Hi. I placed a listing in Gumtree and received a message very quickly from somebody saying that they would like to buy the item, offering full price and that they wanted me to remove the listing.
They added that they were deaf and disabled so would have a courier come and collect it on their behalf. They asked for my PayPal details (odd as they were emailing me anyway) and asked how much they should put in my account.
I shortly received another email supposedly from Service at PayPal saying a payment had been successfully made but, "due to security reasons, the money cannot reflect in your PayPal account until we have received and confirmed the Bank Transfer Receipt for the added fee. Your money will remain in our ESCROW until we confirm the Receipt of the Bank Transfer for the additional pickup fee you are to send to the Pickup Agent.
You are to send the excess funds to the pickup agent through "Bank Transfer" that was indicated and paid for by the buyer."
The email continues to ask me to pay a £225 to the courier in order to receive my money, and lists the bank account details I'm supposed to use for the transfer. They also ask for a photo image of the deposit received via the online bank transfer so that I can be credited "without further delay" which I thought was very nice of them.
Needless to say I haven't made the bank transfer, sent any photos of my online bank account details or clicked any links in the email.
The PayPal email address is actually a Gmail account and despite the email having David Marcus's signature at the bottom and a closing paragraph stating "We are assuring you of 100% safety, and as soon as the payment details are emailed to uk(sic) a total funds will be credited into your account." I'm pretty sure this is a scam.
Be careful out there!
