Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

PayPal_Adrian
PayPal Employee
PayPal Employee

Hello everyone!

 

One of the greatest strengths consumers possess against fraud and phishing is education and collaboration.  To help support your safety online, I'm going to open this special thread up for you.  Here, you can post examples of what you believe to be attempts by individuals to defraud you or others of their hard earned valuables and money. 

 

Before we begin, a few housekeeping points:

 

  • We will be using this as a "master thread," so if we find an example in other areas of the boards, we may merge the post into this one.

 

  • For everyone's safety, please remove any last names or contact information (including email addresses) from your examples.  In many instances, the names provided by fraudsters are fake or may actually be the name of someone they already defrauded. 

 

  • On that same note, please don't ever attempt to confront a fraudster or attempt to track them down.  Instead, turn the information you do have over to your local authorities. 

 

  • Please also remove any links from your posts, as these could potentially go to spoofed or phishing websites.

 

Other than that, we only ask that you keep it productive and stay within the Forum Decorum and posting guidelines.  I'll be stopping in on a regular basis to clean house and comment on posts, so don't be surprised if you see my mug - or another moderator - stopping in to say hello! 

  

 

With that said, I'm going to start moving posts in, so you might see some older examples mixed in with the new posts.  I hope this thread becomes a great resource for everyone!

 

Stay safe,

 

Adrian

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Did my post solve the issue? If so, please accept it as a solution!
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1,005 REPLIES 1,005

Jan_Mak
Contributor
Contributor

This is a scam.  I had the same email for my motorcycle.  There must be something this person is doing to get you to give your password or send the vehicle and then his payment is rejected.  I don't know what exactly vut I don't want to find out

 

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Temp20230526X
New Community Member

amirnad
Contributor
Contributor

Hi

Thanks for the reply, later I had received couple of more emails and even phone calls from this guy, so I called Paypal customer support. Paypal customer support was very very helpful and they listened to me carefully and then ask me to forward such emails which I did.

I am glad fore not a victim of such scam just because of you guys and good support from paypal.

 

thanks all.

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madyson7mommy
New Community Member

Hello,  I actually have had the same scenerio...  But of course, I was quite suspicious with this gentleman.   I am selling a motorcycle suit through www.kijiji.ca  when someone replies about the item, it is replyed through that site.   This email came from a personal one, so that got me thinking.  The email was as follows...

 

Thanks for the quick response, hope this item is in good condition
because am currently out of the state  for reason and it will take
long time for me to come back  so  i will not be able to come  for the
inspection nor the pick up  of the item but i will make arrangement
for that on my ends, i will add $350 to your listed price so that you
can be sure i want this item ...kindly get back to me with your PayPal
email so that i can make the transfer using my PayPal account....hope
to read from you (I would appreciate if you email me with more
pictures (if available) too,since i won't be be able to see this in
person)

 

Never giving me a name and when I replyed that I didn't have a paypal and mentioned him sending an email transfer he continued to push the paypal payment.  After reading all of your posts I am very happy that I went with my gut.  Is there anything that I can do???  Do I send paypal the email address and all the emails??? 

 

Thanks!

Madyson7mommy

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saraandjoe
New Community Member

This is what I received after I had already sent $3550 for the shipping. Now they want me to send an additional $4950 for the insurance. I am really upset. I just want my money back. What can I do. Please help me!!!!! I had posted my add for my van for sale on kijiji.com

 

 

We have a large number of customers and we are only here to offer them the best security service for their mind to be at ease that their money is being safely handled.  You are also one of our numerous customers and your membership in our community is of great value to us, that is why we will serve you with our  best security strategies so that you will have a good recommendation about our company though it might seems annoying and extorting at first but at the end of the transaction,You will be happy for your safe delivery of your total fund into your account.
  We want you to understand that the upfront fees we are requesting of you to send before your total fund is released into your account is due to lots of fraudulent act by some seller after crediting their account and run off with all the money,which make PayPal to have loose millions of dollar in the past by refunding all the stolen money to the buyer from our pocket,It was not the opinion of your buyer neither the shipping firm that PayPal should be holding your fund in our escrow account but this procedure is a strong security measure taken by PayPal in this kind of huge transactions and it cannot be altered.
 

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Taranabas
New Community Member
Jenny  to me
show details 9:32 AM (4 hours ago)
 

Thanks for the prompt reply,I will like to know the lowest price for it, i want you to get back to me with more picture and the present condition of it because i could not come over to inspect it, i am buying it locally here as a birthday gift for my Son that is living in Malaysia.
     I am at sea at the moment as i am an Oceanographer ( i work on Great Ocean Road in South-West Victoria,Australia ) and due to the nature of my work, phone calls is restricted. It was my son that check your advert and sent you a text to contact me (his mother ) on my email address because i am currently offshore .
     I  am really sure he will be more than happy if i am able to purchase it from you because this is what he want and chose from the Advert.
     You need not worry yourself about how it will get to him there in Malaysia as i have a contact of shipping company there that will be handling the pick up and all the paper work.    
"

 

      This is the story I was given. The red flag for me was that miss 'Jenny', who has a very english name, and a supposed degree in oceanography, speaks terrible english! I fell for it at first, but through further prodding, the story began to develop alot of holes.  

 

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DC1DAKOTA
New Community Member

I just got approached by "Angelina" who is currently offshore and wants to buy my van.

Thank you guys for opening my eys.At first it sounded pretty real but i became skeptical and looked for answers .

can people reverse transactions when they payed using PayPal?I never used PayPal before.

Thank you for saving my butt.

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thezictes
New Community Member
This is what the letter said, then i checked my account first, luckily, only to see absolutely nothing happened...
careful..


Email address was <removed>

Dear Valued Member,

Recently, our system has detected unusual charges to a credit card linked to your PayPal account.

Access to your account was limited for the following reason:

We have established that someone tried to access your PayPal account without
your permission. To ensure greater security, we have limited access to your account. We have sent
you an attachment which contains all the necessary steps in order to restore your account access.
Please download and open it in your browser.

(The locator for this reason is PP-486-812-205)

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this
is a security measure intended to protect you and your account. We apologise for any inconvenience.


Thank you,
PayPal Account Review Department



--Forwarded Message Attachment--



















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zeddydado
Member
Member

I received the same e-mail this morning and it just did not smell right! Dumped it right away when I saw that it was not a paypal message. Doing a full scan now. Never give out personal info. over the web unless you are sure of the website! 🙂

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Beysie
Contributor
Contributor

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