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

[Seymour-]

LOL! what kinda English is 'dat?

scam.

[Seymour-]

LOL!

Let me guess, you got an email from some guy (the 'buyer) offering to buy the camera for $650. Then, you get this email telling you the 'buyer' is legitimate. Too funny.

Poor, poor English. Good indicator it's a scam.

Oh, and nice threat at the very end.

[kleek]

Here is an email that I recieved today.  The forum would not let me submit this example until the fraud link was removed, but that is the ONLY thing that I deleted, well and of course My email address... lol  HOPE THIS HELPS!

      Paypal     Case ID ID #PP-002-991-296-493

Dear Customer , Your account has been limited until we hear from you 
Reference Number: PP-002-991-296-493 Our system detected unusual charges to a credit card linked to your PayPal account. We just need some more information about your Account, You must follow this steps.   1. Pleas Copy & Past This Link In Your Browser               2. Update Your Account
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. 

We apologise for any inconvenience..

PayPal
Support Team
______________________________________________________________________________________

Consumer advisory- PayPal Pte. Ltd.,
Users are advised to read the terms and conditions carefully.

[Seymour-]

Never use a link provided in an email like this!

Hovering over the email link will show you where it'll really take you if you click on it... and it ain't Paypal.

Instead, open your browser, type www.paypal.com into the URL window and login to your account that way to check for any problems.

[PermDiz]

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS. IT IS A SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i WAS JUST SCAMMED BY SOMEONE WHO WAS INTERESTED IN BUYING MY FURNITUR ON CRAIGS LIST. I HAVE NEVER USED PAYPAL TO SELL ANYTHING, BUT HAVE USED IT FOR PURCHASES SO I DIDNT THINK TWICE BEFORE GOING ALONG WITH THE BUSINESS DEAL. ALSO RIGHT BEFORE THEY CONTACTED ME, I HAD A LEGITAMATE INQUIRY FROM SOMEONE WANTING TO PURCHASE MY FURNITURE, SI I FIGURED IT WAS JUST SOMEONE ELSE INTERESTED. THEY SEEMED LIKE A NICE PERSON AND I TOTALLY GOT SUCKED IN. I ALSO AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH PAYPAL EMAIL FORMATS SO I DIDNT THINK ANYTHING OF THAT. NEEDLESS TO SAY THEY GOT $930 DOLLARS FROM ME AND I FEEL COMPLETELY VIOLATED. I ONLY WISH I READ THIS SOONER, BUT AM STILL GLAD I READ IT WHEN I DID BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO GET ANOTHER $1450.00 FROM ME. I CONTACTED PAYPAL AND WESTERN UNION AND HAVE FILED COMPLAINTS WITH BOTH. WESTERN UNION IS GOING TO DO AN INVESTIGATION INTO IT AND HOPEFULLY I WILL RECIEVE MY MONEY BACK, BUT IT WILL AT LEAST BE 30-90 DAYS BEFORE I KNOW ANYTHING AND I MIGHT NOT GET MY MONEY BACK AT ALL. I FEEL SO FOLISH AND VIOLATED. IT IS SICKENING AT HOW PEOPLE CAN DO THIS TO SOMEONE, BUT I KNOW GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF THEM. I HOPE THE NEXT PERSON WILL READ THIS BEFORE IT HAPPENS TO THEM.

[Seymour-]

Please, try not to feel too bad. You didn't know.

"Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.:

They won't get you a second time.

Before I got wise (years ago) they got me too! for $120.

Unfortunately, it does tend to shake one's faith in mankind but, remember it takes all kinds to make this world of ours go round.

There are bad people out there but, I believe there are more good than bad.

I think you're money's gone, sorry to say. A costly lesson but, a lesson nonetheless.

I was extremely mad at first when it happened to me. Then, I figured out a way to even the score a bit. Like learning every one of their silly scams and educating others about them.

For example, when I get spam (a scam) from a website that's been compromised by hackers, I email the website's contact address, informing them that their site has been hacked and is serving up scam bulk emails.

I got a Mystery Shopper scam offer today with an (disguised) embedded link in it whose root domain was a Graphics, Education, Programming, Video & Animation site.  The site's contact email got a nice explaination with a copy of the email.

The hackers sometimes have access to the email box too.

[kmesse]

WHY DON'T I LISTEN TO THE LITTLE WARNING VOICE IN MY HEAD??

I appreciate Seymour's post. Sad to know that someone with no conscience has a new phone. Sad to know this scam is alive and well. Doesn't look like anyone can do anything about it, and no money will get back to me. Seems silly to just post the many versions of this scam, but here goes mine anyway.

1st message was from an amazon contact.

---

I want to make purchase of your item but i would like to know the condition before i make purchase mail me back on garybarich@outlookcom

Please contact me via email

---

I contacted him (WHY if he already contacted me? First warning). He wanted to ship overseas, and to send an invoice thru paypal. I pulled the listing from Amazon ONLY because I couldn't figure out how to change the shipping to overseas shipping even though I know I LOSE THE SELLER PROTECTION WHEN I REMOVE A LISTING. (If I would have been able to update shipping in Amazon again this never would have happened).

The rest is history, and so is the phone I mailed them. I saw the listing in paypal and payment pending, and a legitimate looking email from paypal to send the tracking number for verification. I had to SHIP to get a tracking number. Promises of paypal credit pending left me waiting until the thing was shipped.

---

I will urge you to send the tracking number to paypal via their tracking email.....trackings-*** at in.com so that your account can be credited

---

I consider myself an idiot to fall for something I would normally never fall for, but I'll never underestimate a scammer again. I'm out the phone which wasn't expensive anyway, but also the $45 to ship the now stolen merchandise overseas.

NEVER pull a listing to ship outside the legitimate sellers, you lose protection. There's good reason for the warnings.

[kjkny2000]

Contacted by cell message about buying my furniture, using Paypal.

Wanted by zip code to get a shipping cost.

First he said he was in Oklahoma, then he said California.

Obviously an international organization. Obviously a scam.

Not sure if this helps, as the caller ID number is probably meaningless.

Kevin

[Seymour-]

The 631 area code belongs to New York state.

And you're right, the call display is no doubt 'spoofed' (incorrectly displayed) and, if so, is totally useless.

[SoxyLady]

I beleive that I was almost scammed recently with respect to a camera I listed for sale on Craigslist.

A fellow text messages me saying he wanted to buy my camera for his son as a surprise.  I was asking $350 CAD and he offerned me $350 USD plus $80 USD for shipping.  Seemed strange to me but whatever.  When I asked for his mailing address he told me he was a US Marine in Africa and he wanted the item shipped to Nigeria.  That really threw up some red flags for me and he asked for my PayPal email.  I told him I didn't have one and he told me to just set one up.  I was skeptical so I called a friend who uses PayPal and she said it was fine and PayPal was a legit service and it was probably fine.  So I set up an account and let him know what the email was.  That was when things go funny.  I noticed that the emails that came from PayPal confirming that I set up the account were not from the same email address as the ones apparently coming from PayPal confirming that the funds were "Pending" from this fellow.

When I went to the post office to enquire about this (and almost shipped my package) the postal worker advise me against it.  He said there was no way I could ship it the way the buyer was requesting and the fastest option was still going to cost me more than what was provided to me.  I felt in my gut that it wasn't right from the start so I decided not to ship it and I let the fellow know that I was not going to send it.

After all this I came online and looked all this up and found all types of information that confirm my suspicions that this is a scam and I almost got taken by it.  Thanks for all the posts about this and I thought I should post something to indicate that it is still going on.