Paying the shipper first?

[trikk22]

I am selling my dirtbike to someone in florida. I live in Canada. I received an email from eBay and paypal saying that once i pay the shipping agent, thru western union, I will have the full amount for the dirtbike plus shipping deposited into my account.

I will not receive any money unless I pay the $700 first. I'm sure I'm being scammed, but the emails from eBay and paypal look legit

[bibaciss]

You are totally being scrammed never send any money using western union or anything else. You are the one selling so you should receive not sending Logic LOL? 

Those mails you received are fake!

[barbi15ca]

Perhaps at this point it would be a good idea to block the email address the scammers are sending from?

Just a thought. Thank you for the heads up.

[terryf]

I have a potential buyer (?) for my motorcycle. He said his shipper requires their shipping fee upfront before they will pick up the bike. He asked me if he could include the shipping fee with his payment for my bike because the shipper will only accept a payment made through Western Union; he has no immediate access to a Western Union office.

I told him that will work, but no payment will be made to Western Union by me until his PayPal payment, including the $1000.00 shipping fee, cleared my account.

Anyway, long story short, I had a funny feeling about how this transaction was going, so I came on here, and, my suspicions are confirmed. If a transaction is taking funny little twists and turns start checking for what other people are experiencing. This Western Union scam has its little differences how it is manipulated, no reflection against WU, but it appears there are people out there that spend more time trying to find ways to beat the system, whereas if they spend an equal amount of time making an honest living they would be further ahead.  

Thanks to all for their input here.

[PayPal_Adrian]

Everyone, welcome to the boards!

trikk22, I'm going to have to second bibaciss (kudos!) on this one - this is more than likely a scam.  Also, never pay anyone else's shipping agent, or allow anyone else to hire a shipper to pick an item up from you.  Why?  You'll lose any Seller Protection you would have otherwise had through PayPal.  Always hire and pay for your own shipper.

Western Union is a reputable and useful service in it's own right, but you have no recourse if you are scammed into sending money through it (that's why PayPal is so useful). 

To learn more about buying and selling safely online, check out our Security Centre at www.paypal.ca/securityandprotection.

Another great article I recommend for anyone who uses the internet, even just to receive email (long but very good) is here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud.  This is essentially the type of scam your buyer was leaning towards.

Hope this helps,

Adrian

[koda]

I am going threw the same exact thing and the buyer is threating to turn me in for scaming and I am getting emails from "pay pal" saing futher prosacution will be put in to action if I dont send the $700  how do I go about busting this scamer

[Altaerius]

Well, I see I'm not the only one. I was selling some car audio for 1000. Yesterday morning I got an email from "paypal" saying that 2000 had been approved, and as soon as I sent $700 via western Union, and forwarded them the mtcn the funds would be released to my account.And then today I got the email with the threats, including FBI investigation, and prosecution! LOL Um I thought "paypals" emails would have way better spelling, and comand of the english language! he he anyway, any ideas as to how I should deal with this?

[PayPal_Adrian]

koda -

If you've received an email that claims to be from PayPal  but isn't, please forward the email to spoof@paypal.com.  You might also consider reporting them to their email provider.

Hope this helps,

Adrian

[hscott_86]

I am also going through the same thing. My boyfriend and I recently placed our truck up for sale and now i have a buyer in the UK but the interesting thing is that, the paypal account is in my email but we are receiving emails to his email account?? Do you think we are being scammed?? Please let us know and also what we should do. Thanks. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[hscott_86]

and also its pretty weird that they say on the bottom of the email that:NOTE: This is important as a security measure to ensure safety of this transaction. As this transaction was done via our e-mail payments service, any inquiries and necessary information should be sent to us by directly replying to this message, because of the status of this transaction, it has not been passed on to our customer care phone service section and all inquiries should be directed to this e-mail address as it is the one monitored for your transaction.