I had an item on craigslist and was contacted about it.

I knew something was fishy almost from the start.
buyer called me many times and then wanted me to ship to his girlfriend.
and he wanted to overpay for shipping by about $80.

and then his paypal payment did not show up in my in box but in my spam box, and it did not look like any paypal email notification I had ever rcvd before.

as I was reading it with buyer on phone suggesting I look in my spam box, I noticed a different buyer name and (drum roll) NIGERIA.

I told him NIGERIA, WE CAN'T DO THIS DEAL.

but see the mentions of pay paypal in attached graphis, we need to be careful with buyers, especially on craigslist, as always.

tell him to send the money via western union (can be accomplished online. great alternative to paypal by the way. the transaction is not connected to any banking account. i've used it. money is collected at my local safeway/supermarket) and then you'll ship the item.

I think it's a reminder to check our actual PP account and not trust email scams.
Except for dAnNy, I've never had any problem on world but craiglist is the wild west.

I better go collect the $15 MILLION DOLLARS US that I have waiting in Nigeria before these scammers take off with my money.

Been there. Just stay on your toes. I've nevegtr had any luck with craigs list. All the wackos live there

Western Union is a scammer favorite. Read the Craigslist page on typical scammer behavior, it's short and to the point.

Also, Jim, you might want to turn off image loading in your email client. It's how email spammers know a human is receiving their junk...

Not a scam, but I posted an ad on Craigslist's Lost and Found for a couple of small dogs that wandered into our yard a couple of weeks ago.

Someone a few miles away posted a lost dog ad that matched the description of one of the dogs yesterday, so I emailed them in the morning.

I checked my email when I got home later in the evening, but no responses received. I decided to call the phone # in the ad and spoke with the person who placed the ad. He said he responded via email and attached a picture of his dog.

I searched my inbox again, also the spam folders, but nothing. Just for the heck of it, I checked my trash folder ... and that's where I found his email.

Yahoo mail automatically dumped his email in my trash folder!

The formatting of the response email is usually a give away as well

Look at the spacing between punctuation marks

By the way, Jim.... I got a house in Texas that I rent to one of our members.....Woody

He owes me one months rent- $2000

If you can get him to send me the payment within two days, you can keep $500 and just send me $1500

Help me out, I get that it has all the signs of a scam but... Where is the scam? How was the Nigerian Prince going to benefit?

Stop using yahoo free mail, use gmail.
Better filtering, better technology.

Rich

Been thinking about Gmail, but I've had my yahoo email address since the late 90s. Would be hard to give up

My guess is that he just "doctored" a legitimate PayPal notification email that you get when someone sends you money. Just replaced some of the text with his name and the appropriate amount. I'm guessing the goal is to get you to see the email only and assume that it's legit and money was actually added to your PayPal account. You would then send the item under the assumption your money is safe and sound in the PayPal account, but nothing was ever really sent.

i don't quite understand how w.u. is a scammers favorite. the co has been around forever. i can see if you're sending funds but not the other way around. when i've received payment thru w.u. my local store gives me cash on the spot. no bank account #bs that payment can be rescinded from resulting in a potential disaster.

WU is a favorite for crooks getting people to send money. On the receiving side, you just need to make sure the check is legit, ie crooks send fake cashiers checks and pay over the amount etc.

Oh and depositing or cashing a check is not a guarantee of payment. A check is a promise to pay and the deposit or cashing of a check does not constitute collection immediately. Until collected you are on the hook for that item. This is the heart of the scam. Pay in fake, foreign, or stolen funds, get you to send real funds to WU. Has make some crooks millions.

The scam comes in by overpaying the shipping by $80, they then want you to western union the overpayment back to them. they collect and are gone before you realize you were scammed.

always, always check original acct link never use their link. I have received "postal money orders" before that upon investigation were fake and part of a scam.

as i said…payment is made buy the buyer at their local rep or online. buyer sends me an email and states payment has been made. i call the pick up the point and am informed payment is made and ready for dispersal. i go to safeway, show i.d., and they give me CASH!!! no checking or savings account #s are shared. when i have cash in hand the parts ship. of course, i'm not selling on craigslist and i'm very careful with the process. pp and account #s? no way. i've lost sales due to no pp and i'm fine with that.

Cash a USPS Money Order at your local post office. If it's fake, you'll know instantly, not two weeks after you deposited it into your bank account (and already shipped the merchandise).

I advertised a boat for $3500

Guy sent me $6000 in WU checks, told me close enough!

I think the WU money orders are easy to counterfit.


John

if US currency can be counterfeited i imagine a money order is pretty simple. hard to counterfeit a wire transfer. john, did you try to deposit the m.o.s?

No it was the same deal as above, the guy wanted me to send him some of the overpay but to keep some money for my troubles. I was immediatly suspect and I showed them to my neighbor who is a retired detective. He told me they might get deposited in my account but then when they are proved bad the bank would come back to me.

If I remember correctly I told the guy no deal and he sent me more!

I just threw them in the can but I have to say they looked legit, multiple inks etc.

John

thanks for all the great reading. i ship overseas a lot and never had a problem with paypal. the greatest issue is quoting shipping. USPS web site says one thing and when you ship, well i get burned by $20.00 or so. same with FEDEX.

Sounds legit?!?!? I'm rich!!!

Create an account with FedEx (it's free), then calc your own shipping rates, print the label and you're done. You get better rates if you have an account and ship to a business address. Sometimes your savings aren't that great, but on higher priced quotes, you'll save a bit more. It adds up if you ship a lot. Better than 'average joe' over the counter shipping rates.