Buyer requesting paypal address to send payment for product, is it safe?

[Anthony90]

I am trying to sell an item on craigslist.com and I have a potential buyer. He is asking for my PayPal address to send the funds. Once the payment clears his shipper will arrive at my location to pick up the product. Is this safe? What type of garauntee does PayPal offer that the funds are good and I will not be charged? This is the e-mail he sent me: 

Kind Regards....

Hello,

 Thanks for the swift esponse.I will like to purchase the item for my Son.He just set up a musical studio.I am out of town at the moment and i will be paying for the item through PayPal.If you send me your PayPal address and i will make the payment as soon as possible.Once the payment clears,my Shipper will come down to your plac to pick up the item.

If you do not have a paypal account or know about paypal,kindly go to www.paypal.com and set up an account.Paypal is easy medium for transactions and they ensure the safety and guaranteed of paymet between the buyer and the seller.

I look forward to reading from you.

[mspomi]

I have recieved the same type of email from something I was trying to sell on craigslist.

Did you find out if it was a scam or not?

[sadlerfan]

I am dealing with the same thing right now too and was looking for an answer. I asked them for their paypal id so I could send the invoice and they just said send it to their email they were messaging me from. I was trying to get their id to see if there was a way to check with paypal to see if they were actually a verified account.

[donewithit]

In order for them to send money to your paypal account, they will need your email address registered with paypal. Under no circumstances give them the password. All they need is the email address to put the money in your account. NEVER THE PASSWORD.

[sataylor]

I have a buyer who wants me to mail out the merchandise before they send my payment to paypal, I did this once already and never received payment. What is paypal's policy on this?

[PayPal_Adrian]

sataylor -

First, I'm sorry to hear that someone conned you like that the first time around.  My concern is that someone is up to it again, as they're taking the exact same route. 

PayPal always recommends that a merchant never ship merchandise before they have the funds in their Pending or Available balance.  In fact, scammers often create fake (phishing) emails to make you think they've sent a payment, when they haven't.  That's why seeing the payment in your Balance is the meterstick to go by.  PayPal never holds a payment out of the balance and asks you to provide tracking - we'll always show it in the balance.  If you don't see it there, don't send the merchandise.  They haven't sent a payment to you if it's not there, no matter what the other party promises or convincing emails you receive. 

For example, offline, if I called up a major store and asked them to send me a TV set, they wouldn't do it without receiving payment first.  This is because they can't force you to hand over cash or write a check, short of taking legal action against you.  Neither can they go to the bank or credit card company I use and demand payment, because the bank will say "then get a check from them" and the credit card company will say "then charge the card number they gave you."  Since they don't have that, the merchant can't charge me via those methods.  Basically, unless I actually send a payment, the merchant is out of immediate options.

Financial companies have pre-determined avenues to capture funds for a number of reasons, such as consumer protection, legal requirements, government and professional regulations, and fraud prevention.  When a merchant steps outside of that process, there's nothing a processor can do to force payment.

If you have sent an item without receiving payment, the first step is to recall the package if at all possible.  If that isn't feasible, the remaining options rest almost entirely in the realm of taking legal action against the buyer and notifying law enforcement agencies of the fraud.  You may be able to recover the package or the funds through these methods.

Thanks!

Adrian

[artmon7]

I just received the same email. The fraud can occur once the item (furniture in my case on craigslist) has been picked up by the buyer's 3rd party agent. The buyer who sent the money to you through Paypal (your invoice) can then declare the goods were not received and reverse the charges to their credit card or checking account.

You will have to prove that you gave (delivered) the items to the buyer in order to avoid the reversal of funds.

ONly accept cash or get a photograph of the legal ID of the person picking up the goods and be sure it matches the name etc on the paypal account that paid you.

[Ccrew]

Thanks to Artmon7 for replying. I was trying to sell something on craigslist also and the 'buyer' was very pushy, which made me uneasy. His emails were almost the same. It was a scam and when I asked him for the shipping company and told him the driver would need to show 2 forms of id at pick up, he stopped replying to me. I'm glad I read the post - it saved me from a lot of hassle.

[Paula715]

I'm so glad I checked in this forum first.  I am selling a new but dented refrigerator and although I asked for cash only in my craigslist ad, this person asked me to pay through paypal.  He even offered me $50 over my asking price....which is actually what sent up a red flag in my mind.  I thought if I did the transactions through paypal, I would be safe and protected, but it appears these slimy people have found a way around that too.

Happy holdiays everyone.  THANK YOU!
Paula

[eggleton62]

I received the same type of email. This one is from Frank who is an oceanographer wanting to buy a table from Craig's List. He stated that he is at sea and wants to buy this for his father who is in....Central America!!  He also suggested that if i did not have a paypal account, that it was easy to set one up.  When I asked him to send an invoice, he replied to send it to his email. I sent another email back stating that I needed his paypal account to send in invoice. He has refused. I am going to guess it is definitely a scam

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