I am trying to sell my camera on Ebay in a small town in Missouri. I got an email this morning from a Missionary who wishes to send this surprise package to his son. see email below:
Hello, I am Pen ***,I will like to buy your item urgently for my son and i am ready to offer you $550 for it including the shipping cost via Usps Priority Mail Service, i need it very urgent for my son as a birthday gift,He his schooling in Nigeria and he had just been been promoted and i want wanted to send him a surpise package because i am at sea at the moment for evangelism and due to the nature of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted also you know my Pastoral Mission doesn't allow me to be online frequently but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it and i am sending it to him there as a special present,so i will be glad if you could help me and sell it to me,and i am going to pay you via paypal so kindly get back to me with your paypal email address with your full name so that i can arrange for the payment on time also if you do not have a paypal account kindly go to www.paypal.com and sign up for account and once you register just send me the email address you used to sign up because paypal is very secure and fast,also i want you to send me some picture of the item when you are getting back to me so i will be glad to hear back from you now to let me know if you accept my offer because am really serious about buying this item pls, Thank you Hope to hear back from you now Reply me now
Funny...since his later email with the shipping address is for a guy who wouldn't sound to be like his son at all. He seems to be very pushy. After reading these posts, I'm absolutely positive this is a scam. I've forwarded these emails to spoof@paypal.com. They have verified that these emails are phishy. I'm glad I checked because I was about to race home from work to do this great favor for this scam artist. Per the paypal rep, any payments made to your paypal account will show up immediately (there might be a hold sometimes)...but if you don't see anything, a paypal payment was NEVER made. This guy is really sophisticated. He even sent me a fake paypal email confirming payment. see below:
Dear XXXXXXXXXXX, This is to inform you that we received your payment $600.00 USD by your buyer Mr Pen *** **** PayPal account for Craigslist purchases:#Canon Rebel XSi (Body Only) + extra battery + bag REDUCED PRICE). The money has been deducted from your buyer's account and is ready to be credited into your PayPal account as soon as we receive the shipment details for verification. Your funds is still on PENDING now and as we wait to receive the scanned copy of the shipment from you soonest for fast accreditation into your PayPal account, we give you 24-48hours to make the shipment of the merchandise to be shipped, we have forwarded all your details to our verification department so that you can get maximum attention from us.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PAYMENT WILL NOT APPEAR IN THE "PENDING" TAB IN YOUR ACCOUNT UNTIL YOU SEND THE SHIPMENT SCANNED RECEIPT TO US FOR VERIFICATION.
This is due to the new policies at PayPal to protect both the buyer and the seller in the face of the growing number of fraudulent activities perpetrated via the internet. Your payment is intact and you are encouraged to complete this transaction. Here at PayPal you can be assured that your security and safety is our topmost concern, You are urge to email all the necessary details to our account/verification department (paypal would not let me post the information).
Stupidly...I replied to this email address. They replied with a fancy confirmation. see below:
Dear Caly ********, Thanks for contacting us,this is to confirm to you that your payment has been deducted from your buyer account and it has been deposited into our database,we just want to verify the shipment before we credit the money into your account, so that the transaction can be protected with adequate security measures the money will be credited into your PayPal account as soon as we receive the shipment details from you and confirm it. So,In other to fastened the transaction you are urge to ship out the item under 24Hrs of getting this confirmation mail so that the verification can be done on time and get your money credited,we urge you to kindly get the item sent out as soon as you can get send the shipment details to us,once we get this you will get an instant message confirming that we receive it and next will be the alert message confirm that your money has been credited.
We await your soonest reply with the shipment details and we are assuring that you are safe and secure with us,so be rest assured that you will get your money as soon as we receive the shipment details.
Thanks For Choosing PayPal!!!
PayPal Teams.
I decided to call paypal when I searched everywhere for a pending post of money transfer. I wanted to provide all these emails to show you guys how easily I could've been scammed. I hope this helps everyone out in the future.
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