We were almost scammed, too! Thank you so much for continuing this thread and for sharing your stories.
Our buyer said she was buying it for "SOMEONE" and needed to verify payment before she'd discuss pick-up details. She had not mentioned anything about us paying the pick-up fee until after her "transfer to our PayPal" was made. There were four emails in our spam folder from what looked like PayPal emails, but seemed iffy.
Her email said the following:
"Hello ,i have made the payment so i expect that you should have gotten an email from PayPal any moment for confirmation, and i will suggest you check your PayPal email in-box your SPAM, BULK or JUNK mail folders. for their emails. I want you to know that i added an extra fee of $680 to the total payment which i need you to help send to the agent coming for pick up and it needs to be sent via Western Union as that's the only way they can get it. I am sorry i should have informed you but i only got the urgent message from the pick up agent that they will need the funds before they can come to pick up when i was about making the payment. i have been in contact with PayPal about the situation of our deal and i was told accurate security will be put on this transaction and that you are required to follow some instructions before the funds will be made available to you which i was told you have been notified with the steps.I also added $100 the Western Union charges.Please help to send the pickup agent fee to my pickup agent and get back to me if there's anything you need to know more. Below is the pickup agent information.
Agent's Info:
Name: Chin Remer
City: Mosinee
State: Wisconsin
zip code: 54455
United state"
Here are a few things we learned from PayPal while checking for fraudulent activity:
- If you have any suspicious emails that look to be from a PayPal account (we had four), forward them to spoof@paypal.com
- emails from PayPal will always address you by your name (like "John Doe"), not by your email
- emails from PayPal will never ask you to do money transfers through Western Union
- Do not ever click on any links in those emails
PayPal will NEVER:
- Send an email to: "Undisclosed Recipients" or more than one email address
- Ask you to download a form or file to resolve an issue
- Ask in an email to verify an account using Personal Information such as Name, Date of Birth, Driver's License, or Address
- Ask in an email to verify an account using Bank Account Information such as Bank Name, Routing Number, or Bank Account PIN Number
- Ask in an email to verify an account using Credit Card Information such as Credit Card Number or Type, Expiration Date, ATM PIN Number, or CVV2 Security Code
- Ask for your full credit card number without displaying the type of card and the last two digits
- Ask you for your full bank account number without displaying your bank name, type of account (Checking/Savings) and the last two digits
- Ask you for your security question answers without displaying each security question you created
- Ask you to ship an item, pay a shipping fee, send a Western Union Money Transfer, or provide a tracking number before the payment received is available in your transaction history
