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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shayneoneill
Contributor
Contributor

i had the same email whilst avertising my car for sale.some so called marine engineer who was at sea,lol.wanted to buy my car for a gift for his son.i thought nothing of it until after i sent my paypal email,i recieved a email stating how there was a problem with paypal and a hold had been out on his payment to me.i got suspicious when he said how i should check my spam/junk mail for the email from paypal.and even more so when i seen the £350.00 it said i had to pay before the money would be put into my account.also it said how i could not phone only email if i had any enquires wit h paypal.and surely it would have cost more to ship my car to the u.s.a.lol.so please be warned.

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123loops
New Community Member

Hi,

I believe someone just tried a scam on me too. I have put an add for car, so called interested buyer texted back (it was not possible to reply) with an attached email address asking for a picture of the car. Then in his reply he explained that he was overseas and needed my paypal email and phone number for immediate transfer. He went under the name Austin Hummel, so please be aware.

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DL1967
Contributor
Contributor

 Hi my 14 year old son just got scammed using the website de pop.unbeknown to me he sent £35 as friends and family payment to <removed> for a top on de pop. as it was sent as friends and family paypal will not look into the transaction. paypal do hold details of this guys bank account and he has scammed a lot more people than just my son. How is he allowed to get away with this ? Here's the email again <removed> can anyone help me get his address as I would like to pay him a visit thanks I just saw I'm not allowed to put on an email address of scammed. Is this paypal protecting scanners yet again for their business greed

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dermatek
Member
Member

Beware of this person, tried to scam me on a car sale

 

      jennifer <removed>
6:39 PM (48 minutes ago)
 
 
Thank you, like i told you, i have a pick up that will come for it on my behalf.  im buying this for my brother, I just want it to be a surprised for his birthday.. So i'm requesting this transaction should be done via PayPal so the PayPal charges is on me. I'm present out of town. I have fund in my PayPal account as my bank account is attached to it hence the reason i opted to pay you through PayPal. I'm honest with you and i want you to be honest with me, i will not be able to come look at it in person and that's the only reason why PayPal is the only payment option. Do you have PayPal account? if you don't have an account just look into it (www.paypal.com) and get back to me with the email you use to set up and you don't need to worry about PayPal charges as i will be covering it on my End.
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Hartbreak1
Contributor
Contributor
I received the following e-mail from some person who claims that I sent them a request for payment. ""Good day! Yesterday I recieved a request for payment on my paypal account from user with your ID - [Redacted my email address] I expect you as the payment bill sender, as long as it contains your private info: [Redacted my name and physical address] The question is - where did you get confidential info about my account and why you decided to send an request for payment. I dont know who you are and I don't want to cause any sort of inconvenience. But my lawyer gave me recommendation to contact the police about your fraud letter. Anyway, I do not want to hurry up with this, and first of all, I'm going to find out all theessential info from you. I have attached the payment details in the text document below. To prevent accidental access file was password-protected 3546 I expect response and interaction from you as soon as you can. Best regards, [Redacted sender name]"" The e-mail contains both my Paypal e-mail and my real name and address, I searched the activity logs on Paypal but found no record of a transaction like that. Also I wonder how someone was able to get private info from my Paypal account. Needless to say I changed both my e-mail and Paypal passwords. The mail also had an attachment of some supposed "proof" but I haven't (and won't) touched it at all. The e-mail itself has a numeric username and comes from a "tiscali.co.za" domain which I haven't heard from before. Any help with this issue?
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dcarden
New Community Member

I just received the exact same (word for word) email today myself.  Considering it a scam and not replying to the email or opening the attachment.

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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

This is very popular theses days.

Check the sender's email address; it is NOT a PayPal address.

 

It is a SCAM.

Do click on any links.

 

Forward to spoof@ PayPal.com

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Hartbreak1
Contributor
Contributor
Thank you guys, I appreciate your help.
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Edmund319
New Community Member

My girlfriend also got the email and the content is totally the same. The sender from ptpachira.com. We tried to find out where is the domain but that was an Indonesia company. However, we do have some concern about why he can get our personal information include name, email and the past address. Thanks for the help!

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fractal_moose
Contributor
Contributor

I received a suspicious email from someone saying that I had fraudulently billed them and they were going to take the case to the police, etc.  It was from an email address (at)orange.fr.  I have seen one other entry in this forum about a similar email.  The email I received includecd a link to download a file, but of course I didn't click on the link, nor did I respond to the email.  I'm sure it's a fraud, but now I have another problem.

 

Anytime I try to forward it to "spoof@paypal.com", I get a reply saying that the email I sent them was stripped of all content.  I even tried sending info about it from another email account from another provider, and I got the same thing!  I tried it with and without the link to the attachment, and also just with general info about the phishing email, not forwarding the whole thing or doing a cut-and-paste of all the info.

 

Has someone figured out how to hack email to strip it of content when it is sent to spoof(at)paypal.com?  Or is the spoof reporting system just down?  Did somebody hack THAT?

 

BTW, the other string from another user who got a similar email had a note that the subject/problem had been solved.  BALONEY!  The phishing email I got had my REAL home address on it!  How the heck did the phisher get my home address?  AND, even though I have several email addresses, it came to the one email address that was associated with the PayPal account!

 

This is new, and because the scammer has people's real home addresses, it is far more serious than just a general phishing scam.  This has dangerous personal information about the potential victims!

 

Please, PayPal, get on this and find out what the heck is going on!

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