Scam with Paypal now too?
 

I got a reply to an ad I had on Craigs list asking if what I was selling was still available. I replied it was and got this back from them.

Thanks for your reply and am glad to know that it is still available for sale.However i have few questions on the product you are selling.
1,I would like to know the reason you are selling it..?
2,What is the current condition of the item..?
3,What is your firm price, though am okay with the listing price..?
4,Do you have the original box and the receipt for it ..?
5,Do you mind if i pay through paypal even though i will add an extra dollars to cover the shipping because am currently not local at the moment,Am out of town participating in a research project and i would like to purchase it from you on behalf of my friend and i think this is the best thing i could buy her because she has been a good firend to me.

If you do not have a PayPal account, you can do so by going to www.PayPal.com and set up your account it is free,easy and guarantees transaction safety.Once you send me your paypal email account, I will send you the payment for your item as well as $100 USD to cover shipping via USPS EXPRESS MAIL INTL.
I would be glad if my request is favorably considered.
Thanks

It certainly sounds like the 'ol Nigerian scam but with Paypal?? Usually the give you a money order or cashiers check. Not sure how they are stealing with Paypal. Anyways, I replied with the follwing.

1. I am selling because it is broken and does not work. It was dropped from a 2nd floor window.

2. The items current condition is broken, in several pieces and incomplete.

3. If your ok with asking price then that is what you need to pay me for item.

4. I do not have receipt as item was stolen from neighbors car. I do not have original box, but the remaining broken pieces are in a shoe box so shipping will be easy.

5. Paypal is fine. But you will have to add an extra $125 to cover thier fees.

I hope my request is considered favorable to you.

We have a new scammer on clubcobra going through some of the new classified ads. I got one that sounds almost identical to what you got from the following user this morning:

http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/member.php?u=40077


Let the seller beware.


Bill S.

They just replied back with.

sound good and what is the paypal email address to send payment ??


I am tempted to set up another Paypal address to see if they deposit the money.

I had an enquiry on a Set of alloy hubs on the forum ,they offered from memory $500 more than the asking price.:JEKYLHYDE:JEKYLHYDE,
We didn't bother replying!!!!

I have a new Paypal account with a different email address and no links to my checking account or any credit cards. How could they get anything of use? If they did deposit the money I could just send it out to my regular Paypal account.

Oh yeah, "thepalmist" sent me one also....................

I got "thepalmist" also this morning for the seats I am selling. they leave a name and phone number.

Jim,
Here is one possible way they could steal from you using the message you quote. If the link to sign up for paypal was a fake, they could get you to enter your financial info on what you thought was a legitimate paypal website. Then they could access your charge card/bank account. ... I haven't heard of any way someone could send money to a legitimate paypal account and then pull it back without your consent.

The link was the real Paypal link. The latest request was just for the email address for the Paypal account so they could send the money. No links in that email bogus or otherwise.

I am fairly experienced at detecting and preventing net fraud, and I can't think of a way that a PayPal transfer could be used to scam anyone. PayPal is a one-way door: they send the money, there's no way for them to get it back unless you send it back. If there's a scam involved, it's down the road and more complex than the basic Nigerian "I send you check, you send me item and partial refund" gag.

Lots of the recent scams have been multi-stage games where the first round is completely legitimate. It's wise to stay away from any deal that smells funny, no matter how well it checks out.

There's a similar scam I've seen on Craigslist. You get the same email asking about the product etc..., I'm currently out of town etc... .They say a friend will be over to pick up the goods you're selling once you receive payment. They then send you a great looking money order and then buddy comes & picks up the merchandise. A week after you deposit the money order, it comes bouncing back and buddy is looong gone.

Buyer (and Seller) Beware!

The palmist also sent me 3 to my adds soo beeeeware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe this person should be removed from club cobra. I use to get these emails from what looked like paypal and found that even though the web page looked real It would send you to a fake page to get all your information. happen all the time, cant even turn on the computer anymore without someone trying to get at you.

If you don't use any of their links to paypal and you give them your paypal address, then the only way I could think of to get any money from your paypal acount would be to somehow generate your paypal password and get into your account.

Yeah, none of the phony payment/send me change sort of scams seem to apply here. But it's smelly enough that there's SOMETHING wrong and any attempt to sell to this creeb would result in a painful sting.

One possibility comes to mind.

Your PayPal userid is an email address. If you tell someone the email address that you use for PayPal, they could conceivably use a computer program to generate and try passwords until the program identifies the correct password. Once they have the correct password, they have access to your PayPal account.

However, if PayPal locks you out after x number of login attempts, then the computer generated attempt to hack your account would fail. Does anyone know if PayPal will lock your account after x number of failed login attempts?

Even if your PayPal account gets locked and you have to reset it, the hacker could try again after you have unlocked the account. This could go on for days or weeks until they have hacked the account.

Is there some piece of the puzzle I'm missing?

Note: I just checked the PayPal website and noticed that they offer an optional security key for increased protection.

Paypal protects the buyer not the seller. It can be used to scam items from sellers. The buyer gets the items for free using paypal's chargeback & claims system (numerous ways to do it) & then the buyer has the items for free & can resell them. Even if the money is taken out of the paypal account by the seller, paypal will lock the account & also go after your bank accounts for the money. Trust me, do NOT get involved.

Here's the deal. Scam 1 is you give them your Paypal address and you get a bogus email that looks like it came from Paypal saying the funds are there and waiting for shipping confirmation.

Scam 2 is they use a stolen credit card. 3 months later the Paypal takes the money back from your account.

In my case it was an obvious scam. I sent them an email saying the item was broken and I want more money and they said, OK.

I sent my correspondence to Paypal for them to review. One thing about the internet, a quick Google search and you find your not the first at anything.

Scam 3- They say item not as described & paypal immediately takes the money back & they ship you back a different item. (the old switch-a-roo) You are out the money & your item.

Scam 4- They request you send by US Mail, then they wait 6 months & tell paypal they never got the item. US mail does not keep online records past 6 months & paypal immediately takes the money back. You are out the money & your item.

Scam 5- They provide you an unconfirmed shipping address & then claim they never got the item. Paypal immediately takes the money back. You are out the money & your item.

Scam 6- They are in a country that does not have a carrier that provides online delivery confirmation. They claim they never got the item. Paypal immediately takes the money back. You are out the money & your item.

And the list of scams goes on...............Each with the same ending, The buyer (scammer) always gets the item to re-sell & the seller gets screwed by paypal.

Check out this site:

http://www.screw-paypal.com/

Getting money back from paypal is not that simple. I ordered a pair of sunglasses last christmas and got an empty box. When i raised a dispute in paypal i got an email straight back saying it has been assessed and closed (email was computer generated). I was P'd off so i rang pay pal and was told that they dont do charge backs for incorrect item or not as described when it is not purchased through ebay.

I went to my credit card company and they pulled the money straight out of paypal based on various pieces of evidence i had.

Unfortunatly i could see credit card charge back being used as a scam.

Fordzilla, the seller is paying the fees and in my experience that is who they look after. But i have also heard of a lot of sellers being screwed with this.

At the end of the day you hope that the majority of people are basically honest and 99%of the time i have found this to be true.

You can usually tell what is a scam and what is not. Hence this thread being started.

Liam