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Craigslist scammer

T

techguy1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 3, 2008
164
0
London
Decided to sell my 7 month old MacBook on Craigslist and was surprised to receive an offer almost an hour later from a guy who seemed very keen to purchase.

Hi .........
am willing to buy this lovely item and is it in good condition for sale and how much is your best offer,
Do you Accept PayPal?
Click to expand...

I advised him that I wanted £550 and I would accept Paypal

Hello ,thanks for getting back to me on time..i live at Utah and i was just
transfered to Asia on a coaching course and i want to buy this item for my
son Lawal hadi who was transfered to Nigeria for his degree program. .Please kindly get back to me with money request from your paypal account so
that i can credit your account asap.
thanks
Click to expand...

Uh oh, I thought it seemed like a scam and wasn't going to pursue it any more and then I received :-

Important Note:This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED"but will not be credited to your account until the shipment reference/tracking
number is sent to us for verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller.
Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited.
Send tracking number to us or email us through this mail
tracking_updator@accountant.comor +447024099826and our customer service carewill attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment's tracking number to us for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller,the money will be credited to your account.
**PLEASE NOTE**
Once item has been shipped and the tracking number sent to us,
You will receive a "CONFIRMATION EMAIL" from PayPal® Team informing you that the Fund has been credited
Click to expand...

The above arrived on what seemed a valid Paypal headed email but the 'English' didn't seem good enough for a professional organisation so I replied :-

I've been taking advice from quite a few people over the last couple of days from users of the
Craiglist and they ALL advise me not to accept payment via Paypal unless the funds are in my account, particularly when I am requested to ship the item abroad.
I have checked my Paypal account and there is no payment received.

I am advised that I should only accept cash via a meeting with a prospective buyer especially on such an expensive item as the MacBook. Do you have a representative in this country who can meet me and provide the cash !?

As this is my first time using Craiglist, I am wary of shipping an item and losing £600
Click to expand...

Reply received

well. i dont really understand what you are talking about. Are you not aware that the fund has been deducted from my account?.

how can i be comfortable with scamming people like me i cant do such thing
i think i have to mail the paypal about this ****. because the money has been transferd away from my account and you insist delaying the shipment.
Click to expand...

I then receive on a Paypal headed email :-

Dear,

We write to confirm the receipt of your message regarding your Craiglist item, We want you to know that truly the buyer made the total amount of £600.00 GBP into your PayPalAccount, the money is so save and currently pending to be credited into your account, immediately we receive the shipment reference number from you.

We have investigated this matter, we want you to understand that there is no way your buyer can scam you because we are monitoring all the e-mails and conversation you correspond with each other and besides the money has already been deducted out of his account.

In this regard we urge you to get the item shipped out or let us know if you will be able to refund back the buyer's money, actually alot of fraud and scam using PayPal but we have investigate this matter and we have found out that the buyer is legit, we have also table it among the Board of Directors and the conclusion they made was that you should get the item posted out or get intouch with us in refunding back the money to the buyer.

In this regard we urge you to complete this transaction as soon as possible so you can get your pending payment.

We await your swift response,

Thanks for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team.
Click to expand...

The 'English' and punctuation is terrible don't ya think !?
There has never been any money paid into my Paypal account !

I then get another email from "Paypal" !?

Dear,

the paypal want to keep you aware that the buyer of the Craigslits-- (MacBook). has paid and your payment has not been confirmed.
we have rceived several emails from Luis Gary. Regarding the shipment of the item he paid for through paypal.
The buyer insisted that you refused to ship out the item and this also look like the last email we received from you.
This is not a scam paypal. because your fund has been confirmed and every thing is fine with your payment. But all we need from you is the shipment tracking number to verify the shipment of the item. Once we have gotten all this from you your fund will be credited, and will apear fully in your account we are really sorry for that because that is our policy with respect of payment.
Thanks for using paypal
Click to expand...

The formatting and English is worse than the first so I decided to send the emails to the real Paypal and ask them to list him as a scammer .. I'm awaiting their responses.
So, if ya wanna buy a MacBook .. I still have it for sale :D
 
You do know that craigslist advises against using these types of services and recommends that you execute the transaction with cash?

I never ever sell anything on craigslist and accept anything except a personal pickup and cash.
 
Don't let the fact that PayPal is an American company confuse you. These emails are horribly written :)
 
Yea only do local, it's not worth it. But doesn't Ebay have some feature where PayPal can't take out the money from your bank account if it does turn out to be a stolen credit card and they need the money back? That's what I'd be thinking too, once it's in your bank account, you're safe, but you agree to PayPal that they can take any money out of your bank account, so it's not worth it I guess.
 
maflynn said:
You do know that craigslist advises against using these types of services and recommends that you execute the transaction with cash?

I never ever sell anything on craigslist and accept anything except a personal pickup and cash.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Like you, I wouldn't do it any other way.
 
Tell him you want an additional amount through Western Union to cover shipping. Just a nominal fee. /sarcasm

Seriously, when will scammers at the very least learn that improper grammar and spelling are instant eyebrow-raisers? Hopefully never, but it still makes me wonder.
 
go-for-it

Send a 'fake' shipping document
and as Bill said
'pending the receipt of a small handling fee of $5.55'

This happens to our company regularly -
the last one was from a Mr. Rev. Billy Graem (sic)
:D
 
Bill Gates said:
Seriously, when will scammers at the very least learn that improper grammar and spelling are instant eyebrow-raisers? Hopefully never, but it still makes me wonder.
Click to expand...
I think that as well, but then I realize they scam enough people without learning it. Kinda sad. Who falls for these things?
 
kellen said:
I think that as well, but then I realize they scam enough people without learning it. Kinda sad. Who falls for these things?
Click to expand...

We did
We didn't part with any money however, it did cost a reasonable amount of time and effort.
It was a credit card scam, about 4 years ago, the guy insisted that we keep trying smaller and smaller amounts on the card (as a deposit)
and he will provide us with another card (for the balance) the next day.
We had considered him a genuine customer as many ask us to 'split' payments because of a daily limit or similar,
besides it was our first scam!
It went on for 3 days until we all agreed enough was enough :D
 
I don't see how you didn't catch that was a scam as soon as Paypal was mentioned. :confused:

LOL
Hello ,thanks for getting back to me on time..i live at Utah and i was just
transfered to Asia on a coaching course and i want to buy this item for my
son Lawal hadi who was transfered to Nigeria for his degree program. .Please kindly get back to me with money request from your paypal account so
that i can credit your account asap.
thanks
Click to expand...

This is the most common scam on Craig's List.
 
Any correspondence from any legit company you have an account with will use your name in the address.

Just tell him you shipped it, and move along.
 
The Board of Directors at PayPal discussed your situation, and they used the term "you wont be scammed" :p

I think it's pretty clear this guy isnt to be trusted.

Ignore him and move on. Don't respond to any more emails from him or the 'PayPal' address.
 
OzExige said:
We did
We didn't part with any money however, it did cost a reasonable amount of time and effort.
It was a credit card scam, about 4 years ago, the guy insisted that we keep trying smaller and smaller amounts on the card (as a deposit)
and he will provide us with another card (for the balance) the next day.
We had considered him a genuine customer as many ask us to 'split' payments because of a daily limit or similar,
besides it was our first scam!
It went on for 3 days until we all agreed enough was enough :D
Click to expand...

Well yours sounds a little different than the scam here.

Does anyone actually read this and think its legit? The broken english and all? I was just professing my amazement that people get baited into these. This just screams scam to me and should to all people.
 
kellen said:
Does anyone actually read this and think its legit? The broken english and all? I was just professing my amazement that people get baited into these. This just screams scam to me and should to all people.
Click to expand...

Apparently someone things this garbage is legit because they keep sending it out, they wouldn't waste their time if it didn't work.


You can have fun with these guys, check out 419eater.com (I think that's the website). Someone there was able to get some Nigerian scammers to act out the Monty Python dead parrot scene and post it on YouTube.
 
lukenn said:
The Board of Directors at PayPal discussed your situation, and they used the term "you wont be scammed" :p

I think it's pretty clear this guy isnt to be trusted.

Ignore him and move on. Don't respond to any more emails from him or the 'PayPal' address.
Click to expand...

Ya, and like the board wants to hear a summary of all transactions for the month...
 
cantthinkofone said:
Oh man this could be fun :p

I say accept the money and send the "computer". Send him a dried out fish or something.
Click to expand...

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

P-P-P-Powerbook!

Haha, that is what that reminded me of, and it was a great story.

To the OP: At least you didn't fall for that. I've had emails like that, I actually still get them for an item I sold over a year ago, it's rather frustrating as I got rid of the ad the day I sold the item...

But it happens, wait for paypal, and see if someone comes to you for a meeting on Craigslist over your MacBook. Good luck!
 
Real Paypal's response :-

Dear,

Thank you for contacting PayPal with your concern regarding the suspicious
emails that you have received.

I would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention and let me
provide the best possible resolution to this concern.

Mr., upon careful review of your email that you have sent to us, I
can confirm that the email you received was not sent by PayPal.

PayPal will never ask you to provide the tracking number of a posted item
before receiving payment into your PayPal account.

If you have recently sent the item, please contact your postal company to
stop the delivery. If this is not possible, you have the option to file a
police report regarding possible fraud.

If you have not yet sent the item, please don't send it. If your item was
listed on eBay, please contact eBay's Customer Service to cancel the
auction in question.

If you believe you've received a spoof email, please forward the entire
email, including the header information to spoof@paypal.com and then delete
the email from your mailbox. Never click any links or attachments in a
suspicious email.
Click to expand...

If the spammers do ever realise they need to polish up on their English before trying to steal someone's cash, perhaps we'll have a few more poor folks duped.

I think I'll hang onto the MacBook for now ..
 
Hi .........
am willing to buy this lovely item and is it in good condition for sale and how much is your best offer,
Do you Accept PayPal?
Click to expand...

Right here you know it's a scam or spam e-mail. If they don't reference what they are attempting to buy in their e-mail, instead calling it "the item", I don't even bother responding.
 
Holy crap man, this is a dream come true! I'd love to get into this situation. Send a busted laptop or a box or box of rocks or something, just enough to weigh what a laptop does. Or send some dog **** in a freezer bag or something. Then tell him it's shipped and provide a tracking number.

Then tell him you have his son hostage and that you just got back from Nigeria. Tell him that his son loves dogs, if you know what I mean. And horses, too. :D
 
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