Suspected Scam Attempt

[mcphee44]

Hi,

I have been trying to sell a jacket on Gumtree and have been in contact with a potential buyer. We agreed a price and said I would post the item once he paid the cash which seemed fine. I have just received a suspect email from a yahoo.co.uk account basically saying that I need to confirm the item has been posted before I get the funds. I assume this is a attempt to get me to post them the item without being paid but is this a common trick to watch out for? Worth mentioning I am a complete newbie to selling things online in general.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks!

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@mcphee44

READ THIS AND SEE IF IT FITS !!!

SCAM.

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

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.
They will tell you that the payment is released when you provide paypal with a tracking/shipping number......this won't happen.

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.
Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.

[mcphee44]

This is an exact description of what happened to me. Email is from a yahoo account but to the naked eye looks like it is from Paypal direct. The have cc'ed in services@paypal email address to make it seems more legit. Thank you for the advice and confirming my suspicions.

[praizzhades249]

Same here just now, the scammer sent me email saying the item was paid and wanted me to ship before I get the money and the page looks like paypal but nothing is showing in my paypal account not even notification. Hence, I read some that sometimes the buyer may hold the funds once you shipped the item but I only received notification in my personal email and not in paypal account.