I have just been scammed......paypal and western union......

[Joanna11]

Dear  all,

I have just been scammed.  All of the email sent to me looked like genuine Pay Pal emails.  I was trying to sell my sofa on Gumtree and someone calling themselves Sue <removed>, <removed> wanted to buy it.  She told me she wanted to pay using pay pal as she worked as an instructor on oil rigs and could not come around in person.  I was unsure and looked into it and it seemed a safe way to receive the money.

Once I had agreed to sell for £250 I received a paypal email telling me that Sue has paid me £550 into a paypal account and it was being held until i paid £260 via western union for the courier to collect the furniture.

I then received increasingly threatening emails from Sue, including ones threatening legal action and arrest from what looked like a genuine pay pal email account. 

Feeling upset that a buyer had got me to run around sorting out their courier fees i eventually conceded and paid Chris <removed> FRANCE £260  via Western Union. 

I phoned pay pal at this point and was told that none of the pay pal emails i had received were genuine. 

I emailed Sue <removed> to say i knew i had been scammed.  Astonishingly, he/she replied to say they were not scammers !!!!!!!!

BEWARE of any contact from buyers which is threatening and involves western union.  Do NOT pay up like I stupidly did.

[kernowlass]

@Joanna11

This scam has been ongoing for at least 15 years and is all over this forum and the internet, I must post at least 6 times per day to warn folks of it so sorry you were not one of them.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal do not tell you to send trackable, they advise it for selling protection but it is not compulsory.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram or Western Union etc.

[Joanna11]

I think if i had been buying and selling online for the last 15 years then i would have been aware, but i havent.  This was my first time and I have received so many threatening emails today.  I will be giving my furniture to a charity shop.

[kernowlass]

@Joanna11

I didn't say that you had to be a seller for 15 years, I said that the scam has been ongoing for that long.

The folks I help on a daily basis came here to ask first and I stopped them from getting scammed, they were often new as well.

I was just sorry you didn't check on here first as well.

[nevadasmith]

This type of scam has been going on for years,first is look at the email ending with Paypal.com.

IF NOT SURE,send it to spoof@paypal.com,it will tell you if it is from Paypal.

then he/she will tell you they are working on an oil rig or cruise ship or getting ready to be shipped to god knows where .

It reminds me of the days when I used to go to Manhattan and watched the scammers play a stupid game,of asking you where is the rubber ball?

he has 3 cups and he hid the ball under one of them,move the cups  around and you guess where is the ball? 

[ssssrrrr]

This person is currently trying to scam me too.

Thankfully I've seen through this and I am still in dialog with 'sue' ... PayPal ... anything we can do to track scum like this?

People be warned sue <removed> is a scammer ... and pretty rubbish one at that!

[ZhangRNDY10]

Then you recieved your money back from this scammed ?