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

[lhull]

Now his name is Luke or Lucas and he is a Marine Technician, at sea and unable to send a check or to come in person so wants to use paypal.  Very suspicious of this jerk so am going to ignore him.  He wants to purchase my quad as a surprise for his son and will have a "pickup agent" come to my home to pick it up.

[Temp20230816A]

I would send him THIS email

§ 1343. Fraud by wire, radio, or television

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 42 U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.

and Paypal IS a financial institution, and using their name may qualify.

I would say "FBI already been called."

[jlg3gr]

Yea the same thing happened to me today 400.00 western union is there anything that can be done to stop them even better arrest them!!!!

[sessa]

wow! this is exactly what I just went through! thanks for the info. it helped a lot to make sure what I was dealing with

[Sumthai]

would someone please answer my post on "Is this a nigerian scam?"

[HatingScamers]

Yeah I was almost scammed sending something to Nigeria. They sent what looked like a real email from paypal bu I called & verified there was no action in my account. Watch out for Nigeria.

[fellinglikepoop]

not real sure mine was telling my that he was a Marine Engineer and that his agent was in Washington.  Not sure where the merchandise was going....

[mrd71]

I just had the same thing happen to me!  I just posted it to make sure that it was a scam.  I did call Paypal, and they told me that there is no record of any transaction, even when I gave them the tracking information.  They told me that regardless, the money should be seen in the account.  I just feel really stupid and naive myself.  I am just glad that we are all starting to get "smarter" about these things.  This was the first time I used Paypal, and am glad that I did.  I also checked on the shipping company information, and couldn't find it online (at least not with the location that was emailed to me).

[jezziedizzle5]

yeah someone is trying to scam me like that too

[endora1]

This just happened to me also a guy named  James ***** wanting to purchase my couch off craigs list. Had 3 emails from pay pal. He wanted 400 western union then pay pal would release the funds for the couch to my account. yeah right.