Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

[glen1]

I got almost the same message, except now he's upgraded his education to become a petroleum engineer and he's buying the car for his Dad.

I told him to send cash with the courier before I'd let the car out of my sight.

Thanks for the swift response, am buying this as a surprise gift for dad for his birthday so i wont let him no until its been delivered to him and due to the nature of my job,i will not be able to come for inspection,am a very busy type as i work long hours everyday off shore ( am a petroleum engineer) who work at oil rig department,i have gone through your advertisement and i am satisfied with it.

As for the payment,i can only pay via the fastest and secure way to pay online i.e (PayPal) here, as i do not have access to my bank account online,but i have it attached to my pay pal account hence my insisting on using pay pal to pay.

I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after the payment has been made and with the issue of my details,transferring the name of ownership and signing of all paperwork will be done by the courier services company agent so you don't have to worry about that. You can now send me your PayPal email so i can pay in and also include your address in your reply.If you don't have a paypal account, you can easily set up one...log on to www.paypal.com and sign up its very easy... i would have loved to talk to you on phone but i work mainly offshore and our satellite server has been down due to the bad weather which restrict our calls,please get back to me asap

David

[retnur]

I wish I had read these posts earlier as I received an identical e-mail regarding a van I have for sale and I complied with his requests. This "David" even had the nerve to phone me this morning but because of his accent I was unable to understand his explanation of the delay in the transfer of money for payment.  I just have to be more cautious in the future!

[honest_0pinion]

I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after the payment has been made and with the issue of my details,transferring the name of ownership and signing of all paperwork will be done by the courier services company agent so you don't have to worry about that. You can now send me your PayPal email so i can pay in and also include your address in your reply.If you don't have a paypal account, you can easily set up one...log on to www.paypal.com and sign up its very easy... i would have loved to talk to you on phone but i work mainly offshore and our satellite server has been down due to the bad weather which restrict our calls,please get back to me asap

David

Thanks for the swift response, am buying this as a surprise gift for dad for his birthday so i wont let him know until its been delivered to him and due to the nature of my job,i will not be able to come for inspection,am a very busy type as i work long hours everyday off shore ( am a petroleum engineer) who work at oil rig department,i have gone through your advertisement and i am satisfied with it.

As for the payment,i can only pay via the fastest and secure way to pay online i.e (PayPal) here, as i do not have access to my bank account online,but i have it attached to my pay pal account hence my insistence on using pay pal to pay.

As you can see, I have recieved the same e-mail as a poster above.

[jokifer]

I am trying to sell a used truck on kijiji and I received a txt message similar.   Only difference is this person is on his way to Italy and is buying the vehicle for his dad.  When I asked for contact info and name he never replied back.  Gave him an email that he can send me an email tsf and he said he doesn't trust on line banking.  I told him I don't trust people on their way to Italy buying a cheap truck site unseen for someone using pay pal... The phone exchange on his txt has him located in South Dakota, 

[Smorgana]

Wow, I received an email too that was nearly identical to this except it was a hydrographer and currently at sea.  I had been looking all over the Paypal site for information regarding this type of sale and a guarantee for my money. I finally found this Community Forum and was amazed at the number of posts regarding this very topic.  Thanks so much.  Sellers beware!!!

[Notimpressed2]

Great topics listed here for buyers using Paypal wanting to migrate to seller status.  Does make you wonder at the lack of formal PayPal responses to this series of topics..... 

[YourKard]

I have had 2 people wanting to pay full price ($35000), sight unseen, using PayPal. After reading about chargebacks on the PayPal site this is what I expect they are doing. They will pay the amount using PayPal and a credit card. Once they have secured possession of the goods there will be a chargeback process started and the funds in the seller's PayPal account will be "frozen" until the dispute is resolved. If the chargeback is allowed you will be out your goods and the money.

I have no idea how long a person has to make a chargeback claim. I need PayPal to clarify this.  

[PayPal_Adrian]

YourKard -

Welcome to the boards!

Chargeback claims are initiated by the card issuer, not by PayPal, so those timeframes are determined by each card issuer, whether it is Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or some other issuing entity.  From my experience, I can tell you that MasterCard usually only allows 60 days for their cardholders to dispute a transaction, but other card issuers may vary based upon card type and reason for the chargeback.

As for the scenarios you mentioned, those are some awfully large charges for seeing an item sight unseen.  I think you have every right to be cautious, not just because of how large the amount is, but also due to the circumstances. 

Most fraudsters are more than willing to pay any amount for any item - because if they actually do pay you (which most just try to trick you into believing they've paid or try to get you to wire money in advance based on promise of payment), it usually isn't their money anyways.  If it isn't their money, what do they care, right? 

Good catch!

Adrian

[kayjack]

Funny, I am a (retired) Marine Engineer but I have never attempted to purchase a car while @ sea

I am also trying to sell a car on Craigslist and also got a couple of the same kind of replies. I immediately smelled SCAM and just replied that I only take cash or bank-draft as payment.

Here's are the contents of the email exchange:

Do you still have the above listed ad available for sales

------------------------------------------------------------

OK,good.How i wish to come and view the item but am out of state now.I am really interested in purchasing your  item to my new home.What is body condition of the item and how old is the item and hope there is no physical problem wrong with the item...So if there is other info i need to know about the item please let me know it now so i can know what to do...

1.Your PayPal Email Address.
2.Your cell/phone number.
3.Your home Address

I will arranged the preparation for the item to be picked up.So i will like to purchase at the lowest and listed price, so what is the price...Await your response
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Alright i understand,but i just want to let you know that i can't bring cash to you cos am currently on the sea due to the nature of my job,and am only paying through PayPal cos they are very fast and secure and it's one of the best means of transacting online, even in a situation like this where the seller is in some distance away from the buyer they will make every thing work fine and fast. it will be also use full for you in some other activities,so send me your PayPal email address for instant payment..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is obiously a scam, but I am curious as to how these scams work with PayPal.

PayPal is supposedly a very safe way to conduct money transactions so I am curious, can anybody explain how exactly these scams work ??