The "buyer" contacts paypal and says the funds have disappeared from his account and he has no idea why. "Someone must have hacked it". The account isn't connected to the sale in any way - paypal can't even see it's related to a sale, AFAIU. So they believe the poor buyer has been hacked, and reverse the transaction. Cash on collection, and you might as well get someone to video it, and tell the buyer it's being videod, just in case
The product doesnt matter, what the scammer wants is the seller to shell out £££ by western union.Originally Posted by Beard0
It's very odd. I just asked him to tell me exactly which item he wanted to buy and there has been no response. I don't understand why it's difficult to actually look at the add that is the basis of the scam?
I still can't work out what the point is though! What is the endgame? Unless they are just someone that want to watch the world burn......through the medium of annoying, but ultimately pointless, emails.
The scam involves a hijacked paypal account and some psychology.
It'll be similar to this, the same MO but in this case the gumtree trader was selling wardrobes...
This trader recently tried to sell wardrobes through Gumtree and recieved emails from a buyer wanting to send them to her daughter in Scotland.
Alarm bells started ringing when she said a transport company would contact me regarding picking up and delivering the item.
She then made a payment into my paypal account which included the transportation fee of £100.
Then the transport company 'Fast Line Removals' contacted me and asked me to personally transfer £100 on debit card to some random chap in Nigeria via Western union !!!!!!!!!!!
Er no i dont think so.......
I received a few badgering emails from her to say i had to complete the transaction or else legal action would be taken (bring it on!!) also some scam ones from paypal.
Luckily i did not fall for this but others might. She (Suzanne Mark) claimed to be disabled and have an illness and no credit card thats why she could not pay the transport company.
A couple of hours later my paypal account was back to Zero form having £220 in it this morning.
Im sure this type of thing happens but in a much smaller scale than the type of con thats being worked here.
The poor grammer and the fact the emailer doesnt have a clue what is being sold points to a much bigger operation from abroad.
This scam is part of an organised crimewave operated right across the internet.
They harvest contact details from online adverts and apply them to an automatic scripted email.
The replies get moved to the next level and again applied to a scripted email, thats why the emails are so vague.
The bottom line after a lot of backwards and forwards is they will want you to give them some money by western union or Ukash.
If the can they will try to steal your identity too, so NEVER click on any links they provide to paypal etc
Reply With Quote