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

[Temp20230526ak]

A man contact me because of a phone I'm selling on eBay and said he wanted to buy it for his cousin I sent him a PayPal invoice and then asked him to send his info so I can ship the phone. He gave me this John <removed> his adress <removed> Otta Ijoko Otta Ogun State Nigeria 234039

[CristenSkoly]

Got contacted py the same person and adress. It was his cousin's birthday and I had to ship the laptop quick!

[mamcintosh1]

I received the same messages. I'm indebted to my mom for buying me a new phone so I was selling my old one in order to pay her back....the person was offering me $500 to pay for the phone and then an extra $100 to ship the phone. They then said if I would receive my payment through PayPal as soon as I gave them my paypal email address: the conversation went as followed: -Sounds good.i am shipping it to someone special to me,which i will be adding $100 for the shipping cost and i will be paying now via paypal.so kindly get back to me with your paypal account email address so that i can proceed with the payment.- I proceeded with giving them my email address, hoping that this would turn out well. I then received an email a couple hours later from what I assumed was PayPal, stating that the money was being with held until I could provide a shipping code. Then I began to feel unsure about this. I then saw that I would be sending the phone to Nigeria!! This set me off. And then I realized that PayPal had emailed me before and i never have had to go to my junk mail in order to view their emails. So I figured I would Google it and see what pops up, and here it is. I was almost robbed of a phone. Thank goodness for forums and people sharing their stories!!

[PhilippeCV]

Same things happened with me tonight! Be careful everyone! I just posted an add on kijiji to sell 3 luxury watches for 1500$. 30 minutes later someone with the phone number <removed> texted me to know if the ITEM??? was still available. I said yes, and the person told me I am willing to pay 1500$ and the 200$ extra for shipping to nigeria with this address:

Name:jenifer <removed>

Address:<removed>

City:abeokuta

State:gun State.

Country:Nigeria

Postal Code:23401

Immediatly I realized this was a scam and I just told the person sorry, someone else just bought it.

Its ridiculous what people come up with these days to try to fool you and bring you down. Its ridiculous.

Be careful!

[jsphsms]

Received one today.

Wanted me to send the item to

Dape <removed>

<removed>,

Abesan, Ipaya

23401

Lagos State, Nigeria

Seemed fishy, then I googled the address, found this topic and read similar stories as to why it need be sent to Nigeria.

Scummy people.

[rmltrombley]

I don't know if I've just experienced one, but after stumbling across this thread while trying to be sure everything was legit, I decided not to go through with the transaction.

I wasn't even asking for a large amount of money- £50 for a digital camera which I'd actually posted on Gumtree. I sold another old camera earlier today to a man in Scotland who'd seen my item on Gumtree, but only because he agreed to let me post the item onto my Ebay account instead, and his payment came straight through, no problem. However, this lady emailed me the same broken english message about both cameras, before I'd deleted the one that had just been sold.

She asked for more photos of the item and wanted to be sure there were was no 'fault' in them, so I took some more and emailed them to her. She then said that she lived locally but was far too busy to pick up the item in person, but she wanted it as a present for her Godson studying abroad; she said she'd already looked up the royal mail cost which would be £25 and to send it directly to him instead. She asked me to request the money from her Paypal account (she refused to do the Ebay option and to send me the money to my paypal account instead, which made me wary), and when I asked where it was going to, she said Nigeria. And being curious and a bit nervous, I googled the address to see if it was legit, then found this thread. Glad I did now, I didn't particularly want to be sending any international packages anyway! Hence why I posted the item on Gumtree in the first place 😛

This is the address she gave:

Ola <removed>
<removed>

Shomolu
Lagos
Nigeria
23401

Still had no response after apologising and saying I wouldn't be going through with the transaction, so I think it was dodgy afterall!

(EDIT: The name used while exchanging emails was Jayne <removed>, just so you know)

[flailan]

i am currently texting someone from nigeria triing to buy my tablet and wants it shipped asap. offered to pay $150 EXTRA here is the name and address they are using:

samuel <removed>

<removed>

surulere

lagos

nigeria +23401

i am waiting for the deposit.........lol

[e-rman]

Hi there,

I have just experienced the same thing.

I recieved an offical email from ebay saying that the user account seems to be stolen stating the following:

"We recently learned that someone was using an account to bid on or buy items without the account owner's permission ..."

After this the username <removed> emailed me saying that he wants the items sent to the address below and he also stated that he had payed $150 for postage on top of the $350 I had listed for the laptop I was selling. Which sounded a bit strange.

Cole <removed>
<removed>
Lawanson, Surulere,
Lagos, 23401
Nigeria

Straight after that email I got a so called 'confirmation' from paypal with an email extension of  @payservics

Believe me, it looked so real at first glimps. These guys are pro's! Do not believe any emails that you get without the proper extension (in this case ebay.com or paypal.com).

I am too waiting for the deposit =D wasn't in a rush to sell it anyway...

[Temp20230526ag]

This same scam just was about to happen to me. I started thinking why would someone want to pay for someone to ship a For Sale Item (Posted on Craigslist btw) and then pay them extra money to ship it to another person in another country? Really Really Really think about who you are wanting to buy your Items! If they aren't willing to meet in person (Craigslist Style) then think twice!!!

[Kajaym]

Had a John <removed> reply to my Playstation 3 add on Kijiji. 

i want you to shipped item via Canada Air Parcel.

Name: Kelvin <removed>
Address: <removed>
City: Surulere
State: Lagos
Country: Nigeria
Code: +23401