I’ve been trying to sell my MacBook on Craigslist and Kijiji and had an inquiry. After searching for the obviously Nigerian-style phrases in the second message, I sure wasn’t going to wait around to find out how you can get scammed by PayPal.
(Messages posted in reverse order for your reading pleasure. I’m posting this to hopefully keyword Google with this alias.)
> From: Katty weatherly <katty.weatherly01@gmail.com>
> To: sale-742868246@craigslist.org
> Sent: Sunday, July 6, 2008 12:54:06 PM
> Subject: DO YOU STILL HAVE IT AVAILABLE F:S 13.3″ MacBook – white, 2GHz, 2GB
> RAM, 80GB – $1000 (Waterloo – near UW/Laurier)
>
> ** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY — AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
> ** Avoid:Â wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
> ** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
> ** More Info:Â http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html
>
> DO YOU STILL HAVE IT AVAILABLE F:S
>
>
> ——————————————————————
> this message was remailed to you via: sale-742868246@craigslist.org
> ——————————————————————
—
On 7/7/08, Jake Billowrote:
> Yes, the MacBook is still available for sale.
>
> Thanks,
> Jake
—
From: Katty Weatherly
To: Jake Billo
Sent: Monday, July 7, 2008 4:43:07 AM
Subject: Re: DO YOU STILL HAVE IT AVAILABLE F:S 13.3″ MacBook – white, 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 80GB – $1000 (Waterloo – near UW/Laurier)Thanks for the reply, the price is okay by me I will add $100.00 USD
for the shipping cost….making $1100.and i am ready to purchase from
you immediately which am buying this item to someone else,the payment
will be made via paypal cos is very secure and fast way to receive
money online and i don’t want you to look for any other buyer.i would
have love to come down for the pickup.But am not chanced to do that
now but am satisfy with your description of the item .I will like to
read from you concerning this moving arrangement before processing
and sending the payment out to you. i will like you to give me your
paypal account email id or send me an invoice for me to send your
payment.i will expect your mail.asap
Thanks in advance.
Hope to hear from you………………
Katty…………
—
Quit trying to scam people.http://www.computerforum.com/124259-paypal-scam.html
I suppose you’re located in Italy for a conference as well?
http://www.netlinkaccess.com/Cost-Accounting/25790.htm
Die in a fire.
Regards,
Jake
Gmail’s FAQ doesn’t even give a way to try and get the account pulled, only to report phishing through my own Gmail account. The full message headers are useless and only claim that the original message was sent through HTTP. I’ve reported the account using this page, which I found in the support forums.
Thanks for letting me know was selling antique couch /chair for $600 cd on Kijiji calgary (canada) got email about offering $800.00 (for quick sell) for me to take add off and he was an “oceanographer” he would pay with PAYPAL(ive never used it)
then get another message from him offering $700.00(for quick sell) and he’s a “Marine engineer” Hmmmm Scam much LOL
Omg…just about got scammed by “marine engineer” with a shipping company in Liverpool…wanting my tent trailer from BC Canada…seemed sketchy so I googled and found this sight…thank you for the responses…honest people helping honest people!
Same just happened to me with a Sofa I am selling for my Senior Citizen Mother. Some people just can’t stoop low enough.
They should burn in hell is right!
i have a question im selling something in cragslist for 5000 the women offerd 5750 and the extra was for me to send western union once that happens paypal will reinburse the total. is it a scam
This is a SCAM! I had almost the exact message from an “offshore engineer” or so he called himself. Do not do this by any means, cash or money order IN PERSON ONLY!
We had almost identical experience, trying to sell camping equipment on Gumtree.
A ‘marine engineer’ working offshore, who would pay more than the asking price to secure the goods.
The only catch was transferring $850 to his ‘courier’ – in China before we would be credited with our money.
Discontinued communication immediately. An obvious scam.
i just had the same thing happen to me i had posted on kijiji that i had 2 snowmobiles for sale and i wanted 800 for them a guy by the name of tom miller replyed to me saying that he would offer me 950 for them but he had to use paypal to pay for them and also added another 500 for to pay for his agent to pick them up because he was working at sea and could not come pick them up and come to find out i was to pay the 500 out of my own pocket for his agent so i would have lost 500 if i would not have cought it
Almost fell for this scam. Your statement from buyer was almost identical to the one sent to me. Thanks
In the middle of what sounds like a scam right now, I’m selling my karaoke machine with 20,000 songs, I was asking 4000 for speakers, amp, the whole set up, he is offering me 4650 for me to take ad off kijiji and he wants to make pymt via paypal right now, he is very busy with work and can’t come see the machine, but he is satisfied with my explanation of it, he also has his own personal courier driver who will pick up machine once purchase is made so there is no shipping cost!… I emailed him back and said no I’d only accept certified cheque or cash…. He then replied saying he insisted on paypal because his bank account is linked to paypal, he doesn’t have online banking nor does he have cheques…. Then once again asks me my paypal account so he can make the transfer right now!… I had to google this cause my husband keeps telling me… Scam scam scam but it’s looking like he’s right
Most definately a scam, no matter how badly you may want to sell an item its not worth getting ripped off! Good on you for doing your reasearch though, it just saved you a kareoke machine!
Thank you so much!!! My email was identical basically.
Hi! got smth like that this morning. Feeling a scam. But here is the question: how will they scam you using paypal??? i mean, once money is in the account and cleared you got the deal, isnt it? It is not like they sent me a bad check and asked to refund the extra part.
If there is a fraudulent transaction, PayPal will yank the money back from your account. If you’ve already withdrawn it to your bank, they will put your account into a negative balance and eventually send collections after you. Nothing is ever “cleared” with PayPal as long as you have an account with them.
I have already given this guy my PayPal Name and account name. No other information. How can I turn this scam off?!?!?!?
The guys name is Rock Bill, rockb32@gmail.com. He is trying to buy my motorhome but is out on an oil rig. He is going to send the money via PayPal and after the transaction, I am to send $4K to the shipping company using Western Union. I go sucked in until I read you blog. I gave the !@!@#$#$ my name and account name only so I’m waiting to see what happens. I told him to stop so we shall see.
I had the same response for an item listed on craigslist,
He wanted my paypal info and would have a courier service
Pick up. He was unable to view. Buying it for his son as
A surprise. I said no, I would olnly deal in person.
I was selling my truck and am SO happy that I read this first. This is the EXACT same thing that was sent to me. He said it was a suprise for his son and didn’t want his son to know until it arrived for him..
Guy offered me asking price since he was satisfied with the description without looking at the item but had a “picker” to pick it up after the transaction since he couldn’t look at it himself. Glad i looked this up!
I too am confused on how they can scam you using paypal? Everything is suppose to be secure and they protect you. I would like more info on how this is possible. I have someone interested in a bracelet I have for sale and wanted to use paypal. Please help!! I don’t want to get ripped off!!
Hi. They scam you by making you believe the money is going into your paypal acct. but the emails from “paypal” are fake, they are after teh money you are sending to them via western union. In peoples desperation is seems like a sure thing.
Now they have 500$ of yours and you have your item, no buyer and no 500$
There is no money being held for your account…the e-mails that you receive from PayPal are fake.You send the money to an”agent” and it’s adios to your cash.The confirmations are fake.I just opened an account the day of the scam and had not activated it yet,yet I was receiving confirmations of a pending transaction to the name of my account,not the name that the real PayPal welcomed me with earlier in the day!
Pingback: More scams: How you can get ripped off using PayPal | Bus error: Jake Billo's weblog
For details on how the PayPal end of scams works, visit my latest post:
http://jakebillo.com/more-scams-how-you-can-get-ripped-off-using-paypal/
hi im selling my truck on craiglist. a guy is supposedly in the military and want to buy this for his father. he is was gonna pay by paypal to my fathers account do to me not having one. he said he didnt bring his creditcard and wanted me to help him send a western union to his carrier to pick up the vehicle. he is going to send me the money for the truck and western union and the cost of the western union. once comfirmed by paypal, he said i can sent the western union….. what is your input?
Hi, this same thing happened to me selling an xbox 360. They sent me a fake payment through paypal. They faked the paypal email and screwed me over. I am now out $230, anything I can do?
Wow you guys and again got email last night staing yet another oceanographer(damn they must love kijiji lol) anyhow i also thought if i go through with it “PayPAL” is out the money not me cause the money would b in my account and i wouldnt surrender anything unless the money was directly in my bank account so i wouldn’t lose but the truth is if these guys are sending out fake pay pal things then thats how u get scamed. They werent asking for any money for western union back.
I just want to know how we can turn the tables on these ASSHOLES??????
Hi I was just wondering anyone who paid money to the courier to start did you get another email saying you have to send even more money to hime before World Shipping Council Agent Online will come get it?
I was selling a DSLR camera on Craigslist and got a couple replies following pretty much the same template outlined above: request for PayPal or bank transaction, Nigeria or vague “oversea” address, present for a relative, awful spelling and grammar, urgency in completing the transaction.
Thanks so much for this post; hopefully less people get scammed if they have the common sense to run a Google search before doing any business online.
FYI – I don’t know much about this high tech stuff but Rock Bill(Rockb32@gmail.com) tried to get me to use paypal for a payment for some tools and during the conversations back and forth I received one of his messages from an email address of jacknorman90@gmail.com. Don’t know if this will help someone else or not. Look out…
Thanks for the warning. I received an “I’m interested” email from jacknorman90@gmail.com yesterday. Good to know not to waste my time replying.
Wow, I’m glad I wasn’t one of those poor people out there that get scammed! So I’m trying to sell my Samsung galaxy tablet through Craigslist n this person text me pretty much the same thing u posted on this blog, what gave him/her right away for me though was that he wanted me to ship it for him to Nigeria he said he would add an additional $100 to my price if I sent it right away because it was for a nephew’s birthday and than he also said he would pay for the international shipping but I had to do it n he would add all the money trhough PayPal only
I just received a text from some lady wanting to buy my headphones on craigslist. Apparently she said her name was Kelly Hofland out of new york and she wants me to answer her call from her business with a 2 digit number she gave me. Im thinking wth… So ignore her call and look online to come to this page and just in relief i didnt give that chick any info. Are the scam artists getting that desperate to start texting people or what? I dont know but thank you for the info bout the paypal fraud never tried selling it on there. Thanks guys!!!!!!!
Hi all, found this reading quite interesting. I am selling a car and had an email very much like some of the ones that have been described in this blog. This is what it read:- “Ok,good..I’m quite satisfied with the condition and price. I will be paying the PayPal charges from my account and i will be paying directly into your PayPal account without any delay,and i hope you have a paypal account. If you have one already, just send me the address to send it to, which is the email address you use for it or you can send me a paypal money request, so once i receive the details i will go ahead with the payment through PayPal and then i will contact my shipping company after you get the payment. I will need your home address for it to be Picked Up by the Shipping Company…”
I was already aware of scammers in this sort of way, but thought i would read a bit more and stumbled on this blog. Needless to say i will not give anyone my personal details or paypal details. After reading this blog i thought i would post the contact email address of what i believe to be another scammer. “Kent607@gmail.com”
Hope no one gets caught out, Stuart
OMFG!! he copied and pasted the exact same email to me this morning! What a ****er!!! Damn ! I knew someone wanting to buy a car without coming to see it had to be weird?!!
***SCAM*** I received exactly the same message as you have Stuart from Patrick Reymer using email Kent607@gmail.com yesterday to try and purchase my car. So glad i stumbled across this blog.. Even my little boy thought this didnt sound right so i dont know how theyre getting away with it!!
Thanks
kent607@gmail.com also tried to scam me buying my car. i have reported him to paypal and sella. he still has the nerve to txt and ask if i received the money after the police contacted him about my complaint..what a dick..and thats sugar coating it haha
same here. Posted my car for sale on Gumtree. So far three enquiries. One from marine engineer on rig offshore, the other in a submersible and the third buying for uncle who lives in malaysia. OMG. They all want to pay paypal and have a courier collect vehicle.How do they actually scam? Can they take money from Paypal. Or do they ask for money during transaction? So DODGY!!
I am selling my car and have posted an ad on gumtree and today I received the exactly the SAME email as you did!Which is:
Ok,good..I’m quite satisfied with the condition and price. I will be paying the PayPal charges from my account and i will be paying directly into your PayPal account without any delay,and i hope you have a paypal account. If you have one already, just send me the address to send it to, which is the email address you use for it or you can send me a paypal money request, so once i receive the details i will go ahead with the payment through PayPal and then i will contact my shipping company after you get the payment. I will need your home address for it to be Picked Up by the Shipping Company..
I thought it sounded dodgy…thats why I searched it. The email address of the scammer is :dahl12@live.com
i got the same message from a garcia jenkins this morning saying she was interested in my car and she would pay asking price on it. it was posted on craigslist and she said that the ABC shipping company would pick it up and i thought it sounded pretty phony so i told her i will be having this number tracked by law enforcement and she never replied
Selling an item on Craigslist and was emailed by a Richard Blake to purchase by PayPal. I asked for more info on him and he ignored my request and again asked for my PayPal info. I emailed him Craigslist policies and that I do not accept PayPal and that cash is all I would accept is cash in person. Waiting for response. I am not brand new as my sister-in-law likes to quote…lol
I told them I wanted to buy a car, and they told me the price is 1700.00 and car is at a shipping place in VA. They said they would pay the 1000.00 shipping charge. So they are going to sell me a 2002 Altima for basically 700 bucks. Do they think IM STUPID? I told them I was interested in purchasing it, and to give me their account number and I’d have the money wired to their account. Ya right I am going to call whoever I need to get them shut down.
OH ya and this person’s name is Vanessa Raymond that moved to Portugal with her job and her family. Se was hoping tot ake the vehicle there but when she found out the shipiing and registration would be ive changed my mind. LMAO ya right. The VIN number on this car is 1N4AL11D42C133080 AND ONLY HAS 64K MILES. WHAT A DEAL HAHA…IF ANYONE CAN LOOK UP THIS VIN THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!
I’m selling a bike on Kijiji – here is an email from a scammer:
Thanks for getting back to me on here,i will take it for $13800 including PayPal surcharges since i am interested in the immediate purchase.I just moved to the Malaysia,where this is needed and i will be making use of a shipping company to have this picked up from you and have it delivered to me.Further arrangements will be made with you in regards to the pickup once i have paid you.
I would appreciate if you email me with more pictures (if available) too since i won’t be able to see this in person,what’s the PayPal email to send funds to in order for me to pay you ASAP.
BE AWARE
Exact same thing with me Melanie. Copy and paste below.
“Thanks for getting back to me on here,i will take it for $1700 including PayPal surcharges since i am interested in the immediate purchase.I just moved to the Malaysia,where this is needed and i will be making use of a shipping company to have this picked up from you and have it delivered to me.Further arrangements will be made with you in regards to the pickup once i have paid you.
I would appreciate if you email me with more pictures (if available) too since i won’t be able to see this in person,what’s the PayPal email to send funds to in order for me to pay you ASAP.
I hope to read from you soon.
Miguel”
Miguel Ramirez [rmiguel330@gmail.com]
Look familiar?
Has anyone reported this scam to people at google, gumtree, craigslist and the other sites these scumbags use? Just been told he’s sailing in Bermuda and so can’t view the car!
Jokers!
Buyer:
I’m interested in the immediate purchase of this item i will be paying
you the sum of $250 + $100 for shipping cost,i will want to complete
the transaction in a very timely manner and i will put my trust on you
since i did not have any pick up arrangement for this item and i will
like you to ship out the item through any Local Post Office near you,
email me with your PayPal ID(Email). so that i can proceed with the
payment right away.
I will be happy if you can email me back now.
Regards
I am sure you will not spend up to amount for the shipping through
Local Post Office, which is the cheapest
Me:
Hi, unfortunately I don’t have a paypal account and also I will do the transaction only if u come personally, If you need a ride I can help you with it only if you agree to pay the gas
Buyer:
Thanks for your reply, I really understand you but i want you to know
that Craigslist is an International online (Global) Market, Therefore
this transaction is online transaction so since this is online market
we need to conclude about the mode of payment. I want you to know that
the best mode of online payment that Government authorize is paypal
which is the fastest safest and secure and to set up an account with
paypal is absolutely free and here is the links http://www.paypal.com,
Immediately the transaction is completed through paypal this money
will be appear on your credit card. I hope with this little
explanation you ought to understand. I will be looking forward to read
back from you. The registration may take up to 3 minutes and your
email address that you use is the same as your paypal email ID which i
need to transfer the fund to.
Just had the same thing as you guys for the most part. Buyer said almost word for word the same things as you had described. He sort of shot himself in the foot because he used two different emails from the same domain and said the same thing in each but slightly different wording. Both were adamant about the use of paypal.
Most importantly here, what I would like to know is how can the seller be scammed out of the goods if someone is transferring money INTO your account? How is thier benefit gained?
hi dwayne
My theory:
they will send you fake emails from paypal, pretending, that you got the money… very likely they will include a text like: “you can check out your paypal balnce right now http://www.paypal.com” the link will take you to some fake paypal site… in worst case: they will even get your paypal password, and rip you off!
Hi there!
I’m in Switzerland, selling a car over a local website, and got 2 e-mails with exactly the same content within a few minutes! just as already listed above…
here is the content:
—
Thanks for the response,i will take the item for 35,956CHF including PayPal Sub charges since i am interested in the immediate purchase.I just moved to the United Kingdom,where this is needed and i will be making use of a shipping company to have this picked up from you and have it delivered to me.Further arrangements will be made with you in regards to the pick up once i have paid you.I would appreciate if you email me with more pictures (if available) too since i won’t be be able to see this in person,So do get back to me with the details below so that i could proceed with the payment:
Name:
PayPal Email address
Cell Phone No:
i will go ahead with the payment through PayPal and if you don’t have an account with paypal, you can just visit, http://www.paypal.com and sign up for an account with your e-mail.
Kindly get back to me as soon as possible so that we could finalize this transaction.
I wait to read from you soon.
—
Michael Smith lgking1@gmail.com
I just want to know more about it to make sure its in good condition
so can you assure me i will not be disappointed???And also ,I need to
inform you about this,just received an email from my pick agent…am
most sure i did not include that in my previous email,They said they
won’t come for the pick up unless i pay him the agent commission fee
first in order to be able to schedule a pick up time.I am a Chief
Engineer as my position on the sea here,I am so busy and can not pay
the agent fees from here as they Requested that i pay them with Money
Gram.So what i will do here is that i will send the payment in the
total amount of $4,300.So once you receive the confirmation of the
payment from PayPal,you will deduct the promised amount for the good
which is $3,300 and the remaining $1,000 will be send down to my agent
By Money Gram.I have tried to paid it direct here but there is no
Money Gram on the ship,So i believe you can handle this for me.
Get back to me so that i can go ahead and send the payment now
Hello There,
Thanks for the fast response..i am actually buying the item for my
son abroad and i will pay you 1,300GBP for the cost of the item and
the postage abroad through Royal Mail..so pls kindly take the item off
gumtree and send me your name and paypal e-mail for fast payment..
i look forward to your fast response..thanks or call me +447024046861
BE AWARE!!!1
Hey!
So get this. I posted a watch online. Someone decided they wanted it. Paypal now needs a tracking number before they will send money across? This was my first point of hesitation.
Second the guy accidentally sent an extra $500 but its being held by paypal and they won’t send the original money through until I refund him the payment that was extra.
Why is PayPal doing this?
Why can’t they send him the $500 back and me my payment? Don’t they have control of these things?
Help
What I’ve read so far, sounds like they have sent you a fake paypal invoice and sent you to a fake paypal website. If you’ve logged into the fake one, you may have inadvertently disclosed your paypal password. You might want to monitor your account activity for anything suspicious. If your being asked to return money to them, I would say you’re definately being scammed.
The best way to avoid getting scammed via paypal (aside from cash only deals) is to request the buyers paypal account number and submit a request for payment yourself. Look up paypal scams on youtube for some interesting videos on it. Good luck.
Received the same type of email from an engineer on an off shore oil rig wanting to purchase my trailer through Paypal. Same type of email as mentioned above. I told him that I would only do business in person and for cash.
I’ve got the same e-mail trying to sell my car . What should we do about it ? where can we complain about this scam ? just report e-mail address to spam ? it’s not enough !
Hi there!!
Im selling my car on the internet and i got a reponse on my cell from a guy called Chris With the e-mail dahl12@live.com the guy said in the text message he was interested in my car and that he was waiting for my response and he also said pls, i found that weard so i searched on the internet for his e-mail and i found this web page .
So can someone tell me if this is a fraude? and if is there a problem replying 2 him? will he be able 2 do something just with my e-mail address?
thanks in advanced.
I posted a blackberry on kijiji.ca , got a very fast reply to my ad by text message, he offered to pay via paypal and to give me $100 to ship out west.
I said I don’t use paypal and he or she offered a bank transfer. I said I would not give my account # and he kept trying for offering to deposit the money and then after I could ship. I said no thanks.
But I want to thank everybody that posted this it was great help.
The number used to text me is from NY 646-389-6329
I was selling a motorcycle on craigs list and received this email which is very similar to what I have been reading. Got suspicious so I looked up being scammed with Pay Pal.
Thank you for getting back to me. Please assure me that it’s in good
condition and that 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 Dadd,
but the issue is i am an oceanographer and i do have a contract to go
for which starts tomorrow and am leaving any moment from 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 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
http://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.
Just want to keep this thread alive, obviously names and emails are made up by the scammers, but hoping to keep others from the very near scamming I avoided today!
Details this time, adexco001@gmail.com, Adexco Mathew. Paypal payment for Car on Auto trader.
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