Courier collection

[rogerwaudby269]

I'm selling a fridge (through facebook and gumtree) and have received this e-mail:-

"Great!please consider them sold as i am willing to pay your full asking price because i need to buy it for my Cousin asap, i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it,sadly i would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and me being in wheelchair.
I have a courier agent that would help me to pick it up at your preferred location after you have received your money and i'll pay you via PayPal today.
Where is the pick up location so that i can inform the courier agent about it now?
Please get back to me asap..."

I'm quite sceptical? it seems a bit dodgy...any thoughts. Do i have protection if I send the item?

[kernowlass]

@rogerwaudby269 

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a 'direct' Paypal payment.

No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails 'may' go into your junk or spam folders.

They don't quibble on cost and may also say they can't view the item as they are disabled or working abroad etc etc but they will arrange a shipping agent/courier to collect it.

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.

The 'fake' paypal email will tell you that the buyer has paid for the item + shipping costs but you must send those shipping costs to the courier/ shipping agent via anther payment processor than Paypal OR via providing some vouchers or tokens BEFORE the funds are released to you.
They are not interested in the item, they just want that couriers/shipping funds and you will never see money in your paypal balance.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram or Western Union etc.
Also their is no seller protection on paypal for any type of item that is collected by the buyer.
Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.

[rogerwaudby269]

Thank you. I suspected a scam. I've just been reading on Gumtree about paypal scams. I've sent my pay pal link- can they hack my account? I've set up 2 stage authentication- just worried as they have my address, e-mail and mobile number

[kernowlass]

@rogerwaudby269 

They are not interested in your account, if they can't scam you for money they will move on to someone else, been going on the same scam for at least 15 years.