Is this email confirming payment approval a fraud/phishing attempt?

cjyarbr
New Community Member

I am selling a camera on Facebook marketplace. I agreed to ship the camera to the buyer as long as they paid in full upfront using PayPal. I got an email from service@ payservice-online .com (the fact that this email address is not allowed to be submitted in full does not give me confidence) with this message:

 

Thanks for using PayPal

This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED" but will not be credited to your account until the shipment tracking number is sent to us by replying to this email, for verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller.


It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account after our verification with the tracking number.

 

with the rest of the email being just buyer and seller information.

 

I feel like this is a phishing email as the email address doesn't have the PayPal logo (it looks like an Apple contacts icon with a P) and it isn't a paypal.com email address. Is this a valid email that Paypal would use to confirm payments or is it a scam to get me to ship without receiving payment?

 

Thank you!

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1 REPLY 1

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@cjyarbr 

 

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a direct Paypal payment and may ask you to send the item internationally.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails may go into your junk/spam folders.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
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.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal do not tell you to send trackable, they advise it for selling protection but it is not compulsory.
Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
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