Examples of Suspected Fraud or Fake Emails

PayPal_Andy
Moderator
Moderator

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

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Cubanita1987
Member
Member
Hi I guees im been steel from this guy. Can you tell me if thete a way to get my money back i already spend $1000 beleiving in this guy. I dint know it was a scam. Please letme know if there is a way to get refund for the money i spent.
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chaconraul
Member
Member

Hello,
My name is Raul.  I have a question.  I hope you might help me.  My son is selling his cell phone to someone in Nigeria.  The buyer supposedly has paid for the phone via Pal Pal.  He wants my son to ship the phone, cost of $80.00, and when he ships the phone he then is supposed to present Pay Pal with the tracking number, the funds will then be released by Pay Pal. 
I have told my son to hold off because usually the seller secures the funds then sends the product to the buyer. 
Have you heard of this type of transaction?  Sounds like a scam to me.  What do you think or know?
Thanks in advance.
Raul

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profdata
Frequent Contributor
Frequent Contributor

IT'S A SCAM, DON'T DO IT.  Report the buyer to ebay. 

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lahcen
Contributor
Contributor

just happened to me today man, DONT FALL for it. i posted my bb bold 9780 for sle on facebook market place. somehow for some reason i got emails from 6 people from Florida welling to pay me right away 150 dollars on top of what im asking for. i was all excited and that, but yeah all of them have shipping addresses to nigeria LOL somehow they manage to get paypal to send you a payment confirmation ( spoof) but your actualy account ahould say pending.

anyway i sent them all emails and said i will report you to FBI they like puting people like in places we call jail. guess what they all disappeared and they friend request was canceled too. and btw they all use very casual pictures of white girls to look legit.

so long story short dont fall for it.

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west_coast253
New Community Member

I know this was posted months ago, but I read it and thought wow they scam on here too? I tried to sell my iPhone on craigslist and I received an email from this one nigerian who also wanted to pay about 100 more than asking. Demanded I set up a paypal and do this and that. I soon saw that they wanted to send to Nigeria, which I have known for years that Nigerians are scams. 

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riccardo
Member
Member

This just happened to me. My son put his iPad on craigslist and someone start contacting him that he wanted to buy it and that it'll have the money in a pending account which will be deposited once the item is sent and received.

The request came from someone on behalf of a client in Nigeria!!

They also mentioned that tehy wil contact the local FBI office if they do not receive the item.

 

 

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Mocha01, and welcome to the forums!

 

Thanks for bringing your report here to help others. You may also want to check out [this thread] for more information on the type of scam you are describing.

 

Olivia

If this post or any other was helpful, please enrich the Community by giving kudos to its author, accepting it as a solution, and/or coming back to assist others. Members make this Community great!
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mge0rge
New Community Member

I posted an add on gumtree selling a camera .In seconds i had a few buyers . I started to talk to one of them and agreed to send him the camera and that he will pay the amount that i ask.He gave me an email address i have sent a a request on Paypal ,got the confirmation and everything should have been ok.The next day when i was getting ready to send the item i got an email in the morning rushing me to send the item and that my Paypal account was suspected of fraud.I contacted the buyer and he said he will talk to them and tell them everything is ok .Then i got back and email from Paypal presumably with sincere appologies . It's been more than 10 days sice i sent the items,and i sent them abroad . Then i checked on the internet and found that the buyers name was on a scammers list and a person has posted the exact same email ,word by word ,that i received from the scammer .

 

What should i do now ? How do i conctact paypal about this  ? How do i file a claime ? I tried from Paypal.com but they ask me for a transaction id ,and next to the transaction with this guy there is no transaction id ...i am being scamed with over 1000£ here .. please help !

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catie2
Member
Member

I have had two people from craigslist want me to ship my pathfiner to England.  Wonder why.  The guys say they are marines out on the ship. Pay pal doesn't honor these transactions

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KalmanTyler
Contributor
Contributor

Someone offered to buy an item I am selling. The buyer is international. They asked me to create and invoice, and shortly after the buyer said her account was deducted the amount for the item. A few hours later, I received an e-mail from trackings.centers (at) post.com (without spaces, and with the "at" sign) claiming to be paypal (had paypal logo, security information at bottom, and even addressed me by first and last name) and said my money is secure, but to protect both the seller and buyer, my payment will not be released untill I ship it out, and send them an e-mail with a tracking / confirmation number. It is an extremely expensive item, so of corse I feel somewhat weary on doing this. It seems very unorthadox way of doing it, but if it is true and Paypal is really holding my money, I have no problem on doing this. Has anyone ever heard of Paypal holding funds untill I send a tracking number to ensure it was shipped?


Thanks

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