I literally JUST had this problem this morning. I was selling a desk from Canada and this guy wanted to buy it all the way from Minnesota. I mean why would you want a desk all the way from here. But I didn't care about that first, I just needed the desk sold. So we started the conversation and he asked me for my name and email address for my paypal information.. nothing suspicious there. But weirdly he seemed in such a hurry to get the desk for his "cousins's christmas present".
But after I got an email saying I should send through money gram and that was the final warning that this is probably a scam. Because in no way is paypal associated with a shipping company. So I told him to cancel his transaction and he adamantly refused as he said he couldn't. This is again false, because ofcourse you can cancel a transaction through paypal. Then he started sending me a series of messages, which were obviously copy/pastes from people he has probably scammed before because not even my teenage daughter can text that fast.
Then I got another email at the same time from a buyer who was located in Canada.. on the other side of Canada from where I live. Still kind of suspicious but he was at least asking about the condition of the desk and asking me to send pictures of it and showing interest in getting it through a private agent.
But now when I went back to tell him that it's still available, the email isn't there anymore! Maybe I'm just being dumb and it's still there but he isn't responding to me neither is he emailing me when previously he was very efficient.
Keep in mind that these people can work together and ask them how they're going to be shipping to where they live before you give them your name + email. Also, inform Paypal customer service of this immediately.
