Am I being scam? Suspicious transaction email???

[oops_sergiu1]

Hi there

First time selling an item on eBay. 

Item listed as auction.

Someone gets in touch via dm saying that he'll pay way above the asking bid and tells me to send him a money request via Paypal - I did.

Then I get a suspicious email from this address <removed>,- which is supposed to be PayPayl????

Please see the content in the image below...saying that funds will only show once I provide him with a tracking number, smells a bit fishy.  Also, transaction ID differs from what I have on my account activity next to the money request I sent...also, none of the PayPal hyperlinks in the email seem to work.

Obviously haven't send any package yet, what do you think? I've got a genuine name and address from London which is censored in the image. If it's a scam I'm determined to take it to the police and make sure that person gets what he deserves. 

Any help from experienced eBay/PayPal community members would be truly appreciated.

Thank you. 

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@oops_sergiu1 

Scam has been ongoing for about 15 years and is all over this forum and the internet.

As the person is normally international then its a waste of time going to the police and its not a police matter anyway.

The address will not be where the item goes to as they will use a re-direct.   

I post the below info at least 6 times a day on here.

SCAM.
They may buy on Ebay but they use an anonymous or hijacked Ebay account and DO NOT have a Paypal account so they can't use Ebay checkout.

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.

[oops_sergiu1]

Thank you for your help.  I will not engage in any further chat with them and have reported the ebay account, paypal account and delivery details to the police, as well as ebay and paypal support teams.

I'm not too sure what you mean by re-direct but since he was asking for the package to be delivered to a specific address in London, I assume that whoever will collect it at that address is involved in the scam process so no harm for the police to do some checks on that. They actually sounded very interested and assured me that further checks and an investigation will take place.

[kernowlass]

@oops_sergiu1 

Probably an empty house with a redirect in place.

If the police got involved then they would need to investigate about a thousand of these email scammers every day.

As i said i post at least 6 times a day on these scams and thats only a fraction of the folks that actually get targeted.

As for ebay and paypal then it has nothing to do with them.

Ebay may be interested in that you were trying to do an off ebay transaction against their rules but other than that as none of the transaction would be done using ebay or paypals site then they can do nothing.

The scam is all down to emails you received and nothing of the transaction would show on ebay or paypal.

[oops_sergiu1]

Well, I sent a money request to a PayPal address, so the account linked to that address is surely the scammers. Surely the least PayPal could do it shut down his paypal account? 

Thanks for keeping an eye on this forum and informing people, it might be super obvious to people like yourself but to me it's the first time I've ever tried to sell a personal item through ebay/paypal so a completely new world!