to the registered or confirmed address that appears on the transaction details page, and remeber to use a shipping service with tracking data that will show delivery all the way to the point of destinattion.

As for your last question regarding whether or not a person who pays through PayPal in advance, and picks up the item at a later time is a scammer... well, the answer is maybe or maybe not. You'll know this soon enough after the transaction, if they happen to file an item not received (INR) claim against you! As I've already stated throughout my posts in this topic, PayPal needs to see tracking data that shows delivery has taken place to the buyer's registered/confirmed address in order to protect the seller from an INR claim. So a would-be scam artist buyer will pick up the item from you, but then file an INR claim against you to get their money back through PayPal.

[Lucky7_Deals]

To all those who have posted here since the OP, wondering if you too are being scammed or not... just keep this fact in mind about the PayPal seller protection policy:

If you are a seller selling actual physical goods, and you are paid through PayPal, you must be able to provide proof of delivery (i.e. a shipment tracking number) showing that the item was shipped and delivered to the buyer's registered (and in many cases confirmed) PayPal address, in order to fend off any item not received (INR) claims and/or chargebacks from the buyer.

So if you get a proposition where someone wants to pay through PayPal, but pick up the item in person, tell them no you don't want to be paid through PayPal, and insist on a cash payment when they come by to pick up the item.

[ezeuba]

No one would buy something with a paypal account and ask you to ship to Nigeria. This is due to the fact that Nigeria does not enjoy any paypal services. Chances are that it is a phished account or the buyer is not genuine and will never pay. If I want to buy from ebay and send to Nigeria, there are a few options open to me, but never any of the above scenarios. I could use a package forwarder; who would in this case receive only goods I have paid for or make sure I pay before they would even use their personal shopper service, in the event I do not have a payment system accepted by the seller.

Be wary of buyers who say they are somewhere and ask you to ship elsewhere. What is the cost of international shipping anyway that they cannot receive it where they are and send on to Nigeria if they want? Just be vigilant.