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

[bcwest104]

Just a quick question. I am trying to sell wedding band set. I was contacted by a gentleman who left his name and phone number. He suggested I set up a paypal account to be able to pay, which I did. I have never done anything on paypal before. I got an email today stating that "a payment has been received-ship items now."  When I logged into paypal, the status was still "Sent", meaning the invoice had been sent to him and payment is pending. I got another email from paypal stating that the funds would be held for several hours or days as this is my first transaction and to ship items withing 24 hours. The balance in my account is still $0.00.  Is this how paypal works?

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi bcwest104,

Welcome to the Community! 🙂

Good job being cautious! You did all the right things. You checked your PayPal account to see if the history there reflected what you were told in the email. Since there is a discrepancy, that's a pretty decent indicator that the email is a fake. 🙂

I hope this helps! 🙂

Olivia

[AncaJonker]

hi,

recently i writed some online articles and now they have to send me money. They ask for my paypal id, tel, email and adress. I just opened my paypal account so i dont know what informations i have to give so that they can pay me and i saw here that a lot of people advise not to give my paypal id. What do they need to know to send me money? and how do i know if this is a scam or not?

Thank you so much,

Anca

[minty1]

Hi AncaJonker

If someone wants to make a payment to you all they need is your ppal address

nothing more

If you provide someone with all the details they are asking for you could be scammed and your details used for stealing identity etc

[jeelocked]

Another attempt in progress right now.

Where in PayPal do I send the  emails sent to me both from PayPal and from the scammer.

And what authorities do I contact. District Attorney?

Is there no way to teach these people some lessons. Like maybe personal deliver of the requested funds.

Knock knock!. . .  

Whose there? . . .

"Special delivery!" "Your requested funds in cash!" "All you got'ta do is open the door.. . "

[TAHOE2]

HEY THERE, THIS IS KINDA FUNNY I HAVE A GUY NAMED DONALD **** WANTING TO BY MY BOAT... MAYBE THIS IS THE SAME PERSON??? I GUESS WE WILL SEE.... I AM NOT SENDING ANY MONEY HIS WAY, HE IS NOT ASKING YET, JUST WONDERING IF IT WAS THE SAME PERSON???? 

[bj23]

LIKEWISE ALL please be aware we have nearly been scammed with a similar story. Claiming they'd pay us extra to assist in the shipping etc......when researched the agent they had suggested we contact it flagged up all the scams. We selling an expensive car and the amount they wanted us to send was 5k - PLEASE PEOPLE BE AWARE YOU CAN EASILY GET SCAMMED LIKE THIS. We forwarded the relevant emails to spoof who confirmed scam.

[Goodandyou]

Ya, and my scammer's name was Boyd. He tried the same thing on me today.

[AnnaLeigh2345]

The SAME exact Mattew ***** (with me he didn't have the "h" in his name which made me suspicious) happened to me.  I was trying to sell a Toyota Tundra on craigslist for $18,000 when he came along and offered me $18,100.  I was really happy at first.  He told me that he was going to send the money through paypal.  I agreed because Paypal is secure.  The next morning I woke up and he "sent" me $19,200 and I was supposed to send $1,100 to a pick up agent before the hold would be lifted from my paypal account and then I could just keep all of the $19,200.  He had me sending it though western union as well.  Please be aware of this guy.  He threatened me with going to the FBI as soon as I told him that I was going to report him to PayPal.  He got all defensive then got real nice and started asking nicely for the $1,000.  Please just beware this guy is a SCAMMER!!  His pick up agent's name was ROY ***** who lived in TX.  Mattew was claiming to be a sea cheif unable to do online banking but could do paypal instead.  He was supposedly working for National Institute of Oceanography in Washington state.  BEWARE!!!!

[JoeC2012]

Sound familiar? This is the email I just got on Craigs List for a couch. Looks like the same MO.

Thanks for the swift response, just to let you know that am okay with
the condition and price of the item, am ready for its purchase and my
form of payment will be by Paypal because i dont have access to my
bank account online (i don't have internet banking with it)I'm on Job
assignment..am a petroleum engr and i'm presently on rig., but i have
it attached to my PayPal account, and this is why i insisted on using
PayPal to pay,all i will need is your PayPal email address to make the
payments..and if you don't have a PayPal account yet, you can set one
up at www.paypal.com  it cant take you less than 3mins to do that...

I'll be responsible for the pick-up and the pick up money will be
included in your payment to avoid delay and to enable pick up company
to schedule an appropriate time for the pick-up at your location after
payment have been confirmed by paypal,as i have other properties to be
moved alongside with yours.

        I would have really love to come for the viewing but due to my
work frame that might not be possible,but if you have the pics,might
want to have a good look.Please do get back to me with your PayPal
email so i can make out payment.

Regards.