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

[ms_showdog]

I had the same thing just happen.  You do not want to sell anything to Nigeria.  There are pages and pages of the scams from there.  Sell local.  Safest way.  

I called Paypal and they said to send to address tied to account not address the buyer gives to you.  They were leery of this.  You would think Paypal could block accounts that are tied to these mailings.  

I was to send to his cousin:  Alvin <removed> at <removed>, Surlere, Lagos, Nigeria.

Googled the address and nothing but scam info associated with it.  

[Jashi27]

I just went throught this yesterday. Unfortuneatley this being my first time ever selling anything online I fell for it. I "sold" my laptop to a woman who claimed to be Rita Ryan for her son who is "an engineer student studying aboad in NIgera for his birthday". Once I agreed to ship the laptop i was harrassed repeatedly by this person with asking me when I was making the shipment and that they would press charges against me because I haven't shipped the item yet. Mind you it was the same day the item had been "sold" that they wanted me to ship out the computer. There was then another person who made contact with me vis text message claiming to be Rita Ryan's husband, Mike Ryan and that he was contacting me because his wife was worried about me not shipping the item and that he told her that he would take care of it. I then began being harrassed via text message by him as well on when I would make the shipment and that he told his son about the laptop already and that he was excited about it. I told him that if he keeps harassing me about when I would ship the item then I would just request that his wife be given a refund. He told me that I was unable to do that and that if I did I would be letting his wife down because I promised her that I would ship the laptop to her son for his birthday. I eventually started ignoring their text and phone calls. I then shipped the laptop off this morning thinking the email I got from paypal was legit saying that once i sent them a tracking number that the money would be released to my account. Once I sent the tracking number and never recieved any reply back from paypal I called them and thats when they verified that the email I got was not sent from them and that the email address for the Rita Ryan person wasn't assoiciated with a paypal account AND that the transaction ID number that was given wasn't valid. I hate i fell for this but now I know to pay better attention and to follow my instinct. I've tried calling the post office to stop shipment of my laptop but so far with no luck. I will keep trying but if I dont get my laptop back, I'll just have to take it as a lesson learned.

[Tobyjohnwilkins]

I have just given my PayPal email, PayPal name and eBay item code, is there anyway they can take money from my associated cards? Really worried about this now I've found this. Glad I haven't sent anything yet. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance!

[kernowlass]

@Tobyjohnwilkins

As long as you did not give them your paypal password you are fine.

[kba11]

I'm also extremely glad I googled this. I posted to sell a camera on craigslist and got a text from someone saying they would pay me $50 more than the asking price to ship, insure and send the camera to their nephew for a last minute wedding gift. I always heard you do these exchanges in public places, in person, and only accept cash. When they said they would pay me up front through paypal that made me a little more comfortable. When I requested they send me the zip code so that I could look up the shipping they didn't at first, then I inquired if it was in the United States and they sent me the information in the following format:

State: Lagos

Zip Code: 23401

Country: Nigeria

I googled the zip code and nigeria to see if I could locate the city so that I could check UPS shipping rates and the first thing that popped up was this thread about PayPal fraud in Nigeria. I'm assuming that when you provide your paypal information they hack your account somehow?? What do they do with that information once you provide it? I haven't given anything of mine yet...the email they gave me was <removed> so I feel like there's no way that's real haha. 

If anyone has any advice on how to determine if this is an actual seller or indeed a scam I would really love some input! Thanks.

[kernowlass]

@kba11

They can't hack your paypal account unless you give them your paypal password  

What happens is that they send you a "spoof" email that looks as if its from paypal saying they have paid but the payment is not released until you send the tracking number to paypal.

BUT paypal does not work like that, even if the payment is held for any reason ie new seller then it still SHOWS in your paypal account balance but it shows as pending.

Of course once you send the item and provide the spoof email address with the tracking number you never hear from them again and no funds will appear in your paypal balance.

Believe me yours is a scam. They always offer more money (now who in their right mind would do that?), they also say its a gift for someone and in a hurry for it and if you think about it the cost to send it abroad is far more than if they bought it in their own country.

[kba11]

Thanks, I assumed it was. I found some more answers as to how they do it on Yahoo. I mentioned to the "buyer" what I found online and said I would only make the exchange in purchase with cash and haven't heard back! Crazy...I feel bad for all the folks that happened to! I'm glad I trusted that "too good to be true" gut feeling. 

[Sethsbower]

This just happened to me yesterday. I am selling a iPhone 5 on Craig's list for $175. A guy named "Micheal <removed>" email me and said that he was gonna pay me $290 instead of $175. He also said that he was buying the phone for his son that lives and Nigrea. Then I went through the trouble linking my card to PayPal for this guy. I knew from the start that this guy was a scam

[Zutara007]

I feel so lucky to have found this forum and to have done my research before proceeding with this scam. 

I was asked about the condition of my tablet that I was selling on Amazon and at first I thought it was legit and told him a few details.. And then he/she emailed me this: 

"Good,well am ready to pay for the item as you said,i'm getting it for a co-worker whom was on a trip in Lagos 23401, and i will pay additional $80 for you to get the item shipped to him at your local post office by AIR MAIL, please i'm new doing this, so send me a money request to my PayPal email ID <removed>"

I then asked him where he wanted to ship this to.. he/she wrote:

Postal address

Name:- Kenny <removed>

Address:- <removed>

City:- Surulere

State:- Lagos 

Country:- Nigeria

Postal Code:- 23401 

And that's when I grew suspicious and did some research and voila, here I am... *phew*. 

Spoiler

[ScamFighter]

Don't accept any zipcode that is 23401 because I got the same zipcode and they use different names every time. All their PayPal emails are clever fakes that use your name and the buyer's grammar is always bad these ae the signs of a scam in this region of Nigeria that has hit many eBay and PayPal users they also offer you extra money too so they don't have to use eBay's system of pay before postage and instead they want you to send the parcel then they "give" ou money. They will also make up account limit nonsense in a desperate attempt to grab both your item and hundreds of pounds from you.

Remember post only to the UK and the US where they have rules and regulations.