PayPal Scam?

[up-high]

A buddy listed his sled on Kijiji and got an email within an hour. This guy said he wanted to buy the sled sight unseen. Said he would have his shipper pick it up(no shipping costs for my buddy). All he wanted was a PayPal address to send the money. I thought PayPal was supposed to be safe. This has to be a scam, but I don't see how. If he sends the money to an account, my buddy can take it out immediately. Right? Is this guy using a fake account on his end? Or is he planning on using my buddy's PayPal info to some how access his bank account?
The first contact was by text and it was a 204 area code. Thats Manitoba right? Unless thats a scam as well.

 

[Trax 2 Treadz]

Scam, received a similar email for a motorcycle I have up for sale, wanting to buy it sight unseen, shipping company would pick it up, all he wanted was my paypal account number. Told him I wanted either cash or cashiers cheque and he just continued on with wanting to pay via paypal, so no sale

 

[newmy1]

scam

 

[Climbmax]

Tell them you will have it ready to ship in a crate.....fill it full of old metal. Then put a tracking device on it hahahaha
RS

 

[Mjunkie]

I remember selling one of my street bikes awhile ago on ksl, and got close to the same scam offered to me many times. It wasn't paypal but they always had a check or cashier's check to buy sight unseen. I told them to send the check and when it clears at the bank, I'd tell them where the bike is for pick up. They kept trying to schedule a pick up but I never got a check that would clear. They had all kinds of reasons why they needed to pick it up before the check could clear but I wouldn't budge and of course they never got the bike. I did end up selling it to someone sight unseen though. Some lady in California who bought all kinds of bikes and would put them in containers and send them over seas to sell over there. When the check cleared I let them come get it and everything was fine. I never would have guessed. Bottom line is don't do anything until the cash is in your hand, or safely in your confirmed bank account.

 

[up-high]

Tell them you will have it ready to ship in a crate.....fill it full of old metal. Then put a tracking device on it hahahaha
RS

Fuji has a twisted mind!

 

[Matte Murder]

The one that almost got me was the use of a escrow service. I wanted to buy a car. Guy said use Yahoo Escrow(no such thing), had a great web site where you would log in and put the funds into an account. He said take delivery, OK the car and then release the funds to him when I was sure it was a done deal. How can you lose on that one right? Only way I knew what something was wrong was I was looking for a unique car for over a year and he re-used an ad I had seen before. Did some research and figured it out.

 

[Aussie Niko]

Paypal is safe, its linked to what ever account you set up. If he puts the money in you can take it out, simple. I've been stuck using ebay when a seller never send goods after I payed and I always get my $ back from paypal.

Sounds like there's something else going on with this sort of scam.

 

[backcountryislife]

Paypal is safe, its linked to what ever account you set up. If he puts the money in you can take it out, simple. I've been stuck using ebay when a seller never send goods after I payed and I always get my $ back from paypal.

Sounds like there's something else going on with this sort of scam.

Agreed.

I'd assume though, that they're looking for live paypal accounts, and then hoping they can hack in, or some up with the password? I'm trying to understand what the play is on this.

Considering the "number/ letter" password, I can't imagine someone getting access to my paypal, and once they've gotten my email in return (easy to do with a "is this available" feeler) they've got my paypal account address, so no need for more bs beyond that.


If it's a stolen account & the idea is to get the machine... that's just too easy to get caught, shipments get tracked, and any place you'd pick up (ship to dock) will have cameras... it's way easier to just steal one.

 

[Hardass]

Heck just tell your buddy to do it what the heck right . be sure and let us know how it went

 

[turboxp]

It is r sure just went through the same thing. I called PayPal and told them about my situation and they said it was a fraud. The guy then proceeded and put money in my account supposably. PayPal asked me where the email came from, it came from services@int.paypal.com so it looked real but if it does not just say services@paypal.com it is a JOKE.

 

[Scott]

I remember selling one of my street bikes awhile ago on ksl, and got close to the same scam offered to me many times. It wasn't paypal but they always had a check or cashier's check to buy sight unseen. I told them to send the check and when it clears at the bank, I'd tell them where the bike is for pick up. They kept trying to schedule a pick up but I never got a check that would clear. They had all kinds of reasons why they needed to pick it up before the check could clear but I wouldn't budge and of course they never got the bike. I did end up selling it to someone sight unseen though. Some lady in California who bought all kinds of bikes and would put them in containers and send them over seas to sell over there. When the check cleared I let them come get it and everything was fine. I never would have guessed. Bottom line is don't do anything until the cash is in your hand, or safely in your confirmed bank account.

That's huge because if you deposit a check and then spend it before it actually clears the bank, you are on the hook for the full amount.

 

[raptobob]

I got this two different times trying to sell a sled this year. Both of them buying for someone as a gift but they were on a offshore oil rig and didn't have phone access.

They say they will paypal you the money. Then they say they it won't work for some reason and you should log into paypal through this link to request the money. The link is a fake paypal site that gets your info.

 

[zalez]

It is r sure just went through the same thing. I called PayPal and told them about my situation and they said it was a fraud. The guy then proceeded and put money in my account supposably. PayPal asked me where the email came from, it came from services@int.paypal.com so it looked real but if it does not just say services@paypal.com it is a JOKE.

Email address is really easy to spoof (as is caller id on phones). Look at the full email headers and you will find out where it really came from (ie ip address). Most legit banking (all of mine at least) will address me by my name. Those fake phishing emails never do.

I got this two different times trying to sell a sled this year. Both of them buying for someone as a gift but they were on a offshore oil rig and didn't have phone access.

They say they will paypal you the money. Then they say they it won't work for some reason and you should log into paypal through this link to request the money. The link is a fake paypal site that gets your info.

I am sure that is how the scammer was going to buy the above sled. Using a stolen paypal account.

 

[up-high]

Thanks guys. Thats what I told him. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

 

[canuck5]

I got this two different times trying to sell a sled this year. Both of them buying for someone as a gift but they were on a offshore oil rig and didn't have phone access.

They say they will paypal you the money. Then they say they it won't work for some reason and you should log into paypal through this link to request the money. The link is a fake paypal site that gets your info.

This makes complete sense it is definatly a huge scam, put my bike up on kijiji recently and was also contacted by scammers on email. I always thought pay pal was safe too and apparently it still is but the crooks are finding ways to get your info and using it for internet crime.

 

[couch]

Sounds like a scam!
Tell the buyer you don't have PayPal and that you need to have the funds wired through Western Union - that way you get cash in hand- but I doubt they'll go for it.

 

[backcountryislife]

Sounds like a scam!
Tell the buyer you don't have PayPal and that you need to have the funds wired through Western Union - that way you get cash in hand- but I doubt they'll go for it.

Maybe you're not catching the irony of that... but that's AWESOME!

That would be awesome to tell the scammer that they'll have to western union you the money...

 

[up-high]

That is pretty funny!

 

[Mjunkie]

That's huge because if you deposit a check and then spend it before it actually clears the bank, you are on the hook for the full amount.

That's why when I got the cashiers check from the lady in california I took it in to my bank and had them call to verify it on the spot. They put a hold on it for a day or two to be safe but actually called me the same afternoon I deposited it to say they didn't need to have it on hold after all. The guy at the bank couldn't believe the lady sent me a legit check before any arrangements were made to get the bike. Even he said that if I were dishonest I could easily have cashed the check and never been caught, but I am honest so she got the bike and I bought some goodies for the sled.

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