Tina Roy - paypal scam

[GHarv1]

I am yet another (almost) victim of this paypal scam that is going around on gumtree. I was selling a washing machine for £120 and received the exact same message as some of you have received:

Great! please consider it sold as i am willing to pay your full asking price because i need to buy it for my cousin asap, i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it,sadly i would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and me being in wheelchair.
I have a courier agent that would help me to pick it up at your preferred location after you have received your money and i'll pay you via PayPal today.
Where is the pick up location so that i can inform the courier agent about it now?

New to the whole gumtree thing I fell straight for it, to the point where I actually had some cash ready to send to NIGERIA, YES NIGERIA via MoneyGram!!! As I put the pen to paper I thought no this can't be right. This person - going by the name of Tina Roy - was paying almost £300 for delivery service when the washing machine was only £120. 

When I flagged this up with the scammer, they then "reported me" and I received an email saying that I was in breach of paypal and that legal action was going to be taken if I didn't make the payment in 2 hours. The emails looked so real and so I was very easily fooled. After ringing PayPal though - who were very helpful indeed, they explained to me the difference between a scam email & a real email from PayPal & in future I will definitely be able to tell the difference now.

Just warning everyone!! This person text me first and then said please email me.... so me being pleased that I received an offer... emailed right away!! Their email will come up as "sweetmummy..." so please beware!

[kernowlass]

@GHarv1

This scam has been going on for years on all auction and sales sites and is all over the internet and this forum, glad you were not caught out.

They use hundreds of different names and hijacked or anonymous email addresses.

The important 3 things to remember are  >>

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal do not tell you to send trackable, they advise it for selling protection but it is not compulsory.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram or Western Union.

[amberjean]

I’ve just had the exact same experience! I thought she was legit until I saw the email sending over £500 I was so confused! The oven is only £220. She’s trying to get me to send over money before I even have it in my account which I’m refusing to do but she’s now going on. I’ve sent the emails to spoof to be investigated but thank god I found this post!

[kernowlass]

@amberjean

Just read the last 3 sentences in my post above and ignore and delete her posts.

[amberjean]

Yeah I read this thread after I’d been replying. Ignoring her now, she’s nasty some people will actually go along with that

[kernowlass]

@amberjean

Its unlikely to be a 'she' its mostly a gang of scammers in Africa somewhere 'working' out of an anonymous internet cafe.