possible scam?

[Soomoo]

Hi,

Im mew to paypal and I recieved an email yesterday requesting an item I have for sale. The buyer wants her agent to collect the item. She has told me that there is a problem (because she is at sea) with paying her agent who only accepts western union. Im not really sure what she is asking, I think she wants me to pay her agent and she will pay me through paypal. It all sounds dodgy to me. This is what the last email said:

I'm about to make the payments when i had this little problem with the picking up of the Item, I think you remember what i said in my previous mail that I'm working presently on the sea, so i tried to secure booking with my pick up agent, but they asked me to pay first before they can make the booking, and they only accept Western Union Money Transfer for payments and they don't accept PayPal or bank transfer.


So I tried to send the money online but it's not going through and I am on the sea there is no way i can find a western union agent to make the transfer to my pick up agent, so i wanted to ask if it will be OK for me to include my pick up agent's fees together with your payments through PayPal,So you will help me wire the pick up fee to them via western Union Money Transfer immediately i pay you.I don't mean to bother you I'm sure you understand that I'm presently on the sea and there is nothing i can do to that.The bottom line is after I have made the payments via PayPal,you will help me wire my pick up agent fee to them through western union money transfer, I just wanted to seek your consent before going ahead with the payments,I will be very happy if my offer is given a favorable consideration,Respond as soon as possible so that i can send out your Payment.

Please advise me if you can, I would like to sell the item if this is genuine.

Thank you

Suzanne

[caralyn]

I got word for word the same messages about a piece of jewelry on Artfire. I am explaining in this answer do not give out address or phone due to possible robbery or identity theft attempt. Will let you know if I get any more messages after that have explained carasjewelry is one of a kind art and the picture is the one mother will receive gift wrapped, twice has continued to ask for more of my info. Smiles, Caralyn

P.S. Thanks for posts about this, I was getting that red flag warning intuitively, you all confirm this is a scam.

[charliegirl]

Just had an attempted scam by a "diana kelly" who is allegedly cabin crew for Virgin Australia which is why she's in a rush. We're selling a gas wall furnace on gumtree and "diana kelly" contacted me within  5 minutes of the ad going up. Got first contact by SMS from the UK  (which was odd but not ouside the realms of possibility) asking me to respond via email. "Diana" said she'd buy the gas heater sight unseen but insisted she pay by paypal and ordered me to open an account so she could pay me (who talks like that to people?). I used my PayPal account to send her an invoice, got a one line email saying she'd sent payment - nothing came through. Then I got the long involved whiny email with the demand that I pay her shipping agent via Western Union (I never send any money by Western Union). A quick google search showed it was a variation on the "I can't pay you until you pay my shipping agent" scam. I cancelled the money request without "diana" getting notification. 

Phone number text was received from: +44 79XX XXXXXX

Email for "diana kelly" was XXXXXX @yahoo.com

Shipping agent I was supposed to send money via Western Union: United Kingdom

[PayPal_lucy]

Hey there charliegirl,

Welcome to the community.

Thank you for your post. I have however had to remove some of the personal details that you had added in here. (phone number and address)

[JulesandDanny]

Glad to have read this forum as I have just had the exact same response to a bed I posted on GumTree yesterday afternoon. Diana Kelly, allegedly cabin crew for Virgin Australia responded within minutes of posting the ad.  Just like 'CharlieGirl' got first contact by SMS from the UK  asking me to respond via email. "Diana" said she'd buy the bed  but insisted she pay by paypal , not cash and not direct debit.

I gave her my PayPal details to transfer the money, and received notification from PayPal, that the $600 had been transferred but it wouldn't be released until I payed her shipping agent in the UK via Western Union $450.

This already seemed strange to me. There is nothing THAT special about the bed that it would be worth spending $450 to get it to the UK. When I questioned her about it, she assured me of it's legitimacy and re-instructed me how to transfer the money through Western Union. She also addresed me with my FULL name (first and last), this seemed odd to me.... It usually means SPAM!!

It still didn't feel right, so I checked my PayPal account, and although we had recieved an email from Pay Pal explaining what needed to be done, there was no money showing up in my account and no record of this pending transaction.

I then decided to Google her, and came across 'charliegirls' message about the 'possible scam'.

[J0ohannak]

Thanks for this, i also got that email from a woman on the sea who claimed the same things now I know for sure this is a scam 🙂

[csob]

Same thing has happened to me today. Fuming tbh time wasters or what? Jennifer Mcdonald wanted to buy my bike off gum tree and was told I would not receive the cash until I paid £110 shipping fee to Nigeria. Got the text asking to email her and she did not want to see pics or come to view the bike. Wanted to pay straight away via pay pal. Something needs doing about as there are people out there who might pay that.

[Ace_Scottie]

Hello. I have just received an email from help @ notify.paypl.co,uk  (sorry for spaces, wouldn't let me put email)

The email is asking me to fill out a form to reactivate my account, and the form wants my paypal account and bank account.

Now I'm no fool but this took me a minuet to figure out it was spam. The form looked professional and if I had not noticed the slight error in the email address I may not of caught it. Please read the email address again notify.PAYPL.co.uk   yes paypl not paypal. 

I'm just putting this up here as a notification for people.

The sender IP is 93.188.88.140 and paypal IP is 23.43.98.234. You can put these in any online IP tracker to find that the Spam is from Norway not the US which is where paypal hosts from.

So please do not fall for this. And I have already contacted paypal about this spammer.

[Mandyloulou]

I have received the same today, and like yourself, nearly caught out until i noticed you couldnt click on any tabs!!!

Just hope noone does fall for this one!!

mand

[mervrussell]

 Good morning to all and wishing you a Merry Christmas. I received this email stating that: and I will post the email below. I've never gotten an email asking me to login to my account via a link provided in an email asking me to login. Just wanted to make sure that this is or is not a scam. Below is the email I received. Where can I report this? There used to be an email address:spoof@paypal but I can not find the address in any of my files and I can not find it on site. Any suggestion?

Hello

Under our security measures, we regularly. Ongoing activities in the PayPal system We recently contacted you after a problem with your PayPal account.

The information that you have requested for the following reason:

Our system has detected unusual charges on credit card associated with your account. PayPal.

file N : PP-1124-075-998

This is a final warning call on you to log PayPal if possible.

[minty1]

Hi mervrussell

Yes it is a scam/spoof you can still send them to spoof@paypal .com, do not click on any links because it is a phishing attempt.

Paypal always address you Dear FULL NAME

never ask you to log in via links or ask for personal info