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

[kernowlass]

They don't hack into paypal.

That is the whole point of the scam, NONE OF IT IS DONE USING PAYPALS SITE.

The email you received to say you had been paid was a spoof email so it looked as if it was from paypal.

But there would have been no funds in your paypal account balance.

Paypal NEVER expect you to send an item before the funds show in your paypal account balance. 

[Tan22]

See I'm new to this I wasn't to sure how it works I've only ever bought an item off eBay never sent one. I just think its out of order how their trying to scam people

[kernowlass]

Yes of course its out of order but most of them are gangs in Nigeria sending out thousands of emails per day to try and scam some folks so there is nothing paypal can do about it unfortunately.

Just make sure you NEVER send an item unless the money is showing in your paypal account balance.

[sandramfoster]

If you hit REPLY to these messages, you will see something other than what appears at first....in my case (today) the real email showed as <removed>

In addition to forwarding to spoof@paypal.com, I called and asked for the embedded names and email addresses to be verified, and of course they were not.

First clue....buyer offers to pay more

Second clue....address in Nigeria

Third clue......pressing for immediate shipment

[Flamemaker]

Hey I got the exact same thing dude. i was selling my xbox for 500 and he was offering $700for shipping. Once i shipped it the next day I looked at the area code (after sending it) and figured out it was a scam. I looked everywhere seeing if I could get my money back for this. Can't get the my package back at all. Can't get rhe police involved. And cant get a refund for my money for sending the package. He scammed me saying he had a nephiew in Nigeria for just getting to marine school and I was dumb enough to send it. And I didn't question it until he wanted me to send money from my own pocket to a money gram and send it to Nigeria. He then changed his story when I was asking him why didn't you just put it straight into my bank account and he said" I live off of that paypal account for 15 years no w and I'm perfectly fine. He then proceds to saying he needs it for medical bills..... After he said he just got into military school....... I go to the post office and they cant get the package back nor refund my money. Go to polive and they say it's a civil matter at this point. And I'm about to go to the bank asking if I could get my money back for this or anything they could help me out with this. We should talk if you have any succes in getting anything back because I'm very stuck and essentially down $700.

[Megz]

I JUST HAD THE SAME THING HAPPEN TODAY!

I had a pair of Jordans on craigslist for sale for $110, which wasnt a bad price and I had a guy contact me named (Owen <removed>) he told me he was in the USMC and is over seas on work. He had a North Carolina number, so i thought what the **bleep**. I began texting back and forth with him and he bagan to get pushy with me and being rude, i got a little weary so i began to back off. Me being the suspicious person I am asked some friends about this whole ordeal. Mr. Owen then told me he would send me $220 to cover all the costs to NIgeria since that where his friend would be reciving this package, I then began to ask questions and became more cautious with this deal, the transaction didnt go through and me wondering why I asked him he said the bank would not realese the funds until i sent out my tracking number, i thought this was bullcrap too so I googled all his "information" and number and what not and came acrossed this page. SO GLAD I DIDNT SEND THEM!

[Temp20230526aj]

Just got one today. Post to:

(Removed)

Stay safe people

[YukariBecky]

I've got a buyer with the address

(Removed)

The buyer originally said he's in UK, and on business trip in New Zealand. Then said he's in Nigeria and offer me 300AUD for just shipping cuz he want me to ship the item to Nigeria.

Tried to googled the address, cannot find it.

[gab122]

I was about to become the next victim, same story, a very persistent guy by the name of Mark <removed>. Suddenly the shipping address was changed to :

(Removed)

Gave him a fake tracking #  never texted me back

[dips007]

Hi,

I was nearly going to give a tracking number so that paypal could release my funds to me.

I was selling an item on ebay and had an email from victoria saying they would buy from me and give me extra money to ship abroad.  I ended the listing as the fees would be too much,  Gave him the item number and my paypal email address.

He then sent me an email from paypal supposedly, but the email requested tracking information before payment could be released.  So I asked him for his postal address and he sent me this

(removed)

I checked on paypal website and it says only release goods once you recieve payment in your account.  I then googled the address and lots of sites came up saying it was a scam.  Thankfully I didnt send anything to him/her 

Report them if they contact you