Starting off, a man named Frank <removed> has completely ripped me off on payment for items shipped.
I was selling a phone off craigslist $300 a man named Frank asked to purchase it, after lots of back and forth he worked a tablet off me as well for $200. Now he sort of rushed the shipping a bit saying that he needed these items for someone's birthday, and following Paypal rules I shipped the items out first and was to receive payment after providing the tracking #. Now the Method of shipment that this guy wanted had me dish out $200, so upon getting home and telling him he goes ahead and try's to send the extra money.
He had initially thought shipping to be only $100 so we had the price set at $600, it went up to $700, when I tried to claim the money Paypal gave me the error that my account limit needs upgrading with an amount over $1500. By this point me and Frank have chatted quite a bit and as fishy as it sounds he claimed to be a scrap metal dealer, and thought it would be ok to just forward me an extra $960 on top of the $700. With me Supposedly To assist him and have that $960 sent to west African Nigeria for work.
Things really got fishy to me here when I was told from PayPal Directly through email:
Email 1- ********* YOU ARE TO REFUND THE $960 BEFORE YOUR ACCOUNT CAN BE CREDITED ******
Email 2- WE ADVICE YOU TO GET THIS DONE TODAY IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD .
Email 3- ***** $1,660,00 CAD IS YOUR CURRENT PENDING BALANCE NOT $700 CAD ****
Email 4- Legal ACTION may occur from the head office DEPARTMENT .
Email 5- WE THINK THE LOCATION YOU ARE TO SEND THE MONEY TOO IS THE ISSUE .
Email 6- ISSUE NEED TO BE SOLVED TODAY .
By this point I was harassed out to western union to send the money that I didn't have to west Africa, for an additional few hundred they would do this and having no money I'm expected to send out a huge sum of money all on good faith that they would release my payment after receiving the transaction receipt. So I came home with the advise of the teller to halt contact with the buyer this Frank Walter, that my goods/money is gone for good, and I've been had as part of a scam call PayPal immediately.
After severing ties with him over "Hangouts" app I phoned into PayPal directly and was led to IC3.gov as soon as the word scam came out of my mouth. Now I am highly suspicious of how this IC3 personnel is talking to me via email with the same broken English as everyone I've dealt with so far, including Frank. He is also demanding money before i'm able to receive payment.
Newho I'm a poor **bleep** Canadian near 30 living pay to pay essentially, on my own. I was really looking forward to this little money boost, to get food for the week, and well **bleep** me this is such a wack result so far. May 20th-28: It's been very trying, to say the least, all this back and forth frustration & anxiety for the loss. If anyone competent read my emails we might be somewhere, but here we are i'm out $700 +, so essentially this guy used PayPal's own system against them to receive the goods for free and is getting off scot free. I also dealt with him under the name Frank C <removed> for the initial shipping address.
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