Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

[Elvis210]

Will you ship an item before receiving the money first?... Won't you be worried that you won't receive the money

[kernowlass]

@Elvis210 

As long as the funds are SHOWING in your paypal balance but on hold by paypal then there is no more risk than if they were in your bank account.

The hold is to protect paypal from bad sellers, if the buyer raises a dispute and wins and the funds are in the buyers balance on hold then paypal can refund them.

HOWEVER if they are in the sellers bank account then paypal would have to refund the buyer and chase the seller to pay them back by putting their paypal balance into negative and chasing them for the funds.

Buyers have no idea if the funds are on hold or not as it matters little to their buyer protection.

[franK-6_2]

Hello

I received an email from a buyer that has this in the body of the message ,its got me nervous , "i include the delivery costs in the payment i sent.Paypal will also get in touch with you with the details and information you will need to send the money to the delivery agent.I was also sent $550 more than selling price,is it a scam?

[kernowlass]

@franK-6_2 

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a direct Paypal payment and offer you the full amount or more to tempt you into accepting, they don't care as they are never going to send you any money anyway.
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 as they are disabled or working abroad or sending as a gift to a family member 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 often not interested in the item, they just want that couriers/shipping funds and you will never see money in your paypal balance.

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 item that is collected by the buyer.

Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.