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PayPal Scam?

ree ree robusto

ree ree robusto

Official Misfit
Joined
Aug 4, 2004
Messages
2,224
Fellows,

I have a friend selling a car and listed it on Craigslist. A buyer from San Diego wants to buy it, but he wants to send funds via PayPal and have an agent pick it up. I think this is a scam and will post the email from the buyer. He has no idea about the car, condition, etc...Those of you more familiar with PayPal than I am, please fill me in. Can any CA law enforcement folks be able to trace this to a verified buyer? Just a thought

"Thanks for your quick response to my mail,i really appreciate it...I am buying this Vehicle as a birthday gift for my daddy and i'll not be able to come for face 2 face transaction or for the picking up cause am a Naval officer and presently on a ship. But am ready to make the payment through paypal and I really want this Vehicle to be a surprise for my daddy so i won't let him know anything about this Vehicle until it gets delivered to him, i am sure he will be more happy with this Vehicle.

I have a pick up agent that will come to your place to pick up the Vehicle after i have made the payment into your account. I have forward your address to the shipper agent company to calculate the cost of the pickup and you will get back to me as soon as you hear from them.So kindly send me your paypal email address for the payment to be made instantly if you have an account with them already and if you don't have one, you can do so by going to www.PayPal.com and set up your account it is free easy and guarantees transaction safety.Thanks for your understanding

I hope you will consider my request favorably. Your quick response will be appreciated

Best Regards"

Buyers name is Steve Julius his email is steve8188@att.net.

Thanks,
Ree


FYI car is listed for $18,000
 
ree ree robusto said:
Fellows,

I have a friend selling a car and listed it on Craigslist. A buyer from San Diego wants to buy it, but he wants to send funds via PayPal and have an agent pick it up. I think this is a scam and will post the email from the buyer. He has no idea about the car, condition, etc...Those of you more familiar with PayPal than I am, please fill me in. Can any CA law enforcement folks be able to trace this to a verified buyer? Just a thought

"Thanks for your quick response to my mail,i really appreciate it...I am buying this Vehicle as a birthday gift for my daddy and i'll not be able to come for face 2 face transaction or for the picking up cause am a Naval officer and presently on a ship. But am ready to make the payment through paypal and I really want this Vehicle to be a surprise for my daddy so i won't let him know anything about this Vehicle until it gets delivered to him, i am sure he will be more happy with this Vehicle.

I have a pick up agent that will come to your place to pick up the Vehicle after i have made the payment into your account. I have forward your address to the shipper agent company to calculate the cost of the pickup and you will get back to me as soon as you hear from them.So kindly send me your paypal email address for the payment to be made instantly if you have an account with them already and if you don't have one, you can do so by going to www.PayPal.com and set up your account it is free easy and guarantees transaction safety.Thanks for your understanding

I hope you will consider my request favorably. Your quick response will be appreciated

Best Regards"

Buyers name is Steve Julius his email is steve8188@att.net.

Thanks,
Ree


FYI car is listed for $18,000
Click to expand...



Just by looking at the email. I would suspect that English is not his first Language, Its a Spam in my book. Spam or not, what Man calls their Dad, Daddy?

David

 
After my recent experience with PayPal fraud I'm naturally weary of stuff like this. It looks like a weird sales pitch at the end there. Like David said, it looks like English is not his first language near the beginning there but then its worded very eloquently at the end: I hope you will consider my request favorably. Your quick response will be appreciated

I wouldn't trust it.
 
Smells bad from the get go. Any Craiglist transaction need to be done face to face. Here is their #1 way to avoid a scam...

"DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON - follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts on craigslist"
 
ree ree robusto said:
Fellows,

I have a friend selling a car and listed it on Craigslist. A buyer from San Diego wants to buy it, but he wants to send funds via PayPal and have an agent pick it up. I think this is a scam and will post the email from the buyer. He has no idea about the car, condition, etc...Those of you more familiar with PayPal than I am, please fill me in. Can any CA law enforcement folks be able to trace this to a verified buyer? Just a thought

"Thanks for your quick response to my mail,i really appreciate it...I am buying this Vehicle as a birthday gift for my daddy and i'll not be able to come for face 2 face transaction or for the picking up cause am a Naval officer and presently on a ship. But am ready to make the payment through paypal and I really want this Vehicle to be a surprise for my daddy so i won't let him know anything about this Vehicle until it gets delivered to him, i am sure he will be more happy with this Vehicle.

I have a pick up agent that will come to your place to pick up the Vehicle after i have made the payment into your account. I have forward your address to the shipper agent company to calculate the cost of the pickup and you will get back to me as soon as you hear from them.So kindly send me your paypal email address for the payment to be made instantly if you have an account with them already and if you don't have one, you can do so by going to www.PayPal.com and set up your account it is free easy and guarantees transaction safety.Thanks for your understanding

I hope you will consider my request favorably. Your quick response will be appreciated

Best Regards"

Buyers name is Steve Julius his email is steve8188@att.net.

Thanks,
Ree


FYI car is listed for $18,000
Click to expand...


Unless the agent brings cash...NO.

;)


Edit - YES...this is a common scam!
 
Daddy? WTF, Steer clear. He's probably from Nigeria and part of an internet scam ring :angry:
 
Ask for him to mail a money order, you can do that from ships can't you?
 
Any Naval officer will have much better writing skills. Forward this to paypal as well, so they are aware.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I figured it was a scam immediately. Was just wondering if anybody has heard of this scam? I know of a similar scam where somebody orders $1,000 worth a food at a restaurant, gives a bogus credit card and has somebody pick it up type of thing. I figured armed service peeps quit calling their father daddy years ago.
 
I accidentally mistake the words for father and daddy all the time when I speak Polish. Its really not that big of a deal.

The rest of it sounds kind of fishy....

-Mark
 
It does sound suspicious. But I am confused about the mechanism of the scam. How can someone depositing money into your PayPal account, which can them be transferred in 3 to 4 business days to your authorized bank account, scam you? Can they use your PayPal account name to steal from you? If so, this would be a serious problem for anyone who has a PayPal account.

In short, how does it work. If this is truly a risk, then I am concerned that anyone who deposits money into my PayPal account could scam me.
 
They don't deposit anything, they use a hacked account, or stop the transaction....this is a common scam.
 
DePasta said:
They don't deposit anything, they use a hacked account, or stop the transaction....this is a common scam.
Click to expand...
Ah, I see. I would never consider an electronic transaction complete until I saw my bank account deposit cleared. But I guess some people would fall for it, which is what many scammers count on.

Thanks for the edification.
 
Yep, I would send this straight to Paypal and make sure he does not let the car go.
 
I've dealt with dozens of scammers like this one, purchasing items on eBay and what not. They use a hacked Paypal account, or a stolen credit card to send the funds. Sometimes Paypal doesn't catch the fraud right away. Even if you withdraw the funds to your bank account, if Paypal discovers that the payment was made fraudulently, they will reverse the payment to the cardholder and debit your account, leaving you with a negative balance. You are on the hook for the funds.

When doing business on Craigslist, never, EVER sell to someone who says their "Agent" or "Shipper" or whoever will come pick up the item, because they are otherwise engaged and cannot come themselves. I literally get an email like this at least once a day.

Paypal only covers you under their Seller Protection Policy if you ship to the confirmed address provided with the payment, and you have to prove that it was delivered and signed for. But, that only covers against claims that the item was not received. If you ship the item to the confirmed address, and the buyer does a chargeback through their credit card company, you'r pretty much on your own. Paypal will send correspondence to the credit card company on your behalf, but you will be without the money in the meantime (with a slim chance of getting it back unless you have hard proof that the person received the goods).

If anyone has questions about anything like this, feel free to drop me a PM.
 
I actually got caught with this scam a few years back. I figured hey, if paying through PP then it's "safe" (this was back when I actually thought PP was good). Sure nuff, got the funds and then an email about a week after saying the cc used was stolen. I was not only out of my item, but had to pay back the full amount along with other fees. Long story short, I ended up having to pay it.
 
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