I think I was just scammed big time... PLEASE HELP

[penny_kid]

Ok so i typed this out before and the site out, so now ill just take another hour to angrily type a new one, so that's nice.

Sigh... I don't really know where to start with this, so ill just start from the beginning.

I was selling preparing to sell my laptop on eBay, as I needed the extra money and the site had worked well for me in the past. Of course the items I had previously sold on the platform were nowhere near as expensive as my laptop, they were in the 50-100 dollar range where as my laptop was easily worth over a thousand. But either way I had a blind trust for the website and set up the auction for my laptop. The laptop actually got a few good bids and ended on a sum of 910 USD.  A few minutes after the bid ended, I got this message from the winning buyer:

The message was just asking for an invoice, and I didn't think much of it, as this was a very expensive purchase and the seller just wanted some confirmation. Although right below it the seller contradicts the default eBay message and ask for a personal invoice to his email:

And the website has locked me out with its 10 picture per 24 hour limit, damn I just **bleep**ing love this website.

Well i guess ill just type the rest of this. So I get this dude requesting that i send him a personal invoice including the subtotal as well as the price for UPS next day air early. Heres the message directly:

"Hi, Do calculate the postage cost via UPS Next Day Air Early, FedEx First Overnight delivery and I will be very happy to pay the postage cost. You can can email me *censored*, so i can process the payment into your account immediately. Best regard Chioma "

There are a few things weird about this, but nothing to really be worried about, so I go along with the message and fill out an official eBay invoice, as well as sending a personal one including the price of the next day air shipping he requested. After this he goes silent for a day and a half. This is a bit offsetting as he seemed to want the computer ASAP and for him to suddenly go on a hiatus after i provided information didn't seem right. But giving him the benefit of the doubt, i waited it out and he eventually replied:

"I am very sorry for the delay respond, please accept my apology. I just want to inform you that payment for your item has already been made and the necessary funds have been deducted from my PayPal account. I want you to send the item to the address below.
I have provided $120.00 USD available for the shipping only through UPS Next Day Air, FedEx First Overnight delivery or USPS 1 day delivery, So endeavor to get the item in post ASAP, so that it can get there on time.....

PayPal inform me that they have sent you the Payment Confirmation to your PayPal email address Inbox folder, so kindly check your email box and proceed with the shipping as quickly as possible. I want the item to be receive before on Thursday evening.

Name: Phyllis Poling. Address: 9 Trolley St Apt 211. City: Jane Lew. Zip code: 26378, State: West Virginia"

I see this and check my email to see that there are 2 overwhelmingly legitimate looking emails in my inbox, one from eBay and one from PayPal. The one from PayPal says that the funds from the buyer (It totaled to 1,030 USD, 910 for the laptop and 120 for shipping & handling) have been reserved and will be released to my account when I give a tracking number for verification.  And the one from eBay was just acknowledging that the funds have been paid and giving the shipping info of the buyer. At this point any seller with half a brain (or at least some experience) would send these emails over to the spoof services offered by the companies to see if they were faked. But me being stupid stupid stupid and desperately needing the transaction to be complete decided to create the shipping label and slap them onto the package.

After I sent the tracking number and as well as took all the other necessary precautions including entering the number into eBay and marking the listing as paid, I received a second email from PayPal (which I would provide pictures of if this site didn't suck) Asking to see the shipping receipt you get after sending the package. This part would be the red flag in most peoples heads, but the email seemed so legitimate at the time, even including how to contact the official customer support and having an email id and seal and everything. I completely trusted it and put the final nail in the coffin by sending the picture and emailing the receipt (which sounds really bad here but was handled very professionally at the time.) It seemed to be far to nice to be the work of some stupid scammers, so I just assumed it was normal protocol with more expensive items.

I received a email the next day saying PayPal had acknowledged the shipment reference number and the payment was pending and was to be released to my account within the next 12-48 hours it has now been way more that 48 hours - I have not gotten a reply and my package has been confirmed delivered. I have contacted PayPal customer support and anxiously await their reply. I have a deep deeeep fear that I've just been scammed out of a laptop and 1k+. I SERIOUSLY needed that payment from the laptop and will go to almost ANY extent I can to receive my compensation for the shipped package. I am ready to get the law involved if I *really* need to. I have turned to the PayPal community because I badly want to believe that this is a good company and such intense and easily helped fraud wont just be ignored. I Have gone into a bit of a depression thinking about this problem, and It has caused a great deal of stress. I can't find I way to sleep at night because of how out of control this has become. I don't want to accept the fact that I might lose so much and don't understand how such a verified scam is even possible. I'm sorry this post was so much more fleshed out before, I'm just so tired and need help getting me money here. I can provide more information if asked, I just need help to get my money... please..

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@penny_kid

This is a typical scam  ..................

They may buy on Ebay but they use an anonymous or hijacked Ebay account and DO NOT have a Paypal account so they can't use Ebay checkout. They encourage you to accept a 'direct' Paypal payment and may ask you to send the item internationally.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't actually have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.
They will tell you that the payment is released when you provide paypal with a tracking/shipping number......this won't happen.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal do not tell you to send trackable, they advise it for selling protection but it is not compulsory.

You should NEVER send a private invoice for an Ebay sale, just tell the buyer to complete checkout. They won't be able to as they have not actually got a Paypal account. Emails were all spoofs. 

Contact R.M and see if you can get a return. edited....just seen you are U.S but posting on the U.K forum so contact your own postal service that you used.

[Mal67]

Sorry for long post. I was looking for option to report fraud when I saw this post. This same thing just happened to me, infact still on now. Someone bought my item & requested an invoice & then later messaged for me to send some more photos of the item & a Paypal payment request to their email which they provided, saying the item is being bought as a gift for her nephew. I replied back on eBay that I will check postage cost,to Germany, that was the address he/she provided. I did go to the post office to check the actual price for postage,got home & sent the invoice on eBay & then some more photos to their email address. I got a reply after about 3hrs on email that they love the shoes & want it sent out immediately & that payment will be made later when they get back home from work at night but I should send my Paypal email or send a payment request on Paypal. Ok,no problem I replied. The next day, no payment received, i then sent the Paypal request & messaged them telling them my Paypal email. Pls note: they need your Paypal email to be able to send a scam message as if it’s from Paypal. Anyway, I received a message supposedly from Paypal after about 5hrs that payment has been made for £280( meanwhile I charged only £218) but that it’s pending due to international payment policy, it said funds will be released to me once I post the item to an address, Ibadan,Nigerian & provide proof of postage. Immediately I thought this was scam, firstly, the email contained a lot of grammatical errors. Secondly, I logged on to my Paypal immmediately & saw the payment request I sent was unpaid & pending, I cancelled this immediately. Then I received a message from them on eBay saying they have made payments on Paypal, that I should send the items to their cousin in Nigeria & not to Germany bcos they won’t be around cos of a business trip & that I should attach the postage label very well & make sure i send as Royal Mail international signed for & write GIFT on the parcel. I replied them this: I have cancelled the request & checked my Paypal & no form of payment. How could you have made payment when I cancelled the request? Pls make payment by clicking on pay now on the invoice I sent via eBay. I am still waiting for them to reply me but in the mean time, I will be reporting this as fraud to Paypal & eBay. I think more awareness should be raised on this. Tomorrow will make it 48hrs, then I will be able to open an unpaid item case on eBay so I can cancel the transaction & get my credits back. I count myself lucky I didn’t fall for the scam, anybody could fall for this scam cos they are really good & make convincing story. I needed the money too & was happy my item sold in less than 24hrs(buy it now) but I’m gutted it’s scam & eBay/Paypal should do a lot more to stop these scammers. All d best

[kernowlass]

@Mal67

They use hijacked Ebay accounts but DO NOT have Paypal accounts so it has nothing to do with Paypal.

Always remember. Paypal NEVER tell you to send anything if the funds are not SHOWING in your Paypal balance.............and yours would not have shown so don't send the item.

[Mal67]

This scammer gave me a Paypal account which is very well active to send a payment request for the total amount of the item with postage which I did& it went through but the email confirming payment I received, which was to make me believe it’s directly from Paypal was a fake email. So they do have Paypal account & eBay account but send fake emails claiming they’ve made payments using your name they got from the request or conversation. I was lucky to have logged on my Paypal & eBay accounts to confirm if there was any payments but none, which made me realise it was all fake emails. If I hadn’t double checked, I would have thought it’s a genuine email from Paypal. Pls be aware, the emails are fake but the Paypal & eBay accounts are real, created only to scam & deceive others.