fraud

[Martin3927]

Hi

I posted on gumtree to sell an itemfor £150

After 2 mintues someone messaged me saying want to buy someone will come and collect it

but the driver wanted to be paid with amazon gift card of £100.

So he will send me £150 + £100 for the gift card(he said he cannot go out so wants me to buy it and give it to the driver) +£20 for my time for buying the card.

This doesn't sound normal for me.

Is it a kind of paypal overpayment scam?

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@Martin3927 

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 but they will arrange a shipping agent or courier 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 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 another payment processor than Paypal or by 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.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram, Western Union, Bank Transfer or any sort of gift token or voucher.
There is no seller protection on paypal for any type of item that is collected by the buyer.

Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.