Merchandise Scam

[drjimmy1]

Hello, i was targeted by a scammer who after investigating online tried to pull the commonly known 'Merchandise Scam'. I had an item listed on gumtree for sale (£50) and a reply confirmed they were happy for the exchange. They were apparently off-shore working but would arrange a courier to suitably collect so i gave them my home address, phone number, full name and Paypal email. They said they'd then transferred £350 and i would have to send £300 to the courier bank service, this is all very alarming. Needless to say there was no money in my Paypal but did have a confirmation email sent from a different Payapl service email than usual with different fonts etc.. I then replied acknowledging it was fraud and the email thread and their detail had been reported to Action Fraud. 

I am worried what damage could be done with the previously listed information i gave them about myself (home address, email address, full name and email address); could they possibly pretend to be me and access my Paypal account? i have added an additional two security questions and two factor authenticity since the scare, what else should i do, am i at risk?

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@drjimmy1 

This scam has been ongoing for at least the 10 years i have been helping on here and I post replies to it at least 6 times a day.

They are not interested in you, as soon as they know you are not going to send them money for the fake courier they move on to the next potential victim.

But don't reply back to them as they have been known to use your email address to sign you up to some unsavoury sites best to just ignore them.

And reporting them to action fraud sadly doesn't do a lot of good as they use hijacked or anonymous email addresses and work from internet cafes mostly in Asia or Africa.

[Staciebxix]

I just had this done to me like today had something up on Gumtree for £50 and they said I have to pay £305 to them and then I will get my payment! I'm so angry can they use my address or name etc to get into my bank details?

[lenalee2717]

Same here.  I put furnitures on Sphock and 2 people pulled the same trick on me.  One has a courier charge of £105 and the other had £400.  Threatened to report me to police as well.  I reported to Action Fraud and intend to report to PayPal as well.