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

[kingneck]

I listed my Harley on craigslist and received two emails from this person but with different email addresses. They were erily similar to the email you received. Wording was a little different but close.

[srea1957]

WARNING:  The Chinaman scammer has just gotten a new ebay ID in the past few days.  He has used the following ebay ID's over the past 5 years to scam ebay and PayPal customers

His e-mail address is *removed* yahoo dot com dot cn and *removed* at yahoo dot com dot cn.  His eBay images are served off of www dot tupianguanjia dot com.  His name (if I have translated correctly) is Li *removed*.  He is in Bejing, China.

Regards,
Stephen

[JaM19]

I received this after posting on craigs:

Thanks for the mail...I will appreciate more pictures..I am ready to buy it now for my son as a surprise promise gift,And due to the nature of my work,phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it.i would be glad to pay for it as soon as possible though i will not be available to come for an inspection due to my tight schedule.Kindly get back to me with the following questions below to this email address

1) What is the condition?

2) Are you the Owner?

3) Pick up Location?

4) Your Registered PayPal Name and Registered PayPal Email Address For Me To Proceed With The Payment?

I would be glad to make the payment immediately through PayPal so kindly get back to me with your Registered PayPal Name and Registered PayPal Email Address  For Me To Proceed With The Payment. You need not to worry yourself about title transfer and shipment,i will instruct the shipping company to handle that therefore in order to complete the transaction do get back to me with your Registered PayPal Name and Registered PayPal Email Address  and total cost so that I can make the payment asap. I will be waiting for your reply! 

Thanks and God bless!!!

Is this a scam?

[latigojoe]

Trying to sell speakers and this is what I got: I have the user's email, but that is probably bogus. Opinions?

Good to hear back from you. I'm okay with the price and the condition.
Presently, i am out of town with my UNICEF TEAM to raise funds for the
Children Living with Malaria and i won't be able to come for the
inspection due to the nature of my work. Moreover, I would have loved
to call but our satellite server has been down in recent days which
restricts our calls. I will be paying you through PayPal as it is the
only Medium at which i can send Payment at the Moment.
I would appreciate if you email me with more pictures (if available) too
since i won't be be able to see this in person. And if you don't have a
PayPal account, It's pretty easy to set up a PayPal account at
www.paypal.com  . it's just a few minutes away from signing up. it's
safe and secure for
both Parties and i have been using PayPal to buy and sell for years
now without problems. Pls get back to me with your PayPal email so i
can proceed with the payment and contact the Pick up Agent who will
come for the Pick up of the item.
I will need these following details so i can proceed with the payment right away


1:Your PayPal e-Mail Address
2: Home Address


As soon as you get back to me with your PayPal email, I'll proceed
with full Payment. I look forward to reading from you soon.

Regards

[MaddysMom]

Just a heads up! I continue to play a cat and mouse game with a "buyer" whose email address is a name close to his PayPal account name, but nothing like the name he signs on his e-mails.  First red flag. He  represents himself as a chief engineer on a ship and cannot call me...second red flag.  He asked me to send him a request for money which I did.  He held a valid PayPal account and the transaction remains categorized as "pending."  I received another e-mail asking if he could send me $1500 over invoice so that I can forward the money via "moneygram" to his "agent" who will pick up the goods.  Third red flag. I replied asking him to have his agent contact me directly via phone or e-mail with the scope of services expected as I did not want to "hire" his agent by paying them for the buyer.  This morning's e-mail indicates that I will be contacted by the agent AFTER the seller and I have come to terms. Big red flag.   I have responded that I will not agree to pay his agent until I speak with him/her.  This is rather entertaining and obviously a scam, and since I have lots of time for these things, I've been letting it play out and keeping all of the e-mails to send to PayPal when he finally tips his hand and makes it clear how he is going to get money from ME when I'm expecting a payment from him!

[WAXLP]

Here's a good one---Since they remove the names, no point in typeing it in. Anyway, being a seller I do my best to make the buyer happy. Well this buyer tells me I listed this LP as sealed, which I did not, & wanted a refund. he told me he never really read the ad I posted.  I said, ok just return the LP & I will issue you a FULL refund. Well, the buyer was not happy with that, what else can i do, so he went & opened a dispute case. I have the emails where this buyer is threating me, & telling me he knows how to play the dispute case system. I enclosed ALL the emails he sent me to PayPal for this dispute so I could win.....I should have know better!!!!!!!!!! 

PayPal, within 1 day sided with this buyer. He was issued a FULL refund, got to keep the LP, & then left me a very negative feedback comment. I wrote to every site that PayPal & eBay have to offer to try to have the case reversed & the negative feedback removed... What a waste of time that is, al they sent me was what they are good for---computer generated letters.

Has this happened to any other seller out there????

Does anyone have any ideas that maybe I missed & can try???

Calling is just a waste of time because they tell you you are 'SOL' most of the time.

There must be something I can do!!!  Yes I have blocked the buyer from my store but I wish I can post his name without them removing it, so all can see...All I can tell you he is from N.Y. I hope they don't remove that!!!

Any seller's out there have any good ideas????............................HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....................

[Ryash]

Here is one I got today in my email, it comes with an attachment that I'm sure is a virus.

Dear PayPal Customer :

PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of customers.
To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs some of the most advanced security
systems in the world and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity.


We are contacting you to remind you that on 28.04.2012 our Account Review
Team identified some unusual activity in your account. In accordance with
PayPal's User Agreement and to ensure that your account has not been
compromised, access to your account was limited. Your account access will
remain limited until this issue has been resolved.

To secure your account and quickly restore full access, we may require some
additional information from you for the following reason:

We have been notified that a card associated with your account has been
reported as lost or stolen, or that there were additional problems with your
card.


This process is mandatory, and if not completed within the nearest time your
account or credit card may be subject for temporary suspension.

To securely confirm your PayPal information please download the attachement.

We encourage you to log in and perform the steps necessary to restore your
account access as soon as possible. Allowing your account access to remain
limited for an extended period of time may result in further limitations on
the use of your account and possible account closure.

For more information about how to protect your account please visit PayPal
Security Center. We apologize for any incovenience this may cause, and we
apriciate your assistance in helping us to maintain the integrity of the
entire PayPal system.

Thank you for using PayPal!

PayPal Security Center Team

[emimoo]

I'm from Australia and I got a similar email to a few of the posts here.  It was some woman who wanted to buy all my ads on Gumtree ( a trading website).  Which did seem very wierd to me because the items were a formal dress, car bumper and another dress. So I emailed with more and more questions to make sure this person new what she was asking for. She replied that she wanted "all of them". She said she is a very busy worker and can't come to inspect the items herself but will get her private courier to pick it up. Which i thought was weird, but plausible if this person was rich etc. She then asked what the total cost of the items where, as it couldn't hurt to tell her i said that all up if i sold them together it would be over 1000 dollars. But through my emails to her never confirmed I would give it to her, but then I got an email saying she had paid me through PayPal . I panicked as I did not agree to this, however I do not know how she could this because I didn't give her my PayPal email (the email i used to converse with her was a different email).

At this point I'm stressed out! So i email back saying that I had not said she could have them , I had to ask parents. Then after I sent that  I got a so called email from PayPal saying that she had paid me double what I had asked anyway! Then she emailed me saying she had paid and now I have to pay for her courier agent and to give her my address . I never gave her any details that might harm me.  I decided to check my PayPal anyway and low and behold there is no such "pending" funds in my account.  So I decided to ignore the email and hope it went away.

I have now received a second email saying that I have to accept the pending funds for PayPal ( apparently from PayPal) and that I had to write in the carrier details and pay the carrier within 24 hrs.

I tried ringing paypal but just got an automated system so I don't know what to do? Can anyone tell me whether I should ignore these so called invoices or tell her i know she is scamming me? Will I keep getting emails from her?

[PayPal_Adrian]

emimoo -

This is a pressure tactic used as part of an Advanced Fee Fraud scheme.  I wouldn't worry about it much, block the email addresses, and look for a new, legitimate buyer.  Good catch!

Adrian

[rseitter]

This is to let you know that the $2,000.00 USD you received now from Rose M has been secured by PayPal and on hold at our fund verification team desk for verification, being a fund for a merchandise. The total sum of $2,000.00 USD has been deducted fromRose M account which include the shipping fee and Western Union charges to send it to the pick up agent. So we want you to send the added shipping fee upfront and email us the Western Union Money Transfer scanned receipt copy or you can do the transfer online if you have a credit or debit card, just log on www.westernunion.com and send the shipping fee to the pickup agent in order for us to complete the verification and release the fund to your account.

Your Account will be credited accordingly upon the receipt of details requested. Should either be sent in JPG format or send type details as: Sender's Name; Receiver's Name; MTCN Number; Amount Sent;

Note: As this transaction was done via our e-mail payments service, any inquiries and necessary information should be sent to us by directly replying to this message, because of the status of this transaction, it has not been passed on to our customer care phone service section, and all inquiries should be directed to this e-mail address as it is the one monitored for your transaction.