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

[PayPal_Andy]

GBJ36541- I have to admit, that's is a new variation on an old theme.  If you look around here, you'll see plenty of examples of people 'at sea' trying to purchase all sorts of things.  In this situation, you probably won't have to worry about actually receiving any money. 

What usually happens is you receive emails from 'PayPal' telling you the money's available, you just have to ship first and provide tracking, or send money via Western Union.  I'd be really surprised if you actually received any money.  If by some miracle, I would just refund it and tell them you're not interested.  They'll still bother you, but they can always be added to the 'blocked senders' list 😉

Andy

[had511]

Hi There,

Thanks for mailing back,i am an oceanographer and i am buying this for
myself,And i can only pay through paypal at the moment as  i do not
have access to my bank account online,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,as you
do not have a paypal account yet,its pretty easy to set one up at
i will be expecting your  email.jameswally27 ******** I have a pick up agent
that will come for the pick up after payments  has been sorted

[Jolly6969]

I have furniture for sale on Kijiji, beware it took me a while but I figured this scam out....be careful, once I had wired the $1000. to Western Union he would turn around and dispute the Paypal payment leaving me out the $1000.

There has to be some way to stop this stuff, here is the email recieved:

Wayne *******

I will be sending funds ASAP but before i make the payment,there is something i need you to be aware of,i just received an email from the shipping company that will be in charge of the pick up.They are saying i need to pay them their fees which is $1000 before they proceed with coming for it and the only form of payment that they accept is Western Union Money Transfer.Where i am,the nearest union office is 8hrs from me and i could also send it online using their website,but they are not accepting any of my Credit cards.I dont know if it will be ok,if i include this agent's fees in the payment i will be sending you now,so on receipt of the total funds,you will remove the additional funds of $1000 and help me send it at your local Western Union office which can be found at the post office or you could send it online at www.westernunion.com.Let me know if this is ok and i will proceed with the payment.

[Cre8er]

Dear PayPal account holder,


PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by regularly screening the accounts in our system. We have recently determined that different computers have tried logging into your PayPal account,and multiple password failures were present before the logons.

Until we can collect secure information, your access to sensitive account features will be limited. We would like to restore your access as soon as possible, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Download and fill out the form to resolve
the problem and then log into your account.

Thanks ,
PayPal

[lupinkat]

Hi, I need some help please. I have someone responding to an ad for a single expensive item I listed on craigslist. The say they have to pay by PayPal, will pay the discount charges, and then will send a shipping agent to pick the item up and ship it to them and they pay the freight charge. They live in Norwich, by England. I am very concerned it's a scam. I can't afford to be out either the money or the item.. What are the red flags I should watch for and how do I verify she is legit. She claims to be a nun. I have asked twice for her name as it is listed on her card and the billing address where her statement is sent to no avail. Please help, as I am a newbie at this.

[PayPal_Andy]

lupinkat- A nun, huh? That's a new one.  I'm gonna guess it's a scam, simply by the similarities to other scams.  You can look at some of the other stories here on this thread (that I've moved your question to :)) and see what I mean.  I'm not gonna say that I'm 100% sure that it's a scam, but I will say that hand delivery of an item does invalidate your Seller Protection, so you would have no coverage...if you ever even received a payment through PayPal instead of emails that seem like they're from PayPal.  Personally, I wouldn't do it, but if you wanted to play the long odds and go through with it...

Andy

[lupinkat]

Hi Andy, Thanks for your reply. I asked this supposed nun for her name and billing address as it appeared on her bank

statement, and told her because of the size of the transaction, it had to go through a fraud check. Did she run the other way or what, fast!! I haven't heard a word since then.

Would you please tell me what you meamt when you said that as soon as I shipped the item that it was no longer covered by the PayPal agreemenet. I don't understand that as I thought that PayPal stood behind the items that were sold through their pay method. Thanks for your info.

Lupinkat

[PayPal_Andy]

lupinkat- Sorry for the confusion.  Spellcheck doesn't work if the word is spelled correctly, just the wrong word .  That was supposed to read "hand delivered" (and I've since corrected it).  If you actually ship an item with tracking, then we'll cover you (as long as it gets delivered to where it was supposed to), but if the item is just handed over, it voids the Seller Protection.  I've even included a link to our Seller Protection so you can review it at your leisure!

Andy

[MrAndyH]

My girlfriends friend in a nursing home died, and she left us her electric wheelchair. We posted it on Craigslist and this woman from Colorado immediately responded and wanted to buy it "Only through Paypal" and for us to put up the shipping costs. She "paid" thru Paypal, even though my account never saw the money. I noticed that the last email she sent me had a different shipping address and that I was supposed to pay the shipping "First" through Western Union. I called Paypal asap and the guy on the phone actually started laughing. Thanks to him I cancelled the transaction about 15 sreconds later! Thanks Paypal, the Knobs have been thwarted again! Andy in KS

-Here's a sample...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hello Andy & Meganne,have transfer the fund to your account and your money have been deducted from my account immediately i transferred the fund,and they have sent me a payment receipt,am sure you will have notified about the payment i made,but you will need to help me send the pick up fees out to the shipping fees to the shipping company and get back to paypal for there confirmation,once the confrim this the total fund will be reflect in your account,they said they are doing this to protect both of us because of online scam going out on net...so all you need to do now is to help me send the pick up cost out via Western union and get back to paypal with the details..i will be looking forward to read back from you asap

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[ericcarr66]

I recieived an email asking about an item I'm selling, replied and started receiving emails "confirming" payment had been made and it would enter my account as soon as the item was shipped with a confirmation tracking number.

Watch for these  names...    rebecca s<removed>( in lower case in the email)  and Mrs Rebecca S<removed>. (name used in following emails).  First email stated she was in Utah, would pay for all shipping charges and then the emails "cofirming "payment started coming in - to ship to Nigeria.  The fraud emails look real....  check closely community....