Possible scam, please help

[LaurenSilbs]

So as you will see below, emails have been sent where she supposedly sent me her name/address, but the overseas and other crap leads me to beloeve it is a scam.  I sent her my email address (she had it anyway), but not the name on the account.  Is my account now in jeopordy?  HELP!  Read below...start from the bottom. 

Ok. I am an honorable woman and will never demand a charge-back on an
already completed transaction. Due to my present location, my choices
are limited and I do not have access to phone facilities. You will
receive your money cash in hand before this is picked up. However,
Paypal is the world leading payment master that protects both
buyer/seller interest. And with paypal, you are on a secured
transaction. Above all, it's like instant cash. Get back to me with
the name that you have on your paypal email address for reference
purpose and I will have your money sent asap. And due to the nature of
my job and having being a paypal customer for the past 18 months with
no charge back, I feel more comfortable sending my funds via paypal
due to there various security measures at ensuring safe and secured
transaction between both buyer/seller.
 regards

1st email below, to which I replied that I would go thorugh paypal, but that I needed an address to ship to, to ensure there was no charge back as I wanted to confirm & prove they received the item, next email I received is listed above:

Good to have your reply. I am XXXXXX XXXXXXX from Clarkston, WA. and
would have loved to come and inspect this at your place myself, but I
am a marine engineer and presently off-shore. I am buying this for my
son in Washington as a surprise birthday gift. I will appreciate more pictures if
available and will be sending your money asap. My shipper will be
available to pick this up as soon as payment is made. Do you have
paypal account? because, I have a paypal account that I can easily
send money through because, its good for business payments. Get back
to me with your paypal email address and name in order for me to have
your money sent on time. Confirm sale to me and remove the add from
posting.
regards
XXXXXX XXXXXX

1594 XXXXX St
Clarkston, WA
99403

[mdcupp]

This HAS to be a SCAM. I got the same exact e-mails today from the same exact address...let me guess the name she is using is Elaine Hamby? I was trying to sell a car on Craigslist. I got the first e-mail you got word for word and then when I asked for a contact phone number, I got the same exact second e-mail. ****BEWARE*****

[LaurenSilbs]

wow, I knew it, what a biotch!  What would they gain by doing this I wonder, are they really stupid enough to think that we would send items (highticket items no less) without confirming proper payment?  Is my account in trouble now that she has my email address, or am I okay because she does not have the name on the account (which she also asked for).  Please advise and thanks

[surplusdealdude]

What would they gain by doing this I wonder, are they really stupid enough to think that we would send items (highticket items no less) without confirming proper payment?

It's amazing how mny people do exactly that.  I've seen people scammed out of $8000 rings and $40,000 cars on THIS forum.

Is my account in trouble now that she has my email address,

Unlikely - these are hit-and-run guys.

They could sell your Paypal address to people that use code-crackers to discover your password, though - make sure you have a good one.

You can also get a Paypal security key from Paypal for $5 ( get it in the security center of your account).  It generates a second password every 30 seconds, makes your account impossible to hack.

I have one and I recommend them highly.

[Pepsilover]

Wow- How can people do this!!! Recieved the exact same e-mails today!  I was new to all of this and gave her our names on the emails-and then our paypal email, what kind of  info can they get from us. This just makes me sick to think that people do this!!!!!!!!!!!

[surplusdealdude]

When you live in a country where the average wage is $300 a year and corruption is a way of life, this seems normal.

If they have your name and Paypal address, you'll likely start receiving some very realistic emails from "paypal", telling you that your account is limited and you have to sign in using a link that they conveniently provide to fix it.

NEVER sign in to your Paypal account from an email link.


And, to make your Paypal account bullet-proof, visit the security center in your Paypal account and buy one of their security keys for $5.  It puts a separate, randomly-generated numerical password on your account that changes every 30 seconds and cannot be hijacked, even if the scammer has your password.

[LaurenSilbs]

Okay boys and girls, listen to this and tell me if you think its related to the original scam on this thread, and arm yourselves if in fact it is.  So I got these emails two days ago, basically emailed the scammer and told them to **bleep** off, and emailed all of you with regards to the scam.  Knowing that the only info they had from me was my email addfress connected to paypay, hmmm, I went ahead and changed that....then today, on my direct work line, I received an automated call claiming that if I amswered a few survey questions I would "win" two bahanas cruise passes; questions began as follows:

1) Are you male or female

2) Age between 25-35, 36-45, 46-55, etc

3) does anyone in your house smoke, if so you or a family member

4) Own or rent your home....

Which is when I realized they were asking pretty personal "survey" questions, and hung up.  I am totally not sure if its related, but since I was told yesterday that they would possibly try to find out my password, the personal info requested did not sit well.  I wish I could have sat through teh whole call to see what the other questions were to "warn"everyone of ithis new thing that I experienced, if anyone else knows if this was a part of a new ongoing scam, please advise......I am so freaked out by this, what else will these people do????

Thanks!

Peace & love to all

[surplusdealdude]

I doubt if it's related.

Nigerian scammers are lazy - they're not going to go to a huge amount of work to find things out, they're just going to answer another 100 ads.

And those questions weren't specific enough to have done them any good - in fact, they sound like fairly standard qualifying questions for a genuine survey.

So you can relax.