Possible car sale paypal scam

Hi,

First time user.

I'm selling a car. I received an email from a Marine Engineer who wants to send me the full asking price of the car via paypal. He's already asked me to send him my full name and address so a shipping company can calculate the cost of picking up the car. I told him that the car is at a car showroom at the moment and that the city name shold be sufficient for shipping costs. He then replied that I should send him my paypal account address as soon as possible. The fact that he seems so anxious to send me money via paypal makes me suspicious.
Having scanned through this site I see a scam warning about a marine engineer looking to buy a car via a shipping company.
I use paypal a lot for my own business and I'm not sure how this someone could scam me if they send my money via paypal? How can this happen
Am I right to think this is a scam?

Thanks!

Welcome here Bucktoothbanjo.

Yes, this sure looks like a scam. Some scammers are using fake paypal emails to pretend they have send you the money, then asking to send the item you're selling. In this case it's likely that the scammer will ask you to pay the shipper for the costs of transporting your car to wherever the scammer wants it (which will never happen as the scammer only wants the money).

Anyway, if you were buying a car from craigslist, wouldn't you wanted to see the car first? Or at least ask for more detailed photo's and ask for more info.

Thanks David,

Certainly had me suspicious from the outset. Thanks for the feedback. Great site.

Advertising a car on auto trade have got a few emails offering full price want to use paypal dont even want to look at car will send agent to collect.
see for yourself
Thanks for your reply

I agree with your price and ready to purchase the car.I will offer
you 2850 pound sterling for the car and about the delivery have
already contacted a shipper coming for the collection of the car once
payment has been confirmed by PayPal and you also do what they say to
complete the transaction... I will not be able to view the car due to
my absent in town,my shipping company will sign all necessary
documents,including the Log Book when they comes for the collection
for the car and they will do every necessary check up to know if the
condition of the car is the same as you have described it,I will like
to know when the MOT is going to expire and the TAX also.i wait your
PayPal email account to proceed with the payment.Kindly give me a
call on 07024065694


Hope to read from you


Paul
Thanks for your mail. am satisfied with your advert price,as am requesting
this transaction should be done via PayPal so the PayPal charges is on
me,If my offer is accepted send me your PayPal email and your name
including your phone# or send me money request so i can pay you right
away I am busy at work and do not have much time around me.Make sure
you get back to me so that we can arrange for pick up as i will like
the item to be picked at your residence location,so no shipping

Regards
Dear Seller,

I saw you Car advert on the internet website for sale and am
interested in buying it. So i will like you to kindly get back to me
soonest with the details of the Car below :-

*Present condition
*Last asking price
*Current Pictures

And Method of payment is Bank Draft If you're satisfied kindly get
back to me for further arrangements.

Best Regards
Message:
Hi,
My name Alex i am in Auckland at the moment, i
came across your add on autotrader and i must confess i am pretty
interested in buying your car, please let me know if it is
still available for sale and also get back to me with the
following, your final asking price, reason for selling and
its present condition.
regards Alex

pls it is very important you let me know your final asking price.

I have also had mail from a merchant seaman how wants to buy for his brother for a suprise birth day present he cant look at car as the ship he is on is in the antartic
am i being scamed? would say so

look out for emails from
annegordonn
paul.clark0033
grantgrace3
alnddeb2000
all appera to be from g.mail accounts

Welcome e620yhj !
Well done, you have spotted a scam and posted it to warn others.

The criminal would send you an email pretending to be from PayPal - which in reality is an email address that he made up to look like a PayPal address. The fake email would claim that PayPal is holding a considerable amount (much higher than the price for the car) of money "in escrow" - actually, PayPal does not offer an escrow service.
The scammer would tell you to send the excess amount to his "shipping agent" via Western Union or MoneyGram. And as soon as he has received the car and likes it, "PayPal will credit the payment to your account".

Of course, you would never see any shipping agent; the scammer is not interested in your car, only in the money you would send to his other identity.

Did he claim to be in the UK? His phone number looks like one of those notorious re-direct numbers which pretend to be British but pass on the call to anywhere in the world.

I assume the email addresses you posted in your second message were those used by the scammer?

Nop they always claim to be on business in anouther country.
Yes the email addresse are from the scamers.

What happened to the good old days ? Before the internet you would stick your car in the local paper or auto trader and someone how lived in the next road would come round look at the car kick the tyers and knock you down on the price and pay you real money and take it away.

Simpler times

Just had two more Scam mails from
Larry John and top george both gmail.com
more to come later

From top george
Am very sorry for the late response to you......I fully understand the
condition of
what i am buying. I'm ready to buy it now for my brother , but am not
local and due to the nature of my work, phone calls making and
visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check
this advert and send you an email regarding it.Note that you will not
be responsible for shipping and handling. My shipping company will
come to your location for the pick up do provide me your name and full
address so i can forward it to the shipping company to calculate the
cost of pick up for me. And concerning the payment,
1) What is the condition?
2) Are you the Owner?
3) The Pick Up Address including Zip Code?
4) Your PayPal email address for the payment?
5) Kindly get back with the total price?
6)let me have ur phone number?
I would be glad to make the payment immediately through PayPal so
kindly get back to me with your PayPal ID. You need not worry yourself
about title transfer and shipment,i will instruct the shipping company
to handle that therefore in order to complete the transaction do get
back to me with your PayPal ID and total cost so that I can make the
payment asap. I will be waiting for your reply!If you do not have a
PayPal account, you can do so by log on to www.PayPal.com
<http://www.paypal.com/> and set up your account it is free,easy and
guarantees transaction safety.Once you send me your PayPal email
account,And kindly get back with your PayPal email address for the
payment..........

More mail
From: Alex Sandra <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:09:29 +0100
Thanks for the swift response and do as well advise on the least amount you will like to give it away as i am buying this for my Dad and due to the nature of my job and location... i am willing to pay what is good for you as am new to buying stuffs online.I would have loved to have a proper look and test drive, but I'm now off for work on the east coast of Brisbane ( Australia ) sailing,(i am an oceanographer),my method of payment for the item will be through PayPal,because that is the only method of payment i can access here on sea, about the pick-up i think you do not have to bother yourself, i will contact my pickup company,they will be the ones to come for the pickup at your desired pickup location after i might have sent in the funds into your PayPal account. kindly get back to me with a request for payment from your PayPal to send money as soon as possible.kindly send some pictures of it and remove the advert.

I have alos had enquiers from larry john
Hello , i saw your advert and am interested in it and i will like to know maybe it still for sale pls do get back to me ASAP

Hi,
Thanks so much for the information re spammers. I too have been contacted by [email protected] and [email protected] both of whom wish to purchase my car via pay pal. I quickly twigged the first attempt to scam me from Chriis Daviss due to his bad english and grammer. The same goes for Anne Gordon be on the lookout for these spammers its the usual will pay the full asking price don't want to see the car but need you to send me the £850 ( or some other ridiculous amount) for shipping fees.

I received the same kind of email from Catherine Berben with email address: [email protected].
Contacted me to see if the car was still available.
Could not come to see the car for herself because she's on a boat in Bermuda.
Requested more photos and details. Replied I would send the photos the next day.
She told me she was satisfied with the condition of the car and she wanted to buy it before I even had the chance to send the photos and details and wants to pay through paypal and have her shipping agent pick it up.
For someone who is from the UK and a marine engineer she has awful grammar.
Please do not fall for these scams. I was fortunate enough to see through it before it was too late.

When it's too good to be true it usually is...

Hallo,

i want to sell my boat and received from [email protected] following e-mail:

"I am from United Kingdom,How i wish to come and view it but am out of town now. Am marine engineer busy sailing,am in a ship right now at Bermuda,I'm satisfied with the condition of it. Email me with the actual price you are willing to sell it".

In this case, after i reading your conversation on this site, i stop immediately any e-mail contact with "Cathrin Berben".

Thank you very much for warning.

Kind regards from Germany

Wecome Foxydesire, and thank you for this report. It will be valuable when another target does a Google search.

Hi
Thanks Foxydesire.

I more or less got exactly the same mail as you when selling my daughters moped......

> I am from United Kingdom,i just got your mail now...How i wish to come
> and view it but am out of town now. Am marine engineer busy sailing,am
> in a ship right now at Bermuda,i'm satisfied with the condition of it.
> Email me with the actual price you are willing to sell it.

Looks like Cathrine is buying lots of vehicles, I guess the ship is big.

/Anders

I guess I almost believe the guy but decided to check on SCAM and found much about him, same name, same job title and he doesn't really get all the information you give him, except for trying to pay via paypal, quick and send an agent to pick up the car.

Thank you for posting your story, it has helped me greatly not to fall through this scam and loose it all.

Best regards,
Marie
September 27th 2011.

PS: I have sent an e-mail to Paypal with his e-mails and copy of some of the SCAM article I found, hopefully they have a fraud department that can look into this guy. Otherwise others may be in big trouble. How to stop him? Who else to contact? He does not leave any phone number or address, only his e-mail and name (should it be a phony name, which I would really believe.