Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

[PayPal_Adrian]

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

[PandaSurplus]

Hey, I'm trying to post an email I received but it keeps coming up with errors. I removed the links, removed the names, removed the emails but it still wont let me post. It says fix the items in red, but the whole body of text is red!

Help! Newbie alert.

[LatteGirl]

Just received an email which postini took care of but thought I would share - It is from

<removed>

It's not nice to try and scare people into sharing their PayPal information. I would love it if good hackers could take down these types! In the meantime watch out.

[goodfella1]

Hello my name is German im from nova Scotia..I had a guy by the name herb offer me 4000 plus shipping for my car...was less then a month into my paypal account it was first transaction....i was told to send the money to kitchener ontario to Edith was the account on account at shipping company...2 days later I get am email which I think is from papal saying there going to charge me for fraud if I don't pay the shipping company to receive my 5000 dollars in total..I had received about 6 emails in total from papal..So I sent the 810 dollars Sunday mammoth 2012..Called western union on the 14th first thing in the morning..And they tell me it was a scam...Like if they knew this was a scam why wasn't it red flagged when they put the name Edith in the western union computer program..Less then 48 hrs they told me this..So I lose out on 810 dollars..Not very pleased I tell you that one..So for everyone reading out there I hope you read this before you become a victimizing I did..

[jred]

Hi Guys

Recieved multiple emails from an oceanographer who was willing to buy my vehicle site unseen and have an agent pick it up! IF i sent some money through western union first

they said they had payed the money but it was on hold and i was expected to fork up my own money and be payed back the around 550$ that i had sent to England

I definitly sent all the Info to spoof@paypal.com

thanks everyone for posting your stories

hopefully no one gets hit with this

Also mine was posted through Buyselltrade on vancouver isladn, so they have a widespread reach

She was supposedly buying the care for her dad in washington

[draco72]

ust recieved and email from i would believe to be the same guy he said he sent the money through my account but my account has no money in it the persons name is carlos he says he is a oceanographer and he wanted to buy my boat paypal has told me that it is a scam...

[PayPal_Adrian]

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to drop by and post a friendly reminder.

• 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. Re-publishing them may further victimize someone who has already been the victim of identity theft.

• 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.

Thanks!

Adrian

[MediaBookkeeper]

Received this yesterday:

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   Transaction ID: 18429410 <http://handymanhardware[LINK REMOVED]    

Hello [EMAIL REMOVED],
 
You  sent a payment of $517.48 USD to  [NAME REMOVED]
 
   
  Thanks for using PayPal. To see all the transaction details, Log In <http://xinbuxin[LINK REMOVED]>  to your PayPal account. 

It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.

 Seller

[EMAIL REMOVED] Note  to seller
You haven't included a note.  
 Shipping address - confirmed
[ADDRESS REMOVED]
 Manlius
 United States
  Shipping  details
The seller hasn't provided any shipping details yet.    
   
 Description Unit price Qty Amount  
 PHOTAX PLASTIC SLIDE CASE PLUS 175 x 35mm SLIDES <http://jessicafikebl[LINK REMOVED]
 Item# 620277822
  $517.48 USD 23 $517.48 USD
       
     
 Shipping and handling $0.00 USD  
 Insurance - not offered ----  
 Total $517.48 USD  
 Payment $517.48 USD  

             Issues with this transaction?
You have 45 days from the date of the transaction to open a dispute in the Resolution Center.
 
 Questions? Go to the Help Center at: www.paypal.com/help <http://michellepfeiffer[LINK REMOVED]
 
 Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click Help in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

 You can receive plain text emails instead of HTML emails. To change your Notifications preferences, log in to your account, go to your Profile, and click My  settings.

 
 PayPal Email ID PP844   

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[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi MediaBookkeeper,

Welcome to the forums! 🙂

Thank you for posting that. That looks like the new phishing email going around. It's pretty tricky. Please remember to always avoid clicking links in emails.

Here's another example of what it may look like. Click here to see a full-size version.

[Moe16]

I recently received a notification from notify at paypal.com (I've typed in that way so I'm not posting the actual link).   Anyway it claimed I had purchased a $781 dollar item (which i did not) and then directed me to a log in page and to paypal.com / help.  

The links didn't seem to go to the right places for me to investigate.  

I typed the transaction ID in the resolution tab at paypal and it came back invalid, so I'm guessing this isn't legit.  I thought I would report it and advice anyone else to not to go the links.  Instead log in to your paypal account online and check the transaction ID.  

If anyone else has read anything like this, please verify.  

[quakechick]

Ok I will be needing your email with PayPal for the payment,once payment has been completed,i will have it picked up by an international shipping company as i am having it shipped abroad and they have liaisons with local companies in every cities,so getting to you shouldn't be a problem, the shipping company will be handling the bill of sale.

Regards

This was sent on an ad I posted on kijiji for a vehicle Im selling!  Told him I would prefer an online money transfer sent from his online acct, we shall see if he still wants the car.... lmao