Possible scam?

[himynameisben95]

So I'm trying to sell my old laptop on Gumtree. Somebody contacts me via e-mail, and immediately the poor/broken English from this man supposedly from Ireland has me on guard. He says he's willing to pay full price plus £30 for shipping to Ireland via Royal Mail Express Delivery. Royal Mail Express Delivery does not ship to Ireland, as it is a British service. He asks for either my bank details or my PayPal e-mail, I give him my PayPal as I do not trust him fully. He then sends me another e-mail saying payment has been made, ship out now. He says PayPal have "informed him about the procedure" I need to go through to accept his money, and to let him know the tracking number. I check my PayPal account and find absolutely no indication of being sent anything, and I receive no e-mail about it. I check my spam folder, and lo and behold there is an e-mail from "PayPal", which I will share with you. I googled the e-mail address it was sent from to see if anybody else had reported it as a scam, as it looks very fishy, and found a notice from PayPal saying that if somebody asks you for your tracking number before you receive any money, it's probably a scam, so here I am to ask.

The e-mail, from "paypaltransfersdepartment" <removed>.

Thank you for your time.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@himynameisben95 

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a 'direct' Paypal payment and may ask you to send the item internationally.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails 'may' go into your junk or spam folders.


You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't actually have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.
They will tell you that the payment is released when you provide paypal with a tracking/shipping number......this won't happen.

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.
Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.

[himynameisben95]

Alright, thank you.

[SamKay18]

What do I do as this has just happened to me and I sent the item now haven't been paid. I need the payment and refund from PayPal as my situation is dire. Person has sent me images of laptop received but no payment. I need the money and can't live without it.

[kernowlass]

@SamKay18 

You should never send an item before being paid.

From your previous threads it does sound like a scam although its odd that the buyer would send you an image of the received item !!!

But reading your other thread of the gift card scam then it does appear to be so.

If you sent without being paid then none of the transaction was done using paypal so nothing paypal can do for you unfortunately.

If the buyer is in the UK as well then you could look into trying a small claims court action if you have trackable proof of delivery?