Examples of Suspected Fraud or Fake Emails

[PayPal_Andy]

Hey Everybody!

In an effort to make things easier to find and research, I'm going to consolidate as many threads as possible where we have examples of people trying to defraud hard working sellers (Craigslist emails, 'PayPal' emails asking you to send money outside of PayPal, etc).  This will also be used as a master thread for future posts regarding this same situation.

When you post your examples here, please remember to not include last names or contact information of whoever is sending these emails.  There's no way to confirm if that person has been defrauded as well and the name is being used fraudulently.

Thanks for your cooperation and remember, keep the conversation productive, on task, and above all, keep it clean. I know these things can be difficult and frustrating, but bleep filled posts or posts that look like government redacted files will never benefit anyone. 😄

Andy

[JGreen2005]

So I am sell my computer via craigslist and I got this email after a few exchanges:

"I have made the payment and am sure paypal have contact you with the confirmation of the payment...i will like you to check your paypal email.......i also paid extra money for shipping. i will like you to get the item ship via Post office (Register Mail or USPS) and I hope i can count on you?

Ayamolowo

Nigeria

Get Back to me as soon as you get the item ship...and don't forget to get back to paypal with the shipment tracking number..Kindly end the item on craiglist

Awaiting to hear from you soon."

The thing is the payment was verified via paypal but still... its going to AFRICA. Let me know what you think.

Thanks

[PayPal_Andy]

JGreen2005- That is most definitely a scam and I hope you haven't sent anything out.  I'm moving this post into a thread with many other examples, so I think after reading a couple you'll be able to see a pattern 🙂

Andy

[WeLieInsanely]

Uh Andy, are we talking about me?  I'm <name removed>, also known as WeLieInsanely.  Who is JGreen2005?  Are you referring to my two posts on the Community Help Forum entiled "Attempted Scam/Phishing Involving PayPal, Craigslist And Involving At Least Ten Of Us?"  If so, I have news for you.  The party that tried to scam me last month regarding my car ad on Craigslist for a 1976 Chrysler Cordoba for $2,000 just did it again! 

At 2:00am this morning I renewed my ad for a price of $1,600.  Within two minutes, I recieved an emai which started with the same exact message that I got last month!  They are either completely dumb and stupid, or I suspect they have a software program that tracts ads on Craigslist.  And of course she said we would use PayPal as the transaction facilitator...

I'm going to place this new event on the Help Forum.  By the way, did you happen to notice that I was thanked by one of our members for alerting them about this scam?  They had just been approached by that those jerks just two hours before they read my post. 

PayPal needs to do something serious about this scam and PayPal phishing abuse.  And you guys have told me twice that you are investigating my input to Snoof but I have as yet recivied any email showing the results of your efforts!  And none of our other members who posted a compliant on the exact same topic have heard nothing either.  Your boilerplate response doesn't even come close to addressing the problem here.  Come on Andy, lets see some positive and serious action on the part PayPal please. 

[PayPal_Andy]

WeLieInsanely- No...I was referring to JGreen2005.  Another member of this community who posted about a similar issue.

As far as your concerns, I agree.  Everyone at PayPal would love for people to stop using our name to try and defraud hard working individuals.  But of course it's somewhat hard to stop someone using your name fraudulently when you don't know who they really are, they don't have a PayPal account for us to shut down, and in most cases don't live within any country that we could easily prosecute in.  Yet we still work with law enforcement to try and track down these individuals and any emails that are sent to spoof@paypal.com help.

Finally, I'm glad that a member thanked you for telling your story and stopping them from making a large mistake.  That's the point of the Community Help Forums.  And that's kinda the point of this thread in particular.  Meshing all of these examples of fraudulent emails and stories should hopefully make it easier for people to find this type of information before they're out their goods.

Andy

[drywallmichael]

i have a question about the transaction me and the buyer have.the buyer is out on the ocean on a ship working and is using paypal to buy what i have for sell he transfer funds over to paypal but his shipping agent does'nt use paypal only western union.so he say's that he doe'snt have a credit card with him to use western union.so he wanted me to help him being i'm on the main land.and wanted me pay westen union 650.00 and transfer it to his shipping agent.well paypal has all the funds in a secure account till they get verifiation of the money transfer.then they'll release the funds well the funds that he had put in paypal included the funds for the wire tranfer and i don't have the funds to do it out of my pocket so i would like to know what we can do to resolve this problem thank you michael henderson

[InstantVideo]

This has scam written all over it.

You transfer cash by Western Union and the money is gone. Then the Paypal money gets reversed and you are on the hook. Pass on this sale.

[WeLieInsanely]

Please review my current three posts on the Help Forum which are directly related to the same exact scam they tried on me. I would appreciate your opinion of my input.  You should complain to PayPal about the lack of any positive results on their part to deal with this issue.  Jerry.

[buxtor]

posted item on local craigslist. guy responded by email that he was in the army and out in the field but wanted the item for his son. he would pay over the cost i was charging to offset shipping and pay through paypal. he wanted me to invoice him for the payment by request money option. several messages later, the guy was swearing he had requested to send the money and his account was debited. checking my status showed nothing at all. his response was that paypal would not post the money to my account until thsy had a tracking number from me shipping the item.

fraud is when you are coerced into giving away an item to which you have charged someone with promise of payment, whether payment was made afterward or not.

[bennyjun]

I receive an email below, with an attachment of PayPal screen shot to enter my information. I don't think it is from paypal!

Dear Valued Member,

PayPal's security system has blocked unusual charges to a credit-card linked to your 
account.

                  We detected that someone tried to access your PayPal account without 
your
permission. Due to this, we have limited access to your account. Moreover, we have sent 
you
an attachment which contains the necessary steps in order to restore your account 
access.
Please download and open it in your browser.

(The locator for this detection is PP-896-111-214)
       
                  We would like to thank you for your attention to this matter. Please 
do
understand that this is a security measure with intention to protect you and your 
account.
We apologise for any inconvenience.


Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

[Peelgina]

Hi, 

 I just recently purchased an Item with  the "Buy it now" , it was a  quickbooks program which the seller stated that he had 10 of them to sell for a VERY good price, the price was almost too good to be true but I bought it anyway. I paid with my  Paypal account and it did take out of my account. and  Now I can't find the seller or the Item I bought posted anywhere, it has been removed and there is no trace of it. no trace of it., there is no place for me to contact seller as well as  It also is not showing up on my purchase list. Did I just get scammed and what do I do now?  I will contact paypal and customer support on the issue but I was wondering if this is a normal or a strange situation.

 thank you for any input.

 ~Gina`