SCAM

[Kitty-kat153]

So I’m selling a camera via gumtree and I was contacted by a potential buyer and there was nothing weird about it, pretty standard to start with. Apparently this woman (Hanna <removed>) is disabled and would be unable to collect in person but said a courier would collect it instead, bit weird but okay. it came to the payment, this person had confirmed the amount with me which was correct (£300) but apparently they had accidentally payed £600 and the email I received from “PayPal” to confirm this looked real, they then said that I needed to bank transfer £300 to the courier (because they overpaid) when I said I couldn’t/wouldn’t do that, they got a bit annoyed after a slightly threatening email I received another email to say that “PayPal” would be taking legal action against me because I was going against their terms and conditions. Once I actually looked at the email address from “paypal” I realised that woman’s gmail (<removed>) was actually linked to the email address that I received the “PayPal” emails from. Then concluded that it was a scam. Luckily I didn’t give them many personal details (just details that anyone could get from wanting to buy something ie name, mobile number and email address) but definitely not my home address. I would ask that everyone is careful when buying or selling from personal sellers. I’m sharing my story because it might help someone or prevent someone from being scammed

[kernowlass]

@Kitty-kat153 

This scam has been going on for at least 10 years, all over this forum and internet, glad you were not scammed.

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a 'direct' Paypal payment.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails 'may' go into your junk/spam folders.

They don't quibble on cost and may also say they can't view the item as they are disabled or working abroad etc etc but they will arrange a shipping agent to collect it.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't actually have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.

The 'fake' paypal email will tell you that the buyer has paid for the item + shipping costs but you must send those shipping costs to the courier/ shipping agent via anther payment processor than Paypal OR via providing some vouchers or tokens before the funds are released to you.
They are not interested in the item, they just want that couriers/shipping funds and you will never see money in your paypal balance.

They also 'sometimes' threaten legal action...have a laugh at that one and ignore it as its rubbish.
Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.