Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

[PayPal_Adrian]

Hello everyone!

One of the greatest strengths consumers possess against fraud and phishing is education and collaboration.  To help support your safety online, I'm going to open this special thread up for you.  Here, you can post examples of what you believe to be attempts by individuals to defraud you or others of their hard earned valuables and money. 

Before we begin, a few housekeeping points:

• We will be using this as a "master thread," so if we find an example in other areas of the boards, we may merge the post into this one.

• For everyone's safety, please remove any last names or contact information (including email addresses) from your examples.  In many instances, the names provided by fraudsters are fake or may actually be the name of someone they already defrauded. 

• On that same note, please don't ever attempt to confront a fraudster or attempt to track them down.  Instead, turn the information you do have over to your local authorities. 

• Please also remove any links from your posts, as these could potentially go to spoofed or phishing websites.

Other than that, we only ask that you keep it productive and stay within the Forum Decorum and posting guidelines.  I'll be stopping in on a regular basis to clean house and comment on posts, so don't be surprised if you see my mug - or another moderator - stopping in to say hello! 

With that said, I'm going to start moving posts in, so you might see some older examples mixed in with the new posts.  I hope this thread becomes a great resource for everyone!

Stay safe,

Adrian

[bastable]

ya dont fall for it, its a new big scam game frenzi right now?  they will have you send them items in mail without any intent of payment.  second if you dont see it on paypal to confirm its BULL**bleep** and dont fall fot it!  thirdly dont trust pick up agent gimmick, all bull **bleep** and all in the past week. its AMAZING. they will get some poeple out at the rate their going$$$$$$

[At0micTangerine]

I too got a message about my truck that I posted on craigslist. Here is the message from Rowena <removed> at *removed*

I am a marine technician and am always busy at sea.. I am contacting you via email because that works best for me as we are not allowed to make or receive calls frequently for security reasons. Presently, I am on duty and coming to your residence for inspection won't be possible as i have said earlier. I have gone through the advertisement add and for what am seeing through the advertisement add am highly interested in immediate purchase of it. So kindly get back to me with its present condition and Your absolute bottom price as I would love to go ahead with the deal right away.

Note that I have a pick up agent that will come for pick up after payment have been received which would be through PayPal If this is acceptable. I am buying this for my son as a gift, I will be paying you online via my PayPal account which is linked to my bank account because it is the only form of payment that I have access to right now and also because of its good security nature.  All I will need is Your pick up location and Your PayPal Email ID to effect the payment. if you do not have a PayPal account yet, its pretty easy to set one up at WWW.paypal.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you, Thanks.

I emailed her/him back and let her know that I doubled the price of my truck. I will see what the response is...

[temp20190415]

Hi All

  I got request to pay via western union and no paypal payment but in my email spam box was this. It is a scam i refused told him no ship until paypal web site has your funds . He got mad told me to follow his directions better and see my payment in the spam box of my email. It looked good and was there 4 e mails total.

This below was where I was to send the money. Bone head.

 GLOBAL SHIPPING COMPANY AGENT ADDRESS BELOW
                             ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                        Name:  John *removed*
                                        City:      Willingboro
                                        State:    New Jersey
                                        Zip Code:  08046
                                        Country:   USA
                                        

                             
                              WESTERN UNION DETAIL'S REQUIRED AFTER PAYMENT BEEN MADE
                             ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------       
          

                            (1)SENDER NAME
                            (2)MTCN
                            (3)WESTERN UNION  SCAN RECEIPT

[DFries]

I just got an email with pretty much the exact same text, regarding a car I'd posted. From "Rowena" no less. Weird wording, definitely a scam. Hopefully whomever it is hasn't fooled too many people.

[TimNJust]

I Have Received Two Email's From "Paypal" One Has My Name And The Other Has My Email, I Was Told That The Second Addressing Me By My Email Could Be A Scam??? I'm Not Sure As I'm Really New To Paypal... Can Someone Let Me Know????

[twelvegage]

I had someone trying to buy a tv from me. it sounded suspicious, because he first said he was from california, than he wanted me to send it to nigeria. is there any way top confirm a pending payment from paypal. im a new user and any help would be appreciated.    

thank you

Dear   Ryan

   Thank you for using PayPal for your online auctions. We at PayPal are ensuring that all our customers and auction site are fraud free.

We just want to let you know that we are yet to confirm shipment, as the item has not been posted yet. Kindly get back to us as soon as the item is posted, so that we can confirm shipment and the money will be credited into your account immediately.

In our efforts to secure our merchants, We are now receiving payments for items that are to be shipped internationally through our secure server. This is to ensure that the seller and buyer do their responsibility in every transaction we handle.We have now received and confirmed Payment From"Williams Description:Goods.This payment is currently pending to be credited into your account due to the security measures we have taken. You are now required to ship out the item and send us the shipment reference number for verification of shipment. As soon as we have verified the shipment which normally takes about 24 hours, your account will be credited with the full payment.This security measure is embark on, due to the fact that the buyer was subscribed under"PayPal User Protection"Policy so as to secure the buyer's transaction.  This security methods have been taken due to fraudulent sellers, if you click the links below you will see an example of these eBay sellers:

We await the shipment reference number for verification so we can credit your account immediately. Note that you are advised not to send out the shipment reference number to the buyer until we have verified the shipment and credited your account.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team.                         

 

Hello   Ryan

This PayPal® payment of $450.00 CAD has been deducted from the buyer's account Williams  and has  been "APPROVED"  but will not be credited to your account until the Shipment reference/tracking number is sent to us for verification. This security measure is embark on, due to the fact that the buyer was subscribed under PayPal User Protection Policy so as to secure the buyer's transaction. 

Note:You have to post the package with a Registered Postage to the appropriate address given to you to ensure safety,

 We alert you to tell you your money is been "Pending" since we have not received any Reference Tracking details for the shipment verification.

Warning: Do not provide the Reference Tracking details to the buyer till we confirmed the Postage and your account been credited.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
 

  
 

[valleyhill]

I too have received a number of emails who is a marine engineer and insisted on my personal email and using paypal for a Craigslist transaction.  I smelled a scam.  I copied a scam alert link and announced that our conversation was concluded. Here is a copy of the email:

Thanks for the email, I am a marine technician and am always busy at sea.. I am contacting you via email because that works best for me as we are not allowed to make or receive calls frequently for security reasons. Presently, I am on duty and coming to your residence for inspection won't be possible as i have said earlier. I have gone through the advertisement add and for what am seeing through the advertisement add am highly interested in immediate purchase of it. So kindly get back to me with its present condition and Your absolute bottom price as I would love to go ahead with the deal right away.

Note that I have a pick up agent that will come for pick up after payment have been received which would be through PayPal If this is acceptable. I am buying this for my son as a gift, I will be paying you online via my PayPal account which is linked to my bank account because it is the only form of payment that I have access to right now and also because of its good security nature.  All I will need is Your pick up location and Your PayPal Email ID to effect the payment. if you do not have a PayPal account yet, its pretty easy to set one up at 

Looking forward to hearing from you, Thanks.

[anngiehunter75]

I get daily emails from "PayPal" saying they are missing information on my account, that I should download form, fill it out with my updated information...also ones that my acct has been suspended....these emails look soo real! Right down to your images etc..I havent used my paypal acct in quite some time, but will be in the future..it makes me nervous that scammers are doing this. Thankfully i dont use a big name credit card, i only use my pay-as-u-go credit card, so if anyone does get my info, they're not getting major $.

Does the REAL PayPal ever send out emails? or do i have to log into my account directly for any messages etc...please let me know, as i keep tagging the emails i do get as phishing scam..as i dont want to miss any REAL emails from you..thx

[TsufakTuna]

Hi anngiehunter75,

if you feel any emails are phishing related or scams you can report them by forwarding them to spoof@paypal.com.

More information can be found here https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/general/Spoof-outside

[vereid]

I received these emails and they are so bold as to remail if you don't login, I reported the emails to PayPal

Never login from your email account.....