Scam or not?

Btovee
Contributor
Contributor

Hi everyone, I was wondering if you could help me out? Here is my situation, I am selling a car on gumtree and the buyer said they would pay by paypal, however the recept that I received for the payment when straight into my spam folder of my gmail account. So, this made me suspicious, it seems like a scam.

 

Here is part of the email

 

"I have just completed your payment and I expected paypal to have notified you to this effect. Check your paypal email folders (Inbox,spam or junk mail) l sent £1,050.00 GBP in all. l added £400 but £300 will be sent to my courier agent Headquarter in China through western union online www.westernunion.com  or at local post office,the extra £100 is to cover the western union fees. Paypal will not release the funds until you email them the western union details for verification and also to enable my pick up agent come for pick up, Here's the courier agent's details where the money will be sent using western union"

 

Any help or advice would be greatly received.

 

Many Thanks.

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1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

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minty1
Advisor
Advisor
Or car scams, gumtree scams

View solution in original post

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56 REPLIES 56

sue1493
New Community Member

I have just had email from woman wanting to buy a car I have for sale. She states she is unable to view the vehicle as she is working abroad and is buying the car for her partner who is in Malaysia. She has agreed price and wants my paypal details to deposit the money and then she will arrange for the vehicle to be shipped by a carrier from my home address.

My husband is a serving police officer and gas confirmed that this is indeed a scam.

SELLERS PLEASE BE AWARE of this scam and do not sell or communicate with these people.

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kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

Yep a common scam and you don't need to be in the police to recognise that   Smiley Happy

 

They don't want your car, the scam comes when they say they will send you more money to paypal as they have a problem paying the agent and shipping company and can you send them the money  by western union.

 

You then get an email supposedly from paypal saying you have been paid and can now pay the western union fee.

 

The email is not from paypal, there  is nothing in your account and you have been scammed via western union the so called shipping agents fees.

 


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
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livelaughlove
New Community Member
Sellers for used vehicles! Please be aware people from out of your state are trying to buy cars and want you to send money Western Union from your own money to pay their towing company before they can release your $ to you. I just spoke to customer service at paypal. Was informed paypal will never ask you to send any money western union.... its a SCAM....all the emails i was getting back with confirmation were coming from paypal. Please call paypal when in doubt! Good luck...
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TriBru131
New Community Member

Hi, I too have had this email, only this lady says she works for an oil rig company in Malaysia and has a yahoo email address.  She was very evasive with her answers (avoided the questions really)

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joshlichty
New Community Member

Still happening (March 23, 2013) See his emails below:

 

From Glenn Dawood <glennupmost(AT)hotmail.com>

 

Hi thanks for mailing back,am ok with the price and the condition,am buying it for my vacation,because i'll be coming soon from our rig.I'm a petroleum project engineer on a rig offshore,i won't be able to come for the inspection due to the nature of my work,i would have love to call 
in person but we have call restriction due to bad weather condition our satellite server has been down.I will be paying you through PayPal the safe and easy way to pay online,Kindly get back to me with your PayPal details(name and email address) so i can proceed with the payment and contact the courier agent who will come to pick it up and deliver it in my place.
Await your reply.
 
Next Email:
 
Thanks for the mail..As for the signing of transfer papers that will be done by my courier agent and will test drive the car..Kindly get back to me with your PayPal email so that i can proceed with the payment.
 
Next Email:
 
Apology :I was just about to make the payment when i had this little problem with the picking up,I got an email from my agent...he said he won't come for the pick up unless i pay him the agent commission fee first in order to be able to schedule suitable a pick up date and time and my pick up agent Headquarters is in China and all commission payments made for pick up from anywhere in the world is sent to their Headquarters in China and the only form of payments they accept is western union money transfer and i tried to pay online (www.westernunion.com) but it requires a credit card to make the transfer online which i don't have access to and there is no post office on sea.(there is usually a western union section in most post offices). So now i will include the $750 they charged to pick it up and take it home(1st class treatment)to the payments i will send through PayPal.After receiving the confirmation email from PayPal after i have made the payments, i will need you to help me send the $750 to my pick up agent through western union money transfer.The western union money transfer can be made at a post office or online at www.westernunion.com .I will be making the payments shortly and will email you as soon as am done.
 
Pretty obvious scam. They're not very smart - but be careful when dealing with large amounts of money!!

 

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Tarn01
New Community Member

And he's still at it as of yesterday 11 April 2013, same story as well as one from someone calling themselves Lisa Redieger,  Mark Lee, Panka J Walt.  Seriously so over these people, they have no imagination as they all follow the same basic storyline of "I work away", "our server is down" or my personal favourites are "I work on oil rig" and " I work out at a mine", hahaha so do half my family!

If they are really serious buyers they will come & inspect vehicle and have a face to face with you.

I'm lucky that I'm in the situation where I'm not desperate to sell, so I'm happy to sit and wait for the right person but unfortunately there are people out there that aren't in the same situation.

Stay safe

 

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jwilson49
Contributor
Contributor

Have  received two enquiries about a car I have for sale I assume they are both scams:

 

Thanks for;r the prompt response.I'm Okay with the
condition of the Car,
as i have already go through it on the ad but just trying
to make
little inquiry from you ready to buy it now for my
Daughter, I'm at sea at the moment as I'm a Navy
Officer,and due to
the nature of my Job.....phone calls making and visiting
of website
are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this
advert and send
you a Text regarding it. I really want it to be a surprise
for my
Daughter i won't let her know anything about it until it
gets
delivered to her, i am sure she will
be more than happy with it. I insisted on PayPal because
i don't have access
to my bank account online as i don't have internet
banking, but i can
pay from my PayPal account, as i have my bank a/c
attached to it,Get
back to me with your PayPal email and
the price so i can proceed with the payment quickly, and
sorry if you
don't have an Account, you sign-up for a PayPal personal
account
www.paypal.com it is very fast and easy to set up. And
there is a
shipping company pick up agent that will come for the
pick up after
the payment has been sorted out.
Thanks

AND

Hello,
    Thanks for your mail and i will want you to know that i am ok with your asking prices and will want you to know that i will be instructing my associate to make out the payment to you in form of bankers draft that will clear into your bank account in two to three working days and also want you to know my shipping fees will be included as well as soon as you have the draft cleared into your bank account you send the refund to my shipper that will be coming down to your place for the pick up of the CAR and also want you to states out your contact information like this?
1,full name
2,address
3,poster code
4,phone number

so that i can instruct the payment as soon as possible , hope to hear from you.

Regards
Frank

 

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Zuffenhauz
New Community Member
LOL!! Did I have a good laugh yesterday. After being aware of these scams, I waited for this to happen soon after I posted a car for sale and true to form, within minutes i received an enquiry. this was the "Glenn Dawood's" (at least one of the alias' used) response. Do they really think people could be that stupid to fall for it? I guess some people do. This response is very similar to the one sent to Wilson. Hi thanks for mailing back,am ok with the price and the condition,am buying it for my vacation,because i'll be coming soon from our rig.I'm a petroleum project engineer on a rig offshore,i won't be able to come for the inspection due to the nature of my work,i would have love to call  in person but we have call restriction due to bad weather condition our satellite server has been down.I will be paying you through PayPal the safe and easy way to pay online..Kindly get back to me with your PayPal details(name and email address) so i can proceed with the payment, but If you don't have a PayPal account you can easily set up one just log on to www.paypal.com.au and sign up as its very easy.. I will contact the courier agent who will come to pick it up and deliver it in my place. Await your reply. Glenn
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puiwhitelilly
Member
Member

Your post doesn't really helpful but only laugh at people who might be stupid to you to fall to those SCAM, unfortunately somebody doesn't have the same experience with you or they may just have a possitive good heart so haven't be aware of those nasty people,  I suggest to you It would be just nice if you coud be a gentle man and guide people to avoid those SCAM tactic more than just laughing and thinking that who beleive for those SCAM people is STUPID   

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