Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

PayPal_Adrian
PayPal Employee
PayPal Employee

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

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1,006 REPLIES 1,006

monikaw29
New Community Member

 

Clearly fraud in Nigeria is becoming quite popular. Make sure to investiage all Nigeria bound shipping addresses to see if they even exsist. Becareful, you may get e-mails that look exactly paypal generated stating you will not get paid until you send the product with tracking. DO NOT ship with tracking - as youre not supposed to. These "paypal" looking e-mails often show up in your spam box. These sellers will try to convince you that the entire transaction is real - but trust your own pending paypal transactions, if it is not showing up on paypal it is a scam. Someone just tried to buy a game console from me, and the entire experience is just as i described. the buyer made it look like he had deposited 600 dollars into my paypal account to ship the product express interntational. - i don't know why at first i did not see this as a big red flag, but i guess i just believed the story of how  the buyer was shipping to a relative for a birthday. they may also text you from a US number, making it seem even more realisitc. becareful!!!!!!

 

Example of fraud address:

 

ADEREMI  <removed>

<removed>
 IPAJA
 Nigeria

 

 

 

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mevale24
New Community Member

im actually going through this right now, i had posted my playstation on ebay and the next morning it was sold to a grace <removed> in dallas texas. so i said ok, and went through the process, and then got an email saying to ship it to this address:

     <removed>

     abesan ipaja

     lagos state

     23401

     nigeria

thats when i started to question everything, so i googled the address and came across this forum, luckily i have Not shipped the item yet. and right now im not sure what to do now. can anyone help me, please?

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kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

They probably used a hijacked ebay account.

 

File an unpaid item dispute to get your final value fee back so you can relist

 

But if i were you to reduce scams use your buyer blocks to block international bidders.


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
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Timsurbo
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately, they got my smartphone and money.
Another one: 

 

Name.........
Address......
City.............
State............
Country......
Zip code......
 

Personal details have been removed to comply with forum guidelines.

 

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halfofit
Member
Member
Thank you..how about the condition? because am buying it for my Junior brother he went to finish his Church freedom mission affiliated INC. i want it packaged has (GIFT)to him i will pay you first and it's $700 for everything including the shipping fee, let me know if you are okay with my offer ?
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halfofit
Member
Member

I've successfully sent out the payment of $700 to your paypal account ( )and the funds has been deducted from my account. Here's Recipient's Name and Delivery Address in West Africa below :Joe <removed> <removed> Itire Surulere Lagos 23401 Nigeria Keep me posted as soon as you received confirmation of payment from PayPal. Awaiting your swift response asap Thanks And God Bless

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Coach_Meryse
New Community Member

This No Good son of a Gun tryed to fraud my son.

We are selling a ipod 5 and this guy contacts us, we negotiate the price, then I sent him an invoice from my paypal account.

Soon after I get "Fake" Payment confirmation from a Bogus paypal look alike email, but what rang the bell for me it they did not adress me with my full name as Paypal always does....

 

I forwarded the fake email to spoof@paypal.com and they confirmed it was a fishing attempt.

 

Beware of the Nigerians!! 

 

Here is the one who tryed to get us: John <removed> <removed>,itire Surulere, Lagos,

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asprouse321
New Community Member

Unfortunately, I fell for the fraud account. I have never sold anything off eBay until this past week. I sold my 5th generation iPod touch (32 gb) for $230. I misread something on the eBay site and thought I had to send the package in order for PayPal to give me my money, but I was wrong. I sent off my iPod this past Monday (two days ago) and got a message yesterday saying that it was a fraud account and that I should not send off my package and that if I already have, I should stop it through the carrier I sent it to. I have been spending the past 24 hours trying everything I can to stop the package from being delivered but unfortunately, USPS does not allow me to do much more than put in a request to "intercept the package" and get it sent back to my house. I am still awaiting either the sad confirmation of a delivery or the confirmation of successfully intercepting the package. I wish I would have followed my instincts and not have sent the package.

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Anonymous_User
Not applicable

Found a guy! His email addresses are <removed> and his PayPal email address is <removed>! He offered me to pay for my item on Kijiji using PayPal (which is against the rules of Kijiji) and when he send me the address of shipping, I realised it was the Nigerian scammer that I heared about. Here's what he sended me : 

I live and work in Edmonton so i don't have time to meet up or do the shipping my self due to my work engagement so i will be paying for the shipping cost but i'm buying the item for my son in west Africa so here is the address item:
Name: Tunde <removed>.
Address:# <removed>
City: Abeokuta
State: Ogun State
Country: Nigeria
Zip Code: 23403
We gotta arrest the guy as quick as possible! Let's hope nobody falls in the trap.
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thwhykca
New Community Member

Thanks for the info.

I just started dealing with this guy and felt something weared.

I received an exactly same message as shown above.

I was lucky to realize and found this post.

I hope no one is hooked...

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