Scam or not?

[Btovee]

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.

[cheesehooves]

Good thing I didn't send it! Thanks.

[Adamsw]

Just had a similar experience with someone requesting i ship an item abroad for a grandson's birthday. As soon as i recieved a message stating the address was Nigeria, the funds had been deducted from their account and they wanted it shipped and given the tracking number, all before funds were in my account, i knew this was a scam and put a stop to it immediately.

[ccfcjoe]

Hi all, I have sent a payment for two pairs of trainers that I found on a Facebook group. The seller was respected and was admin of the group but deleted me as a friend upon completing the transaction. I need to get my money back but PayPal says I can not dispute because I just sent a payment and I need to contact the seller instead. Is there anything anyone can do to help please, it would be much appreciated as this is not a nice situation to be in.

[kernowlass]

Did you sent the payment as send money > goods or paid via an invoice OR

Did you pay via personal payment > family and friends?

[ccfcjoe]

I think it was personal.

[PayPal_Sophie]

Hi ccfcjoe,

Welcome to the Community Forum! So sorry to hear about what happened with your transaction.

Normally if an issue like this occurs with a payment you've sent for goods, you're fully protected by PayPal's Buyer Protection policy. However, if you use the 'friends and family' or 'personal' payment option, it's not possible to file a buyer complaint case, I'm afraid. Here's some more information about Buyer Protection:

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full?locale.x=en_GB#13

We'd be glad to look into this more closely for you and provide more information about eligibility for Buyer Protection if you can contact Customer Support directly. Alternatively, you can contact us via Facebook (www.facebook.com/PayPalUK) or Twitter (@AskPayPal) for assistance.

Hope this helps,

Sophie

[Beezo]

I just recieved this email. Is it fake?

Dear ***** ******,

     This email confirm that you have receive total sum of £899.00 GBP of payment from B******, for your Goods is confirmed and it has been debited from the buyer's account. now awaiting onward transfer to your PayPal account upon confirmation of shipment for PayPal security Agreement.

     You are now mandated to ship the merchandise to the buyer's confirmed address and email us a proof of shipment such as shipment confirmation code/receipt reference number, this is required for shipment verification in other to transfer the funds in question to your account immediately.

    Kindly make the shipment progress within 24hours in order to release the money into your account for the transaction as we can not accommodate any form of misappropriations as we have a reputation to protect, we make all be possible to increase our business relationship with the international PayPal Worldwide.

    As soon as you notify us about the Shipment status, we shall deposit the said amount into your account immediately.

    The buyer address you are requested to ship the item to has been confirmed by eBay and PayPal for protection of this transaction.

This is as a result of new safety measures that has just been adopted by us to safeguard all our customers against any internet act.

Please do reply to our online customer care email ************* because we are monitoring this inbox. To get in touch with us after postage of your item purchase for quick response and review on this transaction for your money

Thank you for using PayPal online services,

PayPal Team.

[kernowlass]

   yes defo it is.

THIS IS A TYPICAL SCAM.

They encourage you to use paypal and often ask you to send the item as a gift to a relative somewhere often Nigeria.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't.

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.

They threaten legal action...have a laugh at that one and ignore it as its rubbish.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send trackable, they advise it for seller protection etc but it is not compulsory.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.

Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.

[PayPal_Monika]

Hi Beezo,

Welcome to our community forum!

Kernowlass is totally right. This is indeed a typical scam and we will never ask you for tracking number or to send an item before you receive a payment.

If you haven’t deleted the email yet please forward the suspicious email to spoof@paypal.com without changing the subject line and delete the email from your inbox.

We'll review this information carefully. We can usually let you know the results of our review within 3 business days.

Thanks for posting!

Monica

[minty1]

Hi Btovee. SCAM! Read the rest of the gumtree scam stories, type scam in the search box