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

[Kmomma04]

I had the same thing happen through craigslist the guy was rude and demanding. i was selling a table that he wanted to transport, which i initally thought was odd, when i asked when he was going to pick it up he ignored the question and was so determined to pay me i was very reluctant. as soon as he supposidly "paid" me he told me now i had to go to the nearest western union and send the $250 to the transport company but i couldn't access the $300 until i went to the nearest western union. he even told me my mail from paypal would be in my junk box. (i get all my paypal info sent to my inbox).Even the headline was bogus looking and they hadn't even tried to use the actual paypal logo. he even threatened to do legal action against me for taking the payment. i told him "thats not how paypal works" and he quit texting me.

[imnodummy]

I posted my i-phone on craiglist Sunday night and received 3 texts by morning!  They asked if i had paypal and I didn't, so I set up an account.  They said they transferred money to me and i should ship the phone...to Nigeria!!!  I said money was not in my paypal account and they said it would be as soon as i got tracking number from post office, and my phone was being sent to the other side side of the world.  I got pending notifications from pay-pal-service-that money is there its Tuesday and they're wondering when i'm gonna send phone!!!!

[minty1]

Definitely a scam

U dont have to send tracking info in order to receive payment u will see it as completed in your account.

The emails are fake from your scammer

[James_F]

Ok, have done some research and my understanding is that in disputes, PayPal almost always favors the buyer.

That being said, I listed a preordered iPhone 6 on Amazon two days ago and today I got an email:

"Hi i would like to know if an order has been placed on this  Apple iPhone 6,attach more pictures to my direct email [xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] and also include your phone number,so we can talk about it on the phone,as i will like to purchase it immediately."

After a few emails, he asked me to just send a PayPal invoice. So I sent an invoice with $90 shipping added as he offered (he didn't specify if he wanted overnight even though I asked but that's what I'm assuming he wants given he offered $90 without asking me what it would cost). I told him I could offer him different rates/times but was part of another email and he may have overlooked it.

Anyway, invoice sent and have received payment, though it doesn't process until I confirm shipping. It's going to Georgia (United States) and will be coming from South Carolina, by the way, so very close by and should be very quick transit. However, if when I receive the phone I ship it and start to receive funds, doesn't he have time to somehow cancel the money within a few days?

Also, there's always the risk he'll lie and say I sent him the wrong phone, then PayPal will probably ask him to return it and give him his money back. Then, I'll be stuck with whatever he "returns", even it's it's a pre-historic Nokia or a bag of sand.

If my above assumption is correct regarding the second risk, can I be completely protected if I record video at FedEx, loading the phone into the package, handing it to the rep, paying, and then showing the receipt and shipment number? That of course still leaves the first risk if I understood other threads correctly.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

James

[kernowlass]

Anyway, invoice sent and have received payment, though it doesn't process until I confirm shipping.

Is it showing as pending in your paypal account balance? If not then its a scam and you have not been paid.

[brodke1]

There are two things you must do right away.

1.  Look at the senders address in the email from PayPal.  Click on it to reveal the true adress ( raw address ).  It should be from XXX @ paypal.com, not from any 3rd party.  If it is from a third party you have been defrauded. 

2.  Go directly to your PayPal account and look at the balance.  If the payment does not show, you have been defrauded.  PayPal always shows pending  transactions.  DO NOT MAIL THE ITEM until your PayPal account shows the payment in your balance.

If you already mailed the itme, you can intercept it via USPS and UPS and FedEx, for a fee, but this doea not always work.  You have to dig through their web sites to find the place to do the intercept.  It can still take days or a week to get the package back to you, but at least you can sell it again.

Report EVERY fraud to the FBI.  Report it to Craiglist and to Paypal.  Let the whole world know about this kind of fraud.

[2010Mustanggirl]

I have never sold anything before on ebay and very rarely use paypay. I was trying to sell a camera on ebay and got a buyer within 12 hours. The resoonse came from a janetpalmer. She said she was sending the money to paypay but it never showed up. I sent her an email asking about it and she responded that she was working on it and to check my spam email for confirmation. It showed up in my spam box which was wierd because everything else was showing up in my regular email. She originally gave me an address in brazil but them changed the address to send it to Nigeria. She claimed she had sent 600.00 which was about 600.00 lower than the amount i was asking for my camera. I advised her i was not making any deals with her and forwarded the spam email to paypal. They repsonded and advisd it was a confirmed phishing attack. That was the first time I ever tried to sell on ebay and it will be my last. I remove the item from ebay. The money the wmoen claimed she had sent never showed up.

[BillHackett]

I received an email today that said EBay had cancelled my account, and I needed to click on a link to reactivate it. Of course I didn't click on the link; but the scammers are getting better.

I signed in to EBay, and of course, my account was not deactivated.

[julalp21]

EMAILS FROM  - MoneyMakingButton via PayPal

ARE FAKE!!! BE AWARE! I am a naive person who figured I could sell my playstation 4 on ebay and it got me into no where but an annoying scam. This is how it unfolded:

            I was selling my Playstation 4 on ebay when a person bought it. In the back of my head I started thinking things weren't right when he started contacting me mainly because When he messaged me on my phone (because I didn't remember having my phone number public) another thing that I felt was odd was when he asked for me to send it to NIGERIA  and would pay an extra hundred dollars if I sent it there and sent me a fake paypal email that looked like the paypal website saying that his money was approved blah blah. He was asking all types of questions on when did I send it, wanted me to scan the reciept and send it, also wanted me to send him the tracking number. Now when you send internationally theres not a full tracking number because once it leaves customs the tracking number no longer works and he didn't quite understand this. Also ebay was no help, pretty much blamed me for it all and said that the "buyer" would get his account stricked (That absoultey did nothing for me). Learn from an eighteen year olds mistake!

[minty1]

Hi julap21 Block them on your block bidders list