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

[mrcrab]

WARNING SCAMMER TRYING TO BUY A CAR USING PAYPAL:

**email addresses removed**

note: i replace "at" instead of @ for public to view the email address coz the system  doesn't permit email address to be posted

Transport Company  Courier Exchange
		Receiver's Name:Marcus *removed* Add: *removed*

these guys emailed me interested to buy my 1995 nissan maxima, i am from saskatoon,sk,canada.  i believe its a scam they are asking for can$950 to send to their transport company via westernunion.  who in their mind will buy a 16yo car and pay that much for the transport?  thing is, they want me to send it right away!  i am almost thinking to send one but again think think think and think.... dont be scammed!  they need the item why should i be sending the money?  huh huh..... WARNING AGAIN!  DONT BE SCAMMED!

[baakks3]

Couple days ago posted a phone on craigslist for my father. 6 hours later I received an email from martin asking if I still had the item for sale. I replied yes, he responded I would like to offer 355 dollars including for shipping cost. I replied I'd be dumb to refuse this bid since I was asking only 225. Did this did that and when I thought it was too good to be true I called paypal to ask questions. As I was on hold the automated person said to know if the email is fake or not we address you as you're first and last name. All my email's are like this so I thought it was not a scam so I went along with this and ended up shipping out the item to an Nigeria address. I presented paypal with the tracking number cause at tracking.?@post.com 30 minutes later I received an email asking me to scan my sale's receipt and forward it again to the address provided before the money is credited to you're account. THEN I was like wtf ? So then that's when I called paypal customer service once again and was able to talk to a representative. She informed me it was a scam and we never ask for a scanned receipt to confirm the item was shipped. Thank god I was able to recover my item from the post office an hour and 1/2 later 20 minutes before the truck took off. So when you think it's not a scam it is a scam! .... I even emailed him asking why his name does not match to the mailing address and he was like she is my friend who I work with and she is away on business and I'm buying her this phone for her birthday. I will never ever do this sort of thing again buy or sell anything on the web. 

[nme00108]

I was in a similar situation as you. I'm selling my Dell laptop and a person called Elizabeth ****** emailed me saying they were visiting Nigeria on business and wanted to buy my laptop. They said they were going to give me $800. (I'm selling the laptop for $600,) I was about to follow up on the offer, especially since they'd offered me an extra $200. All in all, I kept getting emails from paypal over pending payments. I called them and they said the person was either a scammer or spammer and that I shouldn't follow up with the transaction.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi baakks3 and nme00108, and welcome to the forums!

For further discussion on this topic, please visit this thread:

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Fraud-phishing-and-spoof/The-Nigerian-Email-Scam/td-p/250558

Olivia

[bugsga]

Sight unseen, Iowa shipping agent, must pay agent, claims money is in paypal account.  is this a scam>

[Tpad]

Sounds like it. I got an email from someone claiming they wanted to buy my vehicle but they were out to sea and needed to use Paypal. It was a scam. Go with your gut 🙂

[temp20180326s]

OH, thank you so much for this post! I am glad I am not the only one who thought the "Marine Engineer out at sea buying the car as a surprise for her Dad" was fishy.

How can you have a bank account tied to a paypal account but not have internet access to said bank? anyway, THANK YOU!!

[Scooter3n88]

Am I ever glad I came into the community!!!  I just thought something was odd about someone wanting to buy my item off Craigslist sight unseen and he was out to sea, and he was buying it for his son as a surprise!  Just didn't sound right to me at all.

I had been corresponding with this person via email and finally asked the person for full contact information, when not at sea, agent/company coming to pick it up and references.  Have yet to hear back, but he requested I set up a PayPal account so the monies could transfer.  Me not being so trusting said I didn't have one.  (Actually forgot I did). 

So what is the purpose of this scam?  What happens?  etc. Just for future info would like to know.  Do they pay with false credit card?  Do they actually pick the item up?  Just why are they doing it?

Thanks!!!

[Austinwae]

I believe the scam comes in place when a request is made for you to pay the shipping fees via western union (WU). Schemer indicates that additional monies are placed in your Paypal account to cover the fees. Check your paypal account? Emails sent fraudulently indicates funds are available, but no funds show up in Paypal.

Schemer may indicate that, you must pay the shipper before funds will get release. Thats the scam. I was told to send monies via WU to:

 Name : Pau  *******

Address : **********

State : Philadelphia .PA 19036
Country : United State.

[Scooter3n88]

As far as the scam goes I have also been told that someone did this - the item was picked up, the money looked like it was going into the account, the purchaser stopped payment, and closed PayPal account leaving the person selling the item with 'nothing'.  No item that they were selling and no money to be had.

Maybe that is something PayPal needs to look into from their end - whether or not the stop payment is legit, why etc., and try to track these people down and get legal action taken against them.  I'm sure there are many people getting taken by scammers when it seems I got two similar emails for the exact item.  One he claimed to be deaf and could only deal by email, however, there is TDDY for that type of communication, and the other stated he was sea merchant out to sea trying to surprise his son.  Both would pay full price immediately. 

Once I asked for complete name, address, contact infor - they disappeared.  One I even went so far as to say we decided against this and there are many scams on Craigslist using PayPal as a cover.  Needless to say not a word from them any more - just silence!