Almost got scammed, a warning

[Anonymous_User]

Hi all, I put an item up for sale on gumtree and got a response from someone who wanted it and said let’s use PayPal, I thought yep let’s do it. He then asked me for my PayPal email, which I gave him and he said he was paying it, I thought great. 19 minutes go by and get another email from This guy asking me to check My email as he paid and sure enough there was an email from PayPal saying this - You've got new funds!!! 15. 09. 2020.

Transaction ID: 7225674977085 Dear (was my PayPal email address which he just pasted in) You have an Instant Payment of £300.00 GBP from Mario <removed> . This PayPal Payment has been deducted from the buyer's account but can not be credited into your account until the Shipment Information is received from you E.G Tracking Number or a copy of the Shipment Receipt. 

You can now go and ship out the buyer's merchandise and send the shipment information to us at: <removed> Seller: (was my email address) Note to seller Hi, I want it shipped today, that was why I had to included the shipment fee, Regards. Shipping Option: ROYAL MAIL. Shipping Information: Name: Krystian <removed> Address: removing to protect who Ever lives at this address but it was a residence Description Unit price Qty Amount Goods £300.00 GBP 1 £300.00 GBP Shipping and Handling (Included) Insurance - ---- Total £300.00 GBP Payment sent : (was my email address) Issues with this transaction? You have 24 HRS from the date of the transaction to go ahead with the Shipment Procedure. So I glanced at this and thought ok, but was half asleep. Then the buyer starts pestering saying when am I going to post office and what time and I start to grow suspicious. I then get another email from supposedly PayPal: - Dear email address We are to let you know that the payment made for your item is confirmed and it has been deducted from the buyer's account which will be credited into your account as soon as you provide us with the shipment information. We have received the money which is pending in our database and we would like you to provide us with the following information as requested by PayPal for verification to protect both our customers from fraudulent business transactions. Kindly make the shipment progress within 24 hours in order to release the money into your account for the transaction as we can not accommodate any form of misappropriations and we have a reputation to protect and do all that is possible to increase our business relationship Worldwide PayPal, As soon as you notify us about the package shipping status, we shall deposit the said amount into your account immediately. The address you are requested to ship the item to has been confirmed by us. This is as a result of new safety measures that have just been adopted by us to safeguard all our customers against any internet activity. Note: Please always check your E-mail account folders for your fund's confirmation E-mail from us due to some errors we are clearing. And if you find any of our emails in your spam folder please move them to your inbox folder before reading.

Thanks for using PayPal Duly at your service The PayPal Team. I went to the post office my local one and I know the lady who works there and have a good relationship with them so ask for tracking number and tell post office to hold the parcel until I give her the go ahead to send it and post office lady says no problem, I started to suspect something was off. The buyer was pestering have I done it, lots of emails from him, alarm bells go off in my head. I looked at the PayPal emails more closely and you can see this is a scam, I email the buyer back and the cheeky so and so tells me to calm down!!! So warning to all don’t send anything till funds show in account, I am an idiot and almost lost £300 but very elaborate scam.

[kernowlass]

@Anonymous_User 

I must post the below scam at least 6-10 times a day on this forum.

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/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.

[Anonymous_User]

Who died and made you grand overlord of all knowledge, I don’t care if you post it several times a day I posted it again, so what? I found your opening remark snotty and rude and you are rude, I don’t care what imaginary badge you have in this forum so grow up, I will post this another 10 times if I gave too not everyone lives in this forum unlike you.

[kernowlass]

@Anonymous_User 

My, my me stating the fact its a common scam really made you chuck your toys out of the pram didn't it !!!   

You state you will post it another 10 times, great I have no problem with that......its the same reason I post it that often, to warn others.

I think you are the rude one. I only stated that its all over the forum to point out the fact that its a very common scam, most times I manage to warn victims before they are scammed, so your welcome, so glad i gave up my time to try and help you.

And I think the hundreds of others that I have saved from being scammed may have appreciated me 'living on the forum' as you call it as it saved them from being scammed especially as there is minimal customer services at the moment. 

[Anonymous_User]

I never asked for your help, And the opening of “I post this several times a day” shows what a self entitled idiot you are. Go find another imaginary badge so you can feel important, and go to hell.

[kernowlass]

Badges are useless and awarded only by paypal but sorry if you felt you were being left out and so deleted your profile.

However the kudos / solutions I have received were from grateful 'users' of this forum and from that it appears you are a tad out numbered.

[MrSusan]

I've just had the same person (I presume as the surname is the same) trying the same thing with me for a £500 Gumtree item. He offered me £600 for posting to Leicester and the scenario unfolded during the day. I was uncertain about it so was testing the waters before committing to anything but I definitely won't be communicating with him anymore. I've tried to find a way of reporting him on Gumtree but it doesn't seem possible.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@MrSusan 

Scams been ongoing for years and they tend to use fake i.d's anyway so best just ignore them and delete their posts.

[Matthewf2846]

I had posted an add on GUMTREE.  I received a response from someone called MAR saying they will pay more than how much I listed it for. 

I contacted MAR and said I would need to receive the payment before I send the parcel. They agreed. I gave them my email address so they could transfer money via PayPal. I was checking my account for the funds to go in. I, however, received an email from <removed>. They also used <removed>.

I can't post the emails on here as it won't let me. #