Fake e-mail? Action required?

[aviduser]

Talked to a guy about an item I was selling. He wanted to pay thru paypal, I said no, you can pay me a deposit to hold the item. All the time he led me to believe he was a local buyer.

Then he tries to send me Total funds + Shipping fees. I have not accepted anything, and told the guy off. It's quite obviously a scam.

Now I've got an e-mail from "western union" which I'm almost certain is fake. Telling me that I am liable for legal reprecussions unlesss I transfer the shipping amount over. Which is complete bs.

I just wanted to report the guy to paypal through e-mail or something but it seems more complex than that.

[safari007]

do not answer and link the email to paypal, they go after them, i forget how to link to paypal ask them.....about those fraudulents emails sometime they tell you "limited access to your paypal account, or suspend your paypal account soon" off course never answer,they want your personal information...email paypal first and i think they send you the link to transfer those fraudulent emails. then every time you send fraudulent email to them they answer you if it is one...it was like this last time i send one to paypal but it was years ago, still like this ???

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi aviduser. Welcome to the forums! 🙂

Hello again, safari007. Thank you for being so helpful to people asking about this topic 🙂

Adrian posted a great article about how to tell if an email is from PayPal or not. A lot of the concepts in that article can also help you spot a fake email from Western Union, or your bank, or any other major company you transact with financially. There are also instructions for forwarding the fake emails you get for review by our fraud teams. You may want to check with Western Union to see if they have a similar address for the forwarding of the fake Western Union email.

The best way to protect yourself from scams is to really scrutinize the emails you get and see beyond what most people expect to see. Your instincts are already serving you well in that regard, and I'm really glad to see that!

I hope this helps!

Olivia