So I posted an ad to sell a brand new Wii on Craigslist (my boyfriend got a Wii before he met me but never used it and I have a Wii as well that we use so no need for 2 Wii's) anyways I got an e-mail from a dude named Sherifat Abdullah. So get this, the guy lives in Australia, wants to give the Wii to his son in Nigeria....why the hell would you be looking at a craigslist in my state?!?! So I went along with it, he said he would send a cashier's check, I said hell no send it through Paypal. This morning I got a message from "Paypal" saying he made payment, I didn't open the email yet, I just went straight to Paypal, no payment. So I open the email. (No screen shots sorry) -Insert Paypal Logo Here- PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay Use your credit card without exposing your card number to merchants. Speed through checkout without stopping to enter your card number or address. Easily send money to family and friends. You've got another new funds! Dear (xxxxx@xxxxx.com), Sherifat Abdullah (xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com) just paid you through PayPal. Sherifat Abdullah is a verified buyer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Payment Details Amount Paid: $300.00 USD Item Paid For: Nintendo Wii System (Brand New) Purchased From: xxxxxx@xxxx.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Delivery Information Kim Geremia 20, Oke-anu street Igboagbonyin Ogbomoso Oyo State Nigeria +2348035624751. Address Status: Confirmed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your account will only be credited until you send the shipment tracking number to our customer's care service: Shipment.trackingproof@consultant.com . Once the shipment tracking number as been sent to us for verification and the shipment is well verified, in not less than 24 hours your account will be credited. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 shipment 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 Shipment.trackingproof@consultant.com and our customer service care will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment 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 shipment has been verified and the tracking number sent to us, You will receive a "CONFIRMATION Email" from PayPal® informing you that the Money has been credited. Thank you for using PayPal! The PayPal Team -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PayPal (USA) Limited is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United States as an electronic money institution. PayPal Email ID PP307 Please read the bold :lol: Not to mention the bad grammar, I mean I shouldn't be talking but geez
I'm glad you were savvy enough to notice it was a scam, I've seen at least two posts from people on other forums trying to figure out why they didn't get their money in situations like this.
Yea, some of the main things were, 1.I know what a Paypal e-mail payment looks like, 2.The money would already be in my account 3.The bolded text was a red flag 4.The bad grammar 5.And the e-mail address wasn't even a paypal email Hopefully this will help others if they get e-mails similar to mine and will determine if it's legit or not
oh that's just plain nasty. Did you report him or do anything > i know you outsmarted him but have fun with him abit? XD
nah Craigslist isn't responsible for scammers, it's just a free site to try to sell or buy your stuff. They have an article about scammers though but that's about it. I just sent the guy an e-mail exchanging a few explicit words (lol) and he never replied back
weird why wouldn't they have that. Don't they have the system which you can upgrade a person in relyness (i have no idea what the noun is of to rely) ? If they do then I find it absurd that they don't find themselves responsible. And you should spam him with loads of mails. xD I reckon he would eventually sent a mail back right? xD
Well Craigslist is just a pretty simple site, it's like a huge national classified website, just pick your location, and the category of item you're looking for (i.e. electronics) and browse through all the ads. It's nothing like ebay, you don't need to register, and posting an ad is completely free. But yea I haven't heard back from the scammer
Hmm i think i will never go on that site now XD because i might be so stupid to fall for that sort of scams.
im really glad someone posted this on here!! i was selling a cell phone my boyfriend's friend gave him and this person emailed me and told me the same thing he told you!! that he wanted to give it to his son.. but he wasnt in the country at the time. i didnt send him anything just because I wanted cash, but if i would have accepted a paypal account.. i wouldn't have sent it either because im very familiar with ebay and when you get a payment... it goes into your account right away!!
I had other paypal scams in my email box, but instead of a fake payment, it was a fake purchase. I logged into my email account, and saw a message saying I had purchased something. It was a 60" HDTV for $5900. Immediatly two thoughts pop up - 1. WTF? I didnt buy that, and 2. Oh ****! Upon closer examination, the "paypal" email was 100% in similarity to a real one, with one major flaw, and that was the senders address. I get other crap scams as well, from other various things. Most often, for whatever reason, NIgeria seems to be a popular country to pull these scams. Its always someone from Nigeria that wants you to send them something, or wants your bank info in a 419 scam. All I know, is two important things: 1. www.paypal.com is the one and only, official address 2. If in doubt, log into your paypal account. People are crazy more and more these days with the crap they try to pull.
I got a spoof too! It was very realistic and if I didn't have firefox I wouldn't have caught the bad link (ebay's real sign in links are always really long) ebay logo and everything. The scary thing is that I just made two purchases from two sellers with over 2000 feedback, and a 99.8% postiive transaction rating . :S
Oh, Someone once e-mailed me: I'll Give you 2,000 dollors, so you can put it in my bank account, I was like, wtf -.-