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

[rdc1134]

Spoiler

james <removed>? i ve been dealing with him (or should say not) for a couple of days he know has changed his name and trying again.

[cmcghee]

Wow this exact thing is happening to me right now. A guy sent me an email wanting to buy my car off craigslist. He said he will pay the 3200 for the car but before the funds will be transferred into my account I need to send his "shipping agent" $950  via Western Union so he can have them come pick the car up, then $4250 will be transferred into my paypal account. It has been more than 24 hours since I received the first email, then this morning I received another one saying PayPal is still waiting for verification of money sent through western union and if it is not done within the next 24hrs legal action will be taken against my account. I have never used paypal before and am not sure how to take care of this issue.

[PayPal_Adrian]

Cmcghee -

Welcome to the Community!

The communication by the other party are an attempt to pressure you into sending funds via Western Union.  To be clear, PayPal doesn't use Western Union - we only transfer money through our own system. 

The emails you have received are fraudulent and you can effectively ignore them (if they are spamming you, block the email address).  If you would like, you can forward any emails received to spoof@paypal.com for registry with our teams.

Thanks!

Adrian

[Lionlolo]

I had almost the same situation happen to me. I am so upset that someone would do this to someone else. I was very uneasy about sending 900.00 to the shipping agency, for one thing, I don't have the 900.00 to send them. I kept asking the guy to prepay for the shipping and I would gladly accept his payment. He was a scammer all along. Claimed to be a disabled USAF vet and that really makes me mad. I can't stand these people.

[kirbyville3963]

Hi,

I am in the process of possible purchase of a vehicle listed on WWW.classifiedads.com for a 2002 Chevy Impala, woman states it's her late husbands car and has clean title. But wants to use papal for payment. She has moved with mother to ND Bismick or MD Bismick?/ where is that???? Clue #1 or  what? No phone is listed but emailed me back with car info. Please if you know any information on problems with this person...or ad

Ad is as follows: check out  www.classifledads.com/cars-ad15679444.htm

Thanks

[neptunesgirl]

I am selling a table and since it is very expensive ($5,000.00) I knew to be wary of anyone sounding weird by thier emails from the beginning. I got one email and he used the word 'agent' to pick up the table. I did not like the sound of that. Who says that? Anyway, here's the original email sans names:

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"Hi,
      I am interested ,and you should consider it sold .Actually ,I am
buying it for someone and payment would be through PayPal . I am
working in a ship and most of time i am out to sea.So it is an agent
that would be coming  for the pick  up.
     I would be expecting your prompt reply,with the name and the
email address on  your PayPal account so that i could make the payment
asap and  i will appreciate if you could send more pics  as i would
not be seeing it in person  and   pick up should be at a designated
place or  your residence.And lastly , i am offering  additional $ 100
to your final price for you to keep it off from other  offers."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I didn't like his wording. I didn't like the word 'agent'. I didn't like his messy punctuation. What do you all think?? Is this a scammer? Thanks for any/all input!

[lhull]

Yup.  I'd say it's a scammer.  I'm selling an ATV and received a very similar email from Luke *****, who is a marine and always at sea, blah blah blah.... the story is the same.  Don't trust them!

[rikgo412]

This girl/guy exact same thing as the first post I read Said I had to post 950 to western union to release funds.

Sent me an E-mail claiming it was from paypal.Exact same thing as camie1234 Complete with shipping agent.

The only differance eas he wanted me to ship it toTyrone Pensylvania.Seriously wasred alot of my time. Better Than

losing th money.As soon as He said he wanted to buy a boat sight unseen, red flag.So I e-mailed him and told no funds posted and cleared on paypal, no sale.This just happened,today and I was looking how to report it to paypal when I found this site. Any assistance on anything else I need to do would be appreciated.

[minty1]

Hi rikgo412

Theres nothing else you need to do aside stop contact with this person

Because the email wasnt from ppal, ppal wont be interested but you could forward it to spoof@paypal.com then delete it

[deneney]

So glad I looked into this further.  Just had the same problem with being scammed.  A guy wanted to buy my car and told me to pay his shipping agent 900.00 via western union.  SO GLAD I CHECKED PAYPAL WEBSITE!  I was all set to send this guy the cash and then I found these posts.  DON'T DO IT!