Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

[PayPal_Adrian]

Hello everyone!

One of the greatest strengths consumers possess against fraud and phishing is education and collaboration.  To help support your safety online, I'm going to open this special thread up for you.  Here, you can post examples of what you believe to be attempts by individuals to defraud you or others of their hard earned valuables and money. 

Before we begin, a few housekeeping points:

• We will be using this as a "master thread," so if we find an example in other areas of the boards, we may merge the post into this one.

• For everyone's safety, please remove any last names or contact information (including email addresses) from your examples.  In many instances, the names provided by fraudsters are fake or may actually be the name of someone they already defrauded. 

• On that same note, please don't ever attempt to confront a fraudster or attempt to track them down.  Instead, turn the information you do have over to your local authorities. 

• Please also remove any links from your posts, as these could potentially go to spoofed or phishing websites.

Other than that, we only ask that you keep it productive and stay within the Forum Decorum and posting guidelines.  I'll be stopping in on a regular basis to clean house and comment on posts, so don't be surprised if you see my mug - or another moderator - stopping in to say hello! 

With that said, I'm going to start moving posts in, so you might see some older examples mixed in with the new posts.  I hope this thread becomes a great resource for everyone!

Stay safe,

Adrian

[heli-ap]

Here is the email I recieved, Im suspicious of fraud, what should I be weary of:

Hi thanks for mailing, i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now.
i am buying this for my personal use so am willing to offer you the
amount you required. I can only pay through PayPal at the moment as i
don't have access to my bank account online(i don't have internet
banking with it), but i have it attached to my PayPal account, and
this is why i insisted on using PayPal to pay,all i will need is your
PayPal email address to make the payment, and if you don't have a
PayPal account yet, you can set one up at www.paypal.com  it cant take
you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your PayPal email
so l can pay. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up
after payment has been sorted. l will be waiting for your reply asap.
plz include your final price for the listing

--
hello
  Is your listing still available ? send me recent picture of it.
    Richard

[Florinda]

i got the same message for a car im selling,, so now I too think it is frandulant !!

[painterrob]

Hi, I received the exact same message , that he had sent me the funds

[Florinda]

whats is wrong with this world?? it disgusts me what people try and do ! Im considering cancelling my paypal account and never posting/selling  anything even on auto trader again, because thats where my email came from..

[CanuckDuc]

I work for a large bank in Canada and we are well aware of this scam.  If you agree to the arrangement, a second email will arrive, or the cheque/draft/certified cheque will show up for more than the agreed upon price.  Finally will come a request to go to your bank and make the deposit, returning the difference to the "buyer."  By the time the cheque/draft/certified cheque/money order bounces (its a high quality but complete fake) the "buyer" has your money.

If it seems too good to be true, or to outlandish... it is!

CanuckDuc

[islandtipster]

I have been selling a couple of vehicles on Craigs List, I get that same scam email with every psoting without fail.  Almost word for word.

The writing is clearly on the wall my friends.

[Jo_123]

I had the same thing happen, re a guitar I am selling on kijiji. The "buyer" said she/he worked "offshore" in the St. Lawrence (since when does the St. Lawrence river qualify as offshore??) had limited communication ability because of it (Ontario Quebec cellphone service does cover the area!) and wanted to buy the guitar for a son in Malaysia. Said he sent payment via paypal, (did not show up even as pending) but that I had to send a wire transfer for 800 CAD via Western Union to the shipping agent in Malaysia before paypal would release the money to me. They eve had a fake Paypal person telling me what to do.

Again, bad grammar, things not makig sense, story changing. I called Paypal directly and was told immediately that it was a scam. This was my first ever experience selling anything, and it has ot been a good one.

My gratitude goes to the staff at Paypal for being easy to contact for help (it took under 3 minutes), and for having a well-informed individual there to tell me immediately that it was a scam.

Thank you, Paypal

[Rosie11]

LOL  I got the same messgae today too from  Mary,  apparently living in the Bahamas.....WOW  im so glad i read these posts

[Igotnuthin]

Got exactly the same message but about a bedroom set I am selling

[PayPal_Adrian]

heli-ap -

Welcome to the boards!

Scam.  I see this email about 4-5 times a day on the US boards, and it varies, well, very little.  I pity actual marine engineers at sea, because they'll never be able to purchase anything once this angle is abandoned.

Learn more about buying and selling safely online - check out our Security Centre at www.paypal.ca/securityandprotection

Another great article I recommend for anyone who uses the internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

Hope this helps,

Adrian