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

[RAOUSA123]

TOTALLY FORGET HE EXSISTS IT IS a sham, Nigeria i infamous for that stuff be patient and only deal localy with craigslist and meet in person . NOTHING IS MORE SECURE THAN A HAND TO HAND DEAL USING CASH MONEES

[minty1]

Hi 87nayely87. Yes it's a common scam. U have received no money. The emails are fake and from your scammer. NEVER ship until u see cleared payment in your account.

[Seymour-]

And only Login to your PayPal account by going to www.paypal.com. Do NOT use a link in an email to get to the PayPal site to login. (It may be fake)

[StormieP]

I am so glad that you have posted your stories on here. Last week, I was selling my phone on craigslist for $400. I had a guy text me (which you could tell was foriegn because of his spelling) saying he wanted to buy my phone and what not. So i gave him my e-mail to send me the funds. He claimed he had sent a little over $500 to cover shipping fees. Although, he never told me to western union it, he kept saying "are you on your way" "have you sent it yet?" "send me the tracking number as soon as you get there" "please go soon" almost every minute. I never recieved an e-mail from paypal stating i had funds in my account, which this was my first transaction using paypal EVER so I didnt exactly know how this worked yet. I call customer service immediately and he told me that I should not send it until there is a payment posted to my account. So i didnt. The guy continued to text me about every thirty seconds. When i got off the phone i texted the man and told him i am not sending the phone until the payment had posted to my account.He wanted me to send the phone to NIGERIA! He kept saying "I PAID IT, I SENT IT" "the money is in there" "the money wont be there until i send the product" So we ended up going back and forth and I just told him i will not send the money until there is something posted to my account.

Well, just about five minutes ago i was checking my junk folder. There was an e-mail from "paypal" that looked completely legit, which mind you I have never seen a real one before since this was my first time, and i started to feel really bad because the guy had actually posted the funds...or so i thought...but something just didn't seem right to me. So i literally looked over the e-mail for about ten mintues seeing if i could find something wrong. Well the actuall hidden e-mail adress from the sender was something like :   @ paypal .uba.com   and that is what caught my attention. So i came here trying to see if anyone else had these "almost comepletely legitmate looking" e-mails. Thanks to reading one of the stories on here I was a little bit more informed about the fact that there will be notification on your account on the actual paypal website, of funds being recieved.

I just wanyed to share my story, I really hope it was helpful if any new people come across this too! & Thank you to those who had posted their stories, you most certainly helped me!

[rodney8]

They use the same scam fur Publishers Clearing House as well.  Anytime they want you to go buy a card it's a scam.  They will keep calling so block their number.

[kongto]

OMG! I just got the same thing. His name is Mike and wnated me to send my macbook pro to Nigeria. I got the same emails from 'paypal' said that this guys already transfered $1200. Fortunately I got some problems with shipping then I didn't do it. Thanks god I saw this message in time. He is still texting me to continue the selling process.

[RAOUSA123]

Speaking of scams, Well i bought a Smsung Galaxy S5 from ebay, it arrived, and after a happy moment of having this phone i proceeded to my computer to,connect with Samsung Kies, after i did the site ran a thorough scan and said it was not an OEM product. After more investigatin it was determined that it was a FAKE. I ultimately got a full refund, BUYERS BEWARE, EBAY IS LOADED WITH WITH SO CALLED OEM PRODUCTS AND IT IS COUNTERFEIT. be very carefull buying from ebay.

  P.S. a week later purchased an lcd display for a cell phone and it too was a knock off, a full refund was issued. I AM ANTI EBAY FROM THESE EXPERIENCES. there are so many other places to get a good deal. REVOLT AGAINST EBAY!!!!!

[91smash]

Omg I almost just sent my iPod touch someone in Nigeria after I got an email from PayPal but no money in my paypal account and I'm a first time buyer so I was going with it but lucky for me he didn't added the total up right so I did so digging and found you. Thank you so much I would have been out of luck without you and everyone else in this page.

[Doeeyedd]

This just happened to me to. I feel like such a fool. He asked me to send my Mac book pro 15 inch to Nigeria express mail and i sent it :((( and still I have recieved no payment. Just a fake email saying it is pending. I'm hysterical. Can anyone fix this? It's a 2000 dollar lap top 😞

[Seymour-]

In a word, No.

Unless, you can stop the shipping of your laptop somehow, it's gone forever. You will never see a penny from the 'sale' either. A rather expensive lesson for you to learn.  Get angry (that's good) then let's get even a little bit, **bleep** these scammers by educating your fellow Internet users on what to watch out for.