Suspicious payment email from

[Stoutcat]

I hope someone can help!

I listed a jewelry item on Craigslist, and received a poorly written response with an offer for the item. Sender wants item sent to Canada, and has provided a shipping address, and possibly even a payment via PayPal.

However, the "payment" notification was an email  with the message that I must enter shipping confirmation in order for the payment to be released. I checked and there are no obvious links to anything but PayPal.com, and the email salutation was my full name, so according to PalPal standards, it's probably legit. But I'm still very uneasy about this, and am typing this on a completely different machine from the one that has my email open in the browser.

Has anyone else heard of this payment type? Is it a scam?

Please help. If it is legitimate, I'd like to send the item to the buyer. But I don't want to get ripped off.

Post Script: after I attempted to submit this, it was rejected due to the email address in the title and body, which makes me even more suspicious, so we'll see if it is accepted with the address spelled out.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi Stoutcat, welcome to the forums!

The filter didn't accept the email address because the filter prevents all email addresses. It's not an evaluation of that specific address. 🙂

The best way to check the validity of a payment notification email is to open up a fresh browser window (without clicking links from the email) and type in paypal.com. Log in from there, and see if the payment is in your history. If it's there, then there you go!

When you look at the payment, check to see if it's eligible for seller protection. If it's marked eligible and you ship to the address listed in the transaction with delivery confirmation (with signature if over $250!) then you'll be covered by Seller Protection.

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[Stoutcat]

Thanks Olivia, for the quick reply. I should have mentioned that I did check my PayPal account and there is no record of any payment in the specified amount that has come through. But the message did say the funds would not be available until shipment had been confirmed. I've seen eBay do this with PayPal and wondered if it might be something similar.

[PayPal_Olivia]

If there's no indication of a transaction in your PayPal account and the email is designed to look like it came from PayPal, then you're looking at a fake. Even if funds are held pending shipment, there will still be a transaction in your account.

Good job being cautious!

Olivia

[martinisl]

Oh boy, I think I fell for a scam like this too.  Buyer said money was sent to PayPal, but it doesn't show anywhere in my account.  And now they want more money for shipping.

Shame on me.

[Stoutcat]

Just as a follow-up, for those who are interested: I contacted the buyer and said that under no circumstance would I ship out the itme until my PayPal account had been updated--they could send all the emails purporting to say that my account was credited, but until I saw the actual transaction in my account, no shippee.

I haven't heard a peep from her since.

So, clearly that was scam city.

Thanks for the support!