What is the scam?

[dEARlEADER]

I'm selling my D60 on craigslist and am wondering what is the deal with this scam:

"Many thanks for your mail..Am buying this item for my Son Schooling in Oversea as a birthday gift but am not in state presently now...i will add $200 for the shipping cost...And i will made the payment through my PayPal Account cos its very secure and very fast to receive money so kindly get back to me with your PayPal email so that i can send the money there immediately.

Thanks:Nice doing business with you..
Get back to me Asap.."

So what can happen to me if I let him paypal me money?

 

[Naybewon]

OH...

They can send you the money and then, when you've shipped the camera, they can cancel the transaction and get their money back.

Paypal can be dumb like that.

This is a common scam with World of Warcraft accounts, believe it or not.

 

[Foques]

^^
lol. Above mentioned possibility is only IF the owner of the PP address is writing to you.
If not, then your PP will be blocked. Money will be frozen. until the resolution.
Resolution will be as follows:
1) You will NOT get your camera back, unless you are really-really lucky.
2) You will NOT get your money.. as the transaction was not authorized.
3) PayPal will say, sorry for your loss but you were a victim. Case closed.

 

[dEARlEADER]

^^
lol. Above mentioned possibility is only IF the owner of the PP address is writing to you.
If not, then your PP will be blocked. Money will be frozen. until the resolution.
Resolution will be as follows:
1) You will NOT get your camera back, unless you are really-really lucky.
2) You will NOT get your money.. as the transaction was not authorized.
3) PayPal will say, sorry for your loss but you were a victim. Case closed.

lol... it was never my intention to actually send the camera to this person.... was just wondering what would happen if I accepted the scammers money..

 

[Jeff Canes]

Why would you ship before the payment clears and the money is in your hand?

 

[Dao]

haha .. that's remind me of a similar case that I had few weeks ago.

I tried to sell a video cam on craigslist, and I got this



"
I do hope we can do business?I will pay you the amount you said and i believe it
is in good state.kindly understand i am in London
right now on a business trip.i will like the item
shipped to my friend daughter who is with her granny down in
west Africa as a birthday(20th)she is working with
the UNICEF in West Africa .i will include the
shipping cost of the amount mail post ,Please i will pay you with PayPal or
merchant express
money order which you will ship to her after
confirmation of money is seen. kindly get back to me.
david

"



YEAH RIGHT!! At the end, I told him I only sell the item locally.

 

[Hawaii Five-O]

I would just use eBay for selling your camera, your less like to have scammers like that.

 

[Dao]

lol... it was never my intention to actually send the camera to this person.... was just wondering what would happen if I accepted the scammers money..

Not too sure. What if that scammer use a stolen credit card to pay for the transaction. Once you see the money in your paypal account, you ship the item out. Very soon, the credit card company found out the fraud transaction and do a charge back. The money may got suck back out from your paypal account (if you still have the money in your account).

In general, paypal will not care, and just take the money out from your account. Of course, if you withdraw all the money in your account right away, that is a different story. Not sure what Paypal will do afterward.

 

[usayit]

Same reason why I only sell to someone with in the U.S. which unfortunately limited the number of people of some items I tried to sell here on the TPF.

I also make sure that the money is transferred out of my Paypal account prior to shipment.

 

[Foques]

in that case, you'd jsut get your account blocked, money subtracted and put back to the original owner.

 

[epp_b]

It sounds pretty fishy to me. Generally, if they go on about some sob story and claim to be buying the item as a "gift", it's a scam. Why would they be explaining that to you in the first place? Why do they think you'll give a crap? Likely because they're trying to get you to buy into their sob story and feel emotionally obligated to give them the sale.

Why would you ship before the payment clears and the money is in your hand?

Good point. As a seller, it's pretty easy not to get scammed: just wait until it's in your bank account and he can't touch it.

If he's paying with a stolen credit card, the credit card company is not going to come after you for the money. If they have a theft policy, they make plenty of money off of suckers who use credit cards as loans to reimburse people who have had their cards stolen.

If you're really desperate to make the sale, go ahead and accept the money but DO NOT SHIP IT UNTIL THE PAYMENT HAS CLEARED AND IS IN YOUR HANDS.

I would ignore it and move on.

 

[William Petruzzo]

Why would you ship before the payment clears and the money is in your hand?

That's the trick. They usually send a check from a foreign or out of state bank. When you deposit it into your bank, they'll credit you account money before they actually verify that the check is legit. Most people see it and think the check has cleared. They ship the item then a few days or weeks later, their account drops into the negative.

The scam is usually run just with money. Like, I'll send you $20,000, just pass on $10,000 to so and so and you keep the rest. People do it, think the check cleared, send a personal check and then realize they just lost $10k.

 

[Dao]

Beware. not sure if it can apply on paypal. But Credit card company will do the "Charge Back" even after 6 months.

The company I work for had a case like that. Someone use a stolen credit card and purchase some service from us. The original card owner found out later and contact the credit card company. And the credit card company did a charge back even after 6 months later.

 

[kundalini]

Improper grammur, speling & use of slang terms ain't cuttin it in my book and is a def red flagg.

 

[Bifurcator]

Just give the guy your account info and tell them you only accept bank transfers. I've done allot of business with overseas people and been ripped off exactly zero times. Wire transfers rock!