Sellers beware! Spoof PayPal scams!

[TeaMonsta]

All

As you may know, I have my Surf up for sale. It's also advertised on Gumtree. Today I had a text from a guy who had seen it on Gumtree asking if the car had been sold and to e-mail him if not. I e-mailed him and then tried to text him to let him know the e-mail had been sent. The text wouldn't send. Alarm bells rang. Next, I get an e-mail from him saying that he's very keen on the car and asking what my best price would be. I replied saying that he should come and view the car. He said he was offshore (not uncommon round these parts, being near Aberdeen) so couldn't view it but was very keen on buying it if it was as good as I have said in the advert. I assured him that the advert is honest so he said he'd transfer the money into my PayPal account but needed my PayPal e-mail address so he could transfer the money. Alarm bells rang again so I telephoned PayPal and asked if there was any security risk. They said that there was no security risk if I only gave him my PayPal e-mail address, so I e-mailed him back with it. Next thing, a couple of hours later I get three e-mails from PayPal (supposedly) saying that the money for the car plus an extra £800 was waiting to be transferred into my account. It had left his account and was in a PayPal holding account. The extra £800 was to be transferred by me to the shipping company who would collect the car. But this would mean me using £800 of my own money from my own bank account as the "extra" £800 was still tied up with PayPal, don't forget. Once he had confirmation that the £800 shipping fee had been paid to the shipping company (probably the "buyer's" own account, no doubt), PayPal would release the rest of the funds into my PayPal account. Now, knowing that there have been teams of guys going round the UK buying up quality Surfs for re-sale in Borneo, this all seemed quite believable and legitimate. And I Googled the shipping company and it does actually exist, although they might not be aware of their role in all this, of course. I thought I'd give PayPal a quick call to confirm everything. Guess what? PayPal had no record of any money from this particular "buyer" and there were no funds in any holding account waiting to be transferred into my account later. Obviously a scam which nearly saw me £800 out of pocket. PayPal have since confirmed that it was a scam. Beware, folks. The e-mails were very convincing. If in doubt, check. Glad I did.

[NiftyNev]

No need to check anything really. Just ignore them all. Never reply to any text, asking you to contact anyone by email for things you are selling on Gumtree. They are ALL scams.

Nev.

[Rob5464]

There was a scam a while ago on ebay, Selling expensive old cars at an undervalued 10k mark. The buyer would then say the car was in bulgaria but he was shipping it over. My dad got this exact story when emailing about two different cars months between each other.

Buying cars is always a risky game.

[TeaMonsta]

I thought it was a bit strange that the text asked me to e-mail, not text a reply. And when that text first arrived, the sender's name came up on my phone, not his number. You'd only get a name showing if it came from someone in your address book. AND that name didn't match the name given by the sender in his text message or e-mail. Alarm bells did ring at that point. As proven, it was a scam.

[TeaMonsta]

UPDATE:

Just had another e-mail from the fraudster/scammer in the guise of a PayPal e-mail which tells me that I risk going to jail for two years (for fraud!) if I don't pay the money to the shippers.

[RebelV8]

Send him a message back telling him to go F*** himself, lol. Paypal don't have a holding account, whatever someone sends you go's straight into your paypal account

[gwh200]

I'd string him along for a while.

[Koi]

as he text you (you have the mobile number) tell him your jail term won't be as long as his once the Police trace his mobile

[TeaMonsta]

Thanks for your posts, guys. I have been very tempted to wind him right up one way or another; maybe pretending to be a complete and utter fcuk-wit and pretending that I will pay the money and just keep stringing it out for days or even weeks, or something else just to get him going. Or alternatively just plain and simply saying that I know what he's up to and I'm passing all the communications between ourselves on to the relevant authorities.

I had another e-mail yesterday asking what was going on, why haven't I paid. I told him I'd spoken to PayPal and they've confirmed that no money exists so unless I get proof and a 100% guarantee from PayPal that what he says is genuine, the transaction will not be progresing. Reckon he knows that I know he's a fraud now as I've not heard back. It has been very tempting to hurl abuse at him, though.

[shokenore]

Don't be tempted.
Just feckin' do it.
Name and shame I say.

[yoshie]

Thanks for your posts, guys. I have been very tempted to wind him right up one way or another; maybe pretending to be a complete and utter fcuk-wit and pretending that I will pay the money and just keep stringing it out for days or even weeks, or something else just to get him going. Or alternatively just plain and simply saying that I know what he's up to and I'm passing all the communications between ourselves on to the relevant authorities.

I had another e-mail yesterday asking what was going on, why haven't I paid. I told him I'd spoken to PayPal and they've confirmed that no money exists so unless I get proof and a 100% guarantee from PayPal that what he says is genuine, the transaction will not be progresing. Reckon he knows that I know he's a fraud now as I've not heard back. It has been very tempting to hurl abuse at him, though.

Can you pm me his number so I can have a laugh.
Maybe get him to take wee trip to collect his 800, he will have sent that many text he won't even notice a new number appearing.

Don't string these guys or any other scammer along using your own phone numbers, address or details.

[TeaMonsta]

Can you pm me his number so I can have a laugh.

Love to. But his number comes up as a name. And you can't reply to it. Reckon it's a text sent from a computer via something that stops him from being identified. The git.