Online sellers stung by scammers spoofing PayPal brand

Paypal not always protect you. You have to be careful with paypal. About two years ago i surprised with a multiple transactions in my paypal account (Selling and buying). My credit card was prepaid and fortunately that time was insufficient amount on it. i got an sms inform about my balance was insufficient and directly i opened my PayPal and found these fake transactions. i inform paypal about this and i opened cases. It was 400€ demanding from my account to a multiple accounts and paypal solve this to 25€ and they told me you have to pay this. My account was Zero and i told them i have to pay for scammers. then i close my PayPal because they were not safe. So be carful from this. Now i use direct Visa and my Bank protect me.

I have one emailing me right now regardinga car we are selling, I dont have a Pay pal account but he insists we need to set one up immediately. I am concerned as he now has our names and email address, do I need to delete my email Account?

I had one last night. Disabled lady wanted to buy my second hand dining table but couldn't pick up herself due to her disability. Said she had transferred my money for table and courier costs to my paypal. Once i had paid courier via bank transfer the money would be in my paypal acct. All looked very genuine until she started to demand transfer was made immediately. Luckily first bank acct details she gave me failed. Im so lucky and feel so foolish now. She is still contacting me saying she isnt a fraud and i need to contact paypal on behalf of her because the money has left her acct. Mabel Anderson she called herself

Scammer contacted me right away after posting a flatbed trailer for sale offering to pay full price without looking at it. Asked me if a 2004 trailer had dents or scratches and asked if the transmission had been services. LOL. I replied to this wanna be scammer that it did have dents and scratches and reminded that it was a 2004 and that flatbed trailers do not have transmissions. HA HA HA. He then offered full price plus $500 commission for setting up a pay pal account. I set it up and the communication continued back and forth but could never even get me a pay pal confirmation that the $15,500 was in my account even though he said it was done. I ended up replying " Nothing yet maybe you got my email wrong or maybe you could not create a spoofed pay pal account. You are not very good at scamming someone are you? Is this your first time ?" Be warned and stay alert. I got my degree in Information Technology and had set up a trap for this person with a fake email and a fake pay pal account to track his ip and information to turn him into the authorities but play it safe and just avoid this type of scam. Follow Craiglists' warnings and advise The number that texted me was (832)804-5886 apparently from Houston but remember that anyone can get a fake number very easily using apps.

I just received an email receipt saying that I made a purchase online using PayPal. Which I didn't. Gave the name and address of the person it's going to but none of my info. Is this a scam? It feels like one. I've been getting apple scams for a while now, it sounds just like one of those.

We had a buyer contact us last night about a motorcycle asking us to ship it to him. We sent a PayPal request for money to him and “PayPal” sent my husband an email with instructions for shipping that neither of us really understood. It talked about apple gift cards and had too many sleeping errors so we assumed it was a scam. The guy got really upset when we told him we cancelled to request and he “reported us to the FBI”. Glad my skepticism paid off.

I currently have a boat & trailer listed on Boat Trader. I’ve been emailing back & forth with a guy named Roger Ellis who is a subsea engineer and currently offshore so he cannot physically inspect the vessel himself, blah blah blah, long story short it’s pretty much the same thing I’m reading here. He wants to pay via PayPal and has a “mover” who will also sign the paperwork as his agent.....idk it just felt off. As desperate as I am for the quick cash and wanted to believe this was legit, I’m so glad I googled “PayPal scams”. Not sure what would’ve happened had I gone through with this :(

I just tried to purchase a pair of Coast Guard running shoes, and the seller had a paypal account. It turned out to be a fraud, called paypal and was told I couldn't do a dam thing unless I had a paypal account. Paypal is the fraud here and needs to be shut down by the government.

today i got this in response to a truck i have for sale Do you have the extra keys, Do you have the spare tire, Where did you get your car serviced, Have you ever had any transmission repairs and Is there any rust on the vehicle? I'm ready to pay your asking price but not cash in person because I am serving in the US army and currently been deploy to Fort Huachuca Military Base , Arizona and calls are restricted at the moment and my only quickest payment option is PayPal, its safe fast and secure and i will be responsible for the PayPal transaction charges so you can get your expected amount. If you don't have an account with PayPal, its pretty easy to open one, Just log onto www . paypal . com and sign up. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as possible? As I am buying the vehicle for my dad and I'm very sure he will love this vehicle, his a mechanic and a handy man, so if there is anything that need to be fixed in it just let me know he will handle it. I have a mover that will come for the pick up once payment clears in your account and he will handle the title for me.I would appreciate if you email me with more pictures (if available) too since i won't be able to see this in person. You may receive an email like this from other people because i told my colleagues and team mate to help me lookout for the vehicle as well,,so deal with me directly . I look forward to hear from you with the information below. Your PayPal e-Mail Address : Full name: Phone Number- Firm Price: Zip code for pickup: Regards Seth > >

I sell pianos which I restore, am now dealing with the third scammer. Tell tell signs are, the use of generic words such as “items” “instrument” “garment” “vehicle” “artwork” etc it’s almost as though they have a round robin email and are going through a number of similar adverts. They will say “I am happy with the price and condition” or ask for “more photograpshs showing it’s condition and that you still have the item” then they’ll claim to be too far away or the nature of their work but be ver fague, the military man was very common. I always say you can wire the money to me as a direct transpher as soon as they say they only use paypal I know it’s a scam. I always say I do not have PayPal as it is not reliable and set out my terms, they always get nasty. The first one I almost fell for until they claimed to send too much money to cover the shipping and that funds would clear once. I wired the money to the shipping company. I smelled a rat as I deal with the deliveries and so I gave a email though I do not have PayPal yet they claimed funds were “pending” unless I wired the money to the company via Eedtern Union. I said well I thought you only used PayPal what’s the scam, they soon vanished. The second one was the “military man” saying he had moved to France, I said no problem I ship to France and the trusted specialist piano moving company I use and have a great relationship with have trucks going to France every week wire the money over, give me the address and I’ll let you know when the ETA is next week, he got aggressive. Now I have a Allan Smith insisting on using PayPal and his couriers getting nasty as I have said no couriers and no PayPal I organise deliverires which is included in the price and you need to view the instrument before and pay before delivery latest email ‘funds will be cleared before and I know how to get my things to me” The word things and insisting on PayPal says it’s a scam........why would you pay extra for why is included in the price?

I was asked to receive payment of £40 for the item plus £310 for courier ; I was then to pay £310 to the given courier bank account. A fake Paypal message was then received

I am into one of these right now. Received email from carolmadewell15@ Thanks I'm just asking about it to make sure its in good condition as im buying it for my cousin as a surprise gift and he doesn't know about it, so can you assure me i will not be disappointed? Me: Its in excellent condition,  I have priced it to sell it ASAP. You can compare prices internet or dealers. Let me know. carolmadewell15 Okay...My only option right now will be PayPal, I prefer to use PayPal for most online transactions, You can easily get money in your PayPal and transfer it into your bank account let me know then i will arrange for it to be picked up by agent that will come down to your location for pick up After the payment is clears to you,Do you have a PayPal account..?

WELL, I received this today and decided to check it out on line after they did not want to pay cash or send ID info etc:- Thanks for the blog I received the pics and love it, so do you have an account with PayPal so i can transfer money to you? i don't want someone else come for it. That sounds like a great plan. Please see additional photos.. We can arrange a day for collection by your carrier. Please let me have the cash from the courier company on the day of collection. I will give them a receipt and all the paperwork. We can meet at the BP garage in Westville. 24 church street. Please let me know the date early. next week With all the crime etc, please send me a copy of your ID so that I can fill in all our details on the change of ownership forms and on your receipts. Also the name of the courier company today. Many thanks Happy holidays to you ad your family. please consider it sold as i am willing to buy as it is for my son asap,i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it and i will appreciate it a lot if you can send me more pictures,sadly i would not be able to come personally to collect due to my present location. Be kind enough to send more pictures if you got more and please be informed that i have a courier agent that would help me to pick it up at your preferred location after you have received your money. Regards

It never ends. Thanks for the mail, I am glad to read from you. My name is David, a geothermal engineer from BP Exploration & Production. It's my pleasure to contact you regarding the Ad you listed for sale. Though, your selling price seem pretty fair enough, but I'd like to ensure it's in good condition, cos am new to buying online. I won't be able to take a proper inspection at it myself nor make calls due to my current location(offshore) & work schedule. Here are few things I'd like to know before I proceed with the purchase. (1) Are you the original owner? (2) When have you been using it? (3) Any mechanical issue(s) please? (4) How much repair/restoration is needed? What's the mileage? (5) I'd like to know your reason for selling? (6) Please confirm the selling price? I will appreciate more close up pics (7) Lastly, can I be rest assured I won't be disappointed with the purchase? Best Regards. David M. Weingart

+1 (859) 888-8259 Texted me saying they wanted to buy my purse got daughter and to use PayPal for security. I gave them my PayPal email and they sent this, luckily I didn’t click the link but they got my email contacts and emailed a few people strange emails pretending to be me. Below is the email I received from :shipmentverifiers1@ I'm Shara White,your transaction administrator. You have a payment of $650.00 USD pending to be credited to your account. Accreditation process will commence as soon as we receive a tracking number of the shipped merchandise and verify it's authenticity with the USPS EXPRESS MAIL office. we need you to reply to this mail directly with the tracking number or send tracking number via email to CLICK HERE. also fund will be process after verification of the tracking number provided by you.

Beware. +1 (346) 808-4379 is another lousy gumtree scammer. Contacted through whatsap and asking for more photos of the item, lots of trivia questions and then a fake PayPal payment mail and receipts. Never post your item before logging in to your PayPal and be sure that you were really paid. Scammer: 346-8084379

We received the exact same e-mail today. My question is I thought paypal was secure. Is there a secure way to get payment from craigslist items??

Same story, from alfreddarryl561@

My husband is selling a desk for $600, she seemed very interested and asked us if we could transfer money through PayPal, we never really use paypal but my husband made one, we received an email, stating we have to send $200 to a moving company before we can receive any payment, & it stated the moving company's name, city, & state, and zip code, except it said james Michael, Houston Texas exc. The girl we received texts from is amanda linda berry. We texted her saying we didn't have $200 to send to anybody, she said we need to send it and that her payment is un-reversible, when we read the email it said the same thing. I told my husband that something's not right and automatically looked it up on google because I know PayPal can send money back. Then I found this. Thank you guys. We reported it and we let her know she was a scammer.

Guys please help this guy keeps on sending me a lot of money and asked me to pay a shipper a 190usd and I did now he sent another money and asked me to pay for his insurance fee please help guys please

I got something similar too i should have love to come but am at work on the sea I will like to inform you that am buying the item for my Sister in Pakistan , so i will be the one responsible for the pick up and delivery stuff. kindly get back to me with your full name and address so that i can forward it to the pick up agent to calculate the pick up fees for me.

Posted something on Olx. That’s an Indian version of eBay. Got a message of a foreign dude who first negotiated and then agreed to buy the stuff. He wanted to pay through PayPal . He forwarded a link through which I could download PayPal.... for some reason I didn’t clicked on that link and opened my PayPal account by accessing PayPal through browser. Was getting a bit suspicious when he said that he would send his courier to pick up the stuff as he is very busy. Then I searched PayPal frauds and landed up here. He then contacted me and told that he has paid full amount and some extra for the courier and the mail from PayPal should have been there in my spam box. It was the same thing as mentioned in this article. I asked him from where is He talking. He said from US and his courier is in India. He got desperate and called me twice which I disconnected. I then blocked him. I’m really glad that I read this article before doing anything else. Beware of the scammers

This is what I received via text. What was odd is that the phone number that the text came from only had 9 digits. Google search to the rescue! 1 of 4 FRM:tony jeremy SUBJ:Re: Leather Sofa & Love Seat - $1400 MSG:Sounds great..I'm okay with the asking price and also am buying this for (Con't) 2 of 4 my Dad, i will be having my hauler come for the pickup due to the fact that i work with the military, it's pretty tight,im making the (Con't) 3 of 4 payment via PayPal as it's attached to my bank account and note that i will be responsible for the PayPal charges.....Do you have a (Con't) 4 of 4 PayPal account?(End)

Just got one as well From a Richard Colbert, sgt colbert120 @ Thanks for getting back to me regarding my text...I hope it is in good condition? and there wont be any cause of disappointment if i purchase it from you? I am ready to pay the asking price. I'm a Military and am currently in Camp right now which is strictly no calls. My Mode of payment is PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online, but i have it attached to my PayPal account. Since I'm requesting this transaction to be done via PayPal, I will be responsible for all the PayPal fees/charges on this transaction, if you don't have an account with PayPal, it's pretty easy, safe and secure to open one. Just log on to paypal. com I hope we can make this transaction as fast as possible. Less I forgot, I have a Mover that will come for the pick up once payment is cleared in your PayPal account and they will be handling the everything for me, as I look forward to hearing from you with your PayPal information as requested below. Your PayPal e-Mail Address : Full name: Address For Pickup: Firm Price: Cell Number:

So glad I checked here! I posted a car on auto trader and got an email from Sgt Pamela Dennis too! Figured it was a scam when they started talking about PayPal. Exact email as everyone else: Pamela dennis Thanks for getting back to me, I am Sgt currently deployed to a remote area until ? March 30. Can you assure me that it’s in good state as it appears and that i will not be disappointed with it It is strictly no calls here due to security reasons, otherwise I would have called you to seal the deal,but i can actually try to use my phone applications to text you with my laptop.I have read through your ad and from what I have seen,it is priced favorably compared to others so I want you to consider it sold to me ‘’AS IS’’ for the asking price but you have to assure me it is as described. I am comfortable paying you via PayPal to complete this transaction because of their security when it comes to online transactions. Let me have your PayPal details ( Account name,PayPal Email, Pick Address and Mobile #) so that I can initiate the payment. If you don’t have a PayPal account kindly set one up because it is absolutely free.Furthermore, I will hire shipper that will come for the pickup, and also do the necessary paperwork on my behalf as soon as we are done with the payment part of the transaction.I’ll like to see more recent pictures if you still have. If you don’t , then lets proceed

I'm looking into starting something. The problem is the business I'm looking into starting has a long history of chargeback scams or something similar. It usually goes like this: person posts things for sale buyer buys it then goes nope I want my money back. Seller says ok return the thing and seller then complains in some fashion to PayPal at which point PayPal refunds them without buyer having returned the thing. How do I avoid this?

I got him today! "Christopher Earley". Said that he is interested in the bike and to set up Paypal account, "set up transfer", and to put account information on his paypal website so he can transfer the money. Thanks everyone for giving us the heads up. This was obviously a scam.

My ebay scammer won the bid for a designer handbag. Got an e mail from paypal that she sent money. Another e mail was sent stating to claim my payment, I have to register for a Business Paypal account by clicking the link provided in the email I knew it was a scam because there was no payment made to my paypal account. SHe received an email from ebay giving her 4 days to pay since I filed for unpaid item . She has the nerve of sending me emails that she indeed paid and she has a screenshot receipt to paypal which is fraud.

Anyone had a 'Seth Smith' contact them? I'm selling my Chevy Impala and this is what I got: Do you have the extra keys, Do you have the spare tire, Where did you get your car serviced, Have you ever had any transmission repairs and Is there any rust on the vehicle? I'm ready to pay your asking price but not cash in person because I am serving in the US army and currently been deploy to Fort Huachuca Military Base , Arizona and calls are restricted at the moment and my only quickest payment option is PayPal, its safe fast and secure and i will be responsible for the PayPal transaction charges so you can get your expected amount. If you don't have an account with PayPal, its pretty easy to open one, Just log onto www . paypal . com and sign up. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as possible? As I am buying the vehicle for my dad and I'm very sure he will love this vehicle, his a mechanic and a handy man, so if there is anything that need to be fixed in it just let me know he will handle it. I have a mover that will come for the pick up once payment clears in your account and he will handle the title for me.I would appreciate if you email me with more pictures (if available) too since i won't be able to see this in person. You may receive an email like this from other people because i told my colleagues and team mate to help me lookout for the vehicle as well,,so deal with me directly . I look forward to hear from you with the information below. Your PayPal e-Mail Address : Full name: Phone Number- Firm Price: Zip code for pickup: Regards Seth

Hi everyone, I put up my car on Gumtree a couple of days ago and yesterday I got a text message from a person that I don’t have it in my phone list asking me if I still have the car and to reply to an email address “pascalaurrie12312@ .... What was very strange for me that usually when you get a message from a new phone number that you don’t have it in the phone it should came up the number not the name. So that was the first question mark for me and the second one was the message saying to reply to an email message. I was very curious to see what els people can do to steal money out of other people so I send a message on the email address and shortly I got a reply back. Great! please consider it sold and remove the adverts online as i am willing to pay your asking price? because i need to buy it for my cousin asap as a surprise gift, i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it, sadly i would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and I'm just recovering from heart surgery so I'm home-bound. can i earn your trust, hope i wont be disappointed? I have a courier agent that would help me to pick it up at your preferred location after you have received your money and cleared to your account and i'll pay you via PayPal today once you get back to me with your Paypal email and full name. Where is the pick up location so that i can inform the courier agent about it now? Await your response. I tried to be nice and play along to this emai to see what else they can right so My answer was Hi, I’m really sorry to hear that you are in such a bad position and I wish you a fast recovery but As much as it sounds tempting your email and I would like do go down on this road and jump in this I’m not willing to go for this. I’m really sorry but I don’t have PayPal account and I’m not willing to sell the car thru an email. If you would like to buy the car you can send the money thru your courier agent or someone who you can trust with a proper identification for the person who will buy this car so I can make the proper papers for it. If you are not willing and able to do this please don’t bother me anymore. So I got another email from them I’m sorry i am disabled and i have limited access to cash and other payment methods..so i can only pay via PayPal. You can setup a PayPal account at www. paypal. co. uk it's very safe and secure. Also it's very easy to set up within few minutes. So after all this back and forwards emails I got the idea that my intuition from the first message appearing the name and not the phone number didn’t trick me. Be very careful about wired thinks that come to your life and look up every information befor you doing something that can affect your mind, heart, mood, life and everything that it’s defunds you. Ooooo and I almost forgot I copied her email address “Pascaline Laurrie pascalaurrie12312 “ and I look that up on google and it came up this internet page plus a few more. So be very careful when you selling something to who you selling it to don’t just be happy that you got lucky and you sell that thick very fast..

I have put up an item for sale worth over $1000 yesterday, within minutes I had a buyer from New Zealand Oil and Gas, which was so obviously a scam from a “ michael ashley” followed by two other emails from scammers, a “Rupa Sharma, and a Hector Young”, both these scammers are stating that they can’t inspect the item themselves for differing reasons but are willing to buy the Sofa based on my description and a few extra photos but both only willing to deal with pay pal. It’s getting to a point where you don’t want to buy or sell anything due to the large amount of scammers

Watch out for Dinah Bower. I am trying to sell my car online for 9300$. Who would buy a car without even looking at it? This is what I got: "Thanks for answering the questions. I am satisfied but can you assure me that i will not be disappointed if i buy this Vehicle. I'm ready to pay your asking price but not cash in person because I'm currently in a conference and calls are restricted at the moment and my only quickest payment option is PayPal, its safe fast and secure and i will be for the PayPal transaction charges so you can get expected amount. If you don't have an account with PayPal, its pretty easy to open one,Just log onto ‪‪www. paypal. com‬‬ and sign up. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as possible? As I am buying the vehicle for someone and I'm very sure he will love this vehicle, his a mechanic and a handy man, so if there is anything that need to be fixed in it just let me know he will handle it. I have a mover that will come for the pick up once payment clears in your account and he will handle the title for me.I look forward to hear from you with the information below. Your PayPal e-Mail Address : Full name: Firm Price: Zip code for pickup:"

HOLT WERNER doing the same thing, can only pay through paypal, I realized in time, beware people please!

Buckler Harold was trying to speak in my language but after his bad pronunciation went over to bad English, he wrote me this: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello okay'm okay with your price. I'm very satisfied with the condition. I am willing to pay your price, so about shipping. My shipping company is responsible for supplying my data. It transmits the name of the owner and the signing of all necessary documents is performed by the pick-up agents, so you do not send it. I have to worry about. And to avoid the damage. Please consult with your Bank or PayPal data as described below in me, that payment can be made immediately. Name: Mr David Harold Home Address: Bars town, ca 92111 City: California Country: United state of America Here are your Bank or PayPal details that are required for the payment: Account Name: Iban Number: Phone Number: Item Price: Home address for the pick up: My ID: attachment I was almost scammed. Thanks for this site!

Hey, I had an eager buyer of my car which I posted online with NO PHOTOS. Apparently, he’s in New Zealand and will make payment via PayPal and send an agent to pick up. What is with this?

Just had Dav.wolfe@ , similar, disable, buying for daughter- sending a shipper to collect, asking for Vin number

Thank god I found this website! I was super close to getting scammed today I received this email for my BMW which was for sale on Craigslist saying, “ Am Rose Cassidy Kate and i thank you for getting back to me.Can you assure me that it's in good state and i will not be disappointed with it.I'm ready to pay your asking price and to be honest, i wanted to buy this for my Father and i want it to be a surprise gift for him, but the issue is i am an oceanographer and i do have a contract to go for which starts tomorrow and am on my way right now.The contract is strictly no call due to the lack of reception on the sea area. But I'm able to access email anytime as we will make use of laptop and also i can text you any time so my only quickest payment option is PayPal/ as i can send money via PayPal anytime.Since I'm requesting this transaction to be done via PayPal, i will be responsible for all the PayPal fee/charges on this transaction and if you don't have an account with PayPal, its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one. Just log on to www. PayPal. com. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as possible? I have a mover that will come for it once payment clears and they will be handling the title for me. So i look forward to hear from you soon.” Me being me thought it was real and someone really wanted to buy my car after so long. Then I received this email, “No problem, I understand. i told you earlier. I'm out of state, I'm offshore now, PayPal is reliable, secured and a fast way to pay money online moreover i don't have the money in CASH and I'm not around now, I can only pay via my VERIFIED PayPal account because I can't go around with such huge amount,okay kindly get back to me with your paypal account email so i can make the payment to your account and i have a mover that will come for it once payment clears and they will be handling all the necessary thing for me also” I said okay sounds good! After a while I received this email, “You're welcome! am on process to make the payment now, Kindly do me a favor, the shipper company charged me $700 before they can send the Agent to you,so i will also add the Agent fee to the payment now, i mean i will include the agent fees to your final price of the item, please i will need you to help me send the money to my pick up agent in the US through western union money transfer, this can be done from any post office ,there is always western union moneytransfer section in most post offices you can do it online as well at (www. westernunion. com)...,i would have done it myself but we cant bring some of our personal effects along, i am a little incapacitated..... I will appreciate your help. Note: I have forward your email to the pickup agent they will contact you regarding the time and date of pickup, Thanks for your business” This is when I started getting suspicious but the PayPal emails seemed so real that next morning I promised her to send 700 CAD at 8 AM. She emailed me right in the morning asking if I sent the money and I told her I’m about to leave and she replied saying thank you so much! I went to 3 Moneygrams and all of them said no or that we don’t want to get involved in fraud and I thought they were stupid! So I went to my fourth one saying it’s a family member so it’ll work. I sent the money to the name “Teresa Barnes” then I came back and sat in the car and started searching up “PayPal scams” then this website came up and I realized I was scammed BIG TIME my heart dropped. I called the fraud line for moneygram and they refunded my money in the full amount 700 CAD and suspended the transaction so the person could not receive the money. The customer representative said I was very lucky to call before someone got the money. I then emailed that same person again saying your a scammer and a liar and said I am not until I said I called the cops on you and then stopped emailing me. Moneygram is not going to do an investigation as they don’t have any power to do so. So I’m going to call my police which is the RCMP and also try reaching for the Alabama police which is in the USA which this lady is from and see what can be done about this fraud. Please don’t fall for this guys this was my close call always use etransfer to be safe.

Received text from a NY number wanting to purchase our RV from eBay. Said they trusted everything we wrote about it in the ad and insisted on using PayPal to pay the entire amount without seeing the vehicle. I advised them that we would take the deposit by PayPal, but they would need to come onsite to view the vehicle before purchase. Also, told them they would have to go to a local bank with us to exchange the remaining balance in cash, that way we know the money is not counterfeit. For some reason we never heard back from them....

Have a Harley Davidson for sale on Ebay within the first 24 hours after listing was emailed from a guy named Barnett Winston asked if the bike was still for sale and please don’t hesitate to text him at 8-2-8/5-4-8/3-6-2-3, that was the first red flag! Who gives a phone number with dashes, then after I text him, he asked very few questions about the bike and said it was a reasonable price and was willing to purchase at my full asking price, that was red flag number 2, then he claimed he would loved to talk but cant due to the nature of his job and he will have a mover come and pick it up and do I have a PayPal account. I gave him my PayPal email address and the next day, he sent two emails. They both went to my junk folder and the first one showed $1,000 more then the asking price with a note that $100 was for Wallmart fees and $900 was for shipping. The second email had instructions for me to go to nearest Wallmart with cash and send money to a Madge Swanson in Georgia, I asked who is Madge and who does she work for? He replied she was an agent for a moving company called Goshare and she was his agent. Both emails had PayPal logos and looked very legit, but if you tried to open any link on the email it would give a 404 error code and the email stated the total amount was being held by PayPal and cannot be returned to Sgt Barnett Winston but I asked why he doesn’t follow instructions on Ebay and hit the buy now button and deposit per the Ebay instructions and that I wanted to talk to him on the phone, but he said he couldn’t talk because he is in the military , I realized at that point that this is a scam and did a quick Google search and found this site just like many others. Hopefully others will do the same and not get scammed. I also forwarded his PayPal looking emails to PayPal security email and they replied within minutes thats these were phishing emails and are a scam and thanks for sending, now I’m going to notify Ebay of this user.

Ok, I am selling my wedding rings and got the whole "I'll have an agent arrange for pickup bc I am out on see as a marine engineer." The guy gave me what I believe is his first name and called me but I missed the call....does this sound like a scam?

This is what I got. Thanks for getting back to me, I'm from United State of America and really interested in buying the Item so am satisfied with the price and the conditions, I wont be able to come and inspect the goods due to my work right now my private courier will be coming for the pickup which is Parcel 2go Shipping Company. Then asks for my PayPal account details and the amount.

Same format as others have mentioned. Story requiring PayPal. Lots of questions. Using military story to gain trust. Challenge to assure buyer won't be disappointed. Here is the email -------- Thank you for your email and I would like to introduce myself with a little background. First of all. My name is Gillette Hoya. I am currently serving in the U.S. Army as an SMSgt (E-5) and I am presently not in town at the moment because I am currently on base and we aren't allowed to make or receive calls frequently as phone communications are being restricted, but we do have internet access and that is our major means of communication to the outside world. So let’s get back to business! Well, I'm purchasing it for my brother as his birthday gift, but he isn't aware of me doing this because I am making it as a surprise for him. So can you assure me I won't be disappointed buying it from you? Also, I do have a few questions I would love to ask about it. Are you the original owner and why are you selling it? Does it have any mechanical issues? What's the condition, Any damages? Can you send me more pictures? Do you have the title in hand? Is there a lien on the title? Do you have a verified account with PayPal? Do you have any offer's yet? Looking forward to hearing back from you so soon!

Doubt paypal would care about this so put my warning here: (my story) I sell item online. A buyer want to buy and I give out my paypal email address. Later she says there was a problem and asked for my paypal.me name. I did not doubt at that moment, I set it up and give out. Shortly, I got a paypal email with my name saying pending funding need me to provide a parcel force proof urgently to clear the money. I keep checking my paypal account and nothing showing holding money. I sense scam as the buyer never said about international posting The most alarming on that fake email even alert receiver to avoid email without quoting “the person’s name” I kept wonder why they get hold my name on that fake paypal email. Then I asked friend to send me money and my friend said he could see my name and my PayPal.me on his mobile screen. To sum up, the scammer do one more step to learn my name for the fake paypal email. Please beware this…everyone. I am not sure paypal know this or not. Sadly as account holder, for reason I don’t understanding, I could have no control on my PayPal.me setting/editing.

PayPal.me give out my name to scammer for fake paypal email…Beware Doubt paypal would care about this so put my warning here: (my story) I sell item online. A buyer want to buy and I give out my paypal email address. Later she says there was a problem and asked for my paypal.me name. I did not doubt at that moment, I set it up and give out. Shortly, I got a paypal email with my name saying pending funding need me to provide a parcel force proof urgently to clear the money. I keep checking my paypal account and nothing showing any money. I sense scam as the buyer never said about international posting (USA) The most alarming on that fake email even alert receiver to avoid email without quoting “the person’s name” I kept wonder why they get hold my name on that fake paypal email. Then I asked friend to send me money and my friend said he could see my name and my PayPal.me on his mobile screen. To sum up, the scammer do one more step to learn my name for the fake paypal email. Please beware this…everyone. I am not sure paypal know this or not. Sadly as account holder, for reason I don’t understanding, I could have no control on my PayPal.me setting/editing.

Also glad I googled Paypal scammers. Had a James D Kastor wanting to buy my motorcycle. His English was less than perfect and the emails were very similar to the ones posted here. Sent his info to spoof@ paypal. com.