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

[PayPal_Adrian]

kayjack -

Welcome to the boards!

You're right on the money there, that one is a scammer - it's nice to see they've updated the template they use, I was getting tired of the same old ones over and over 

There are a few ways in which these individuals make a profit out of these scams.

First, in most instances they just try to get you to believe you received a payment.  You pay the shipper out of pocket, the item goes out, you're out what you paid the shipper and the item because you never received any payment.  This is the most common; it relies merely on convincing someone they have money, when they don't. 

If you do receive a payment (which I have yet to see one actually be sent through PayPal - see above), it later turns out to be fraudulent.  In the offline world, this is usually in the form of a bad cheque, a fake money order, cashiers cheque, or bank draft.  If it's a wire transfer, it's later recalled due to fraud.  In the online world of payments, it may be an account they've hijacked or a stolen identity, stolen bank account, or stolen credit card.  In each situation, the funds are later taken back from you because they originated from fraud and you may wind up being charged a hefty fee.

Hope this helps,

Adrian

[Bill13]

Glad i had a quick look here.

Got the same thing today,  for a truck listed for sale on Autotrader, first tip off is translation word for word from who knows what language into so called english,  there is no flow, no one i know speaks like that.  Something doesnt seem quite right.

Told this so called buyer, that he can just pay pal his cash to his so called agent,  then his agent can show up with the cash and get the vehicle.  NO CASH NO SALE.

Pretty sure i wont be hearing anything back, and if i do any subsequent reply will consist of 2 words.

If theres anywhere i can forward this email to maybe track down this bozo let me know, i'll be more than happy to send it.

Thanks

[Singent]

Thank you for posting your experince. We are selling an item on Kijiji and found it very odd someone would not haggle over the price, want to buy without seeing the item and are out of towm.

First Email - Thanks for the response Does it need anything to be replace or repair?if theirs please specify,i will take it for the listed price,Payment will be sent using PayPal and i will handle the PayPal surcharge as well.I will arrange with someone to have this picked up for your location once i have paid as i am out of town at the moment. 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,what's the PayPal email to send funds to in order for me to pay you ASAP.

Second Email - I insisted on paypal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking and i can't go to the bank due to the nature of my job, but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your paypal email address so i can make the payments asap for the item and pls if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.ca and get it set up , after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money through

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@heli-ap wrote:

Here is the email I recieved, Im suspicious of fraud, what should I be weary of:

Hi thanks for mailing, i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now.
i am buying this for my personal use so am willing to offer you the
amount you required. I can only pay through PayPal at the moment as i
don't have access to my bank account online(i don't have internet
banking with it), but i have it attached to my PayPal account, and
this is why i insisted on using PayPal to pay,all i will need is your
PayPal email address to make the payment, and if you don't have a
PayPal account yet, you can set one up at www.paypal.com  it cant take
you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your PayPal email
so l can pay. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up
after payment has been sorted. l will be waiting for your reply asap.
plz include your final price for the listing

--
hello
  Is your listing still available ? send me recent picture of it.
    Richard

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First email- Thanks for the response Does it need anything to be replace or repair?if theirs please specify,i will take it for the listed price,Payment will be sent using PayPal and i will handle the PayPal surcharge as well.I will arrange with someone to have this picked up for your location once i have paid as i am out of town at the moment. 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,what's the PayPal email to send funds to in order for me to pay you ASAP.

Second email- I insisted on paypal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking and i can't go to the bank due to the nature of my job, but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your paypal email address so i can make the payments asap for the item and pls if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.ca and get it set up , after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money through

[jennym06]

I got almost the exact same message but from someone with a different name and it was while i was trying to sell a truck. the email that i got to confirm payment was from an email that said service at intl dot paypal dot com. it also said that my funds were on hold until i could prove that i had sent the money needed for pickup on the truck via western union to an "agent" in california (the person who contacted me was from New York), and I am in Ontario. What I've learned from m ost of the research that I have done is if they ask for money upfront and mention things like mover agent or anything like that it is an automatic scam and do not send any money. as soon as i mentioned that I was going to wait until the money to clear before sending money to this "agent" in california, i stopped hearing from the person. biggggg surprise 

[Margi]

I listed my car for sale and got a text from Richard asking me to email him, I got almost the exact same email as you did except he was buying for his father.  I had another text from someone else that asked me to email them and they also sent a similar type email, but that was a woman.  I responded to both of them that I had received several emails of the same type so I asked a friend on the police for and was advised not to participate in their offer.  I haven't heard back from either one :).

[CMK5]

I got a similar e-mail from someone wanting to buy my boat.

Quote:

Thanks for the reply, i am a marine technician and am always busy thats why l wont be able to check the item or call due to the nature of my work am buying this for my son as a Surprise gift so am willing to offer you the amount you required.

    I can only pay through PayPal at the moment due to the nature of my work, so all i will need is your PayPal email address or send me a paypal money request to my email and if you don't have a PayPal account yet, you can set one up at www.paypal.com <http://www.paypal.com>  it cant take you less than 3mins to do that.

   I will be waiting for your PayPal email so l can pay. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payment has been sorted. l will be waiting for your reply asap

I replied that it sounded fishy and if he's so eager to pay, send me a check and I would turn over the boat when the check cleared. I'm not sure what damage could be done by turning over your PayPal e-mail, but I'm not willing to risk it.

[PVas1]

I had a very similar message about a van i'm selling -

".... Hello, if this is still available, I am ready to buy it now,And due the nature of my work,phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted but squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it. i would be glad to pay for it as soon as possible thought will not be available to come for an inspection due to my tight schedule. Kindly get back to me with the following questions below:1) Are you the Owner? 2) Pick up Location? 3) Your PayPal Email ID to effect the payment 4)what is The final Price 5)is there any other issues with the item not mentioned on site? 6)kindly remove the post from the site i would be glad to make the payment immediately PayPal so kindly get back to me with your PayPal ID. You need not to worry yourself about title transfer and pickup,i will instruct the carrier company to handle that therefore in order to complete the transaction do get back to me with your PayPal ID and total cost so that I can make the payment asap. I will be waiting for your reply,thanks...... Oliver"

What i don't understand is how can they scam me with only my paypal ID, this is just my email address isnt it? Can i be scammed by just giving out my paypal email?? Either way, sounds very dodgy!

[Devaler]

I am selling my car and almost immediatlry I received an e-mail offering full price. It is very similar to yours. An engineer, agent will pick it up etc...Thanks for th eheads up... 

[larush]

HERE IS A FRAUDULENT EMAIL THAT A PERSON SENT ME USING A FAKE PAYPAL LETTERHEAD:

We are contacting you regarding your Transaction with Breathtaking Designs. We are still expecting to receive the necessary Western Union Information from you, and you are required to send the Western Union information to us within the next 24HRS or the necessary Legal Action would be taken against you.
   You are required to send to us the Western Union Information Stated Below for Verification:
(1) Sender's Name;
(2) Receiver's Name;
(3) MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number);
(4) Amount Sent;
(5) Western Union Receipt.
    So you should go ahead and send the $ 1,000.00 CAD within the next 24HRS, and we shall be expecting to receive the Western Union Information from you as soon as possible. You can contact us if you have any questions.
Sincerely,

A. Williams,
The PayPal Team

[amirnad]

Hi

I have interesting situation, couple of days ago, I posted an ad on http://www.autotrader.ca

I am selling my car on this website and I got one response in less than 12 hours.

Here what that person said to me

"I am buying this for my Son as a surprise gift for him ,its Graduation that is coming soon,i am a petroleum engineer currently on a rig offshore i really want this to be a surprise gift for my Son so i wont let him know anything about this until it gets delivered to him , i am sure he will be more than happy with it. I can only pay with PayPal here, i will need you to give me your PayPal email address so i can make the payments asap and please if you don't have PayPal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to " http://www.paypal.com" and get it set up, after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with PayPal so as to put the money through.
note well:
 Pick up agent will come for the pick up as soon as i have made the payments, i would have  loved to talk to you on phone but I work mainly offshore, our phone is down on the rig right now due to bad weather, we can only communicate with our base for now"

SO what alarming is, why this guy is ready to send money without looking a car and test drive.

Am I wrong or I am thinking wrong about this person's intention?

I need advice from you guys, please.

thanks