Scammer trying to buy my Item! What a Hide!!

I am currently selling an item via Gumtree only to find out a scammer is the only person interested in my item. First i received a txt msg to my mobile (ph no.+15138002981) asking me to reply via email to
[email protected] at first I thought this person was a prospective buyer so I responded he then asked me to send more photos if I had anymore and told me he would pay me via paypal and organise someone to collect my item ect ect mind you we started emailing each other where he/she started using another email account [email protected] everything seemed ok then I found out that he was having the item sent abroad and some shipping company was going to collect it. I was a bit unsure when they told me that he lives in Malaysia then when he had sent this following email

Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:16:16 +0100
Subject: Re:
From: [email protected]
To:


I will be sending funds ASAP but before i make the payment,there is something i need you to be aware of,i just received an email from the shipping company that will be in charge of the pick up.They are saying i need to pay them their fees which is $1000 before they proceed with coming for it and the only form of payment that they accept is Western Union Money Transfer.Where i am,the nearest union office is 8hrs from me and i could also send it online using their website,but they are not accepting any of my Credit cards.I don't know if it will be ok,if i include this agent's fees in the payment i will be sending you now,so on receipt of the total funds,you will remove the additional funds of $1000 and help me send it at your local Western Union office which can be found at the post office or you could send it online at http://www.westernunion.com . Let me know if this is ok and i will proceed with the payment.

This had to be a scam! I knew it was too good to be true. I had taken no further part I couldnt believe that this person was going to send me $1000 extra plus the cost of my item into my paypal account.

Today I had updated my item I have for sale only to receive another txt to my mobile from the same person asking me to reply to the same email accounts only difference is the mobile number had changed (+15134944813). I hope the following emails and phone numbers are of any help. Does anyone know where would these mobile numbers originate from?

It's fairly easy to spoof the "from" number on a text message. My guess is that this is what the scammer has done. The English is typical African, not American, and this particular scam format is typically used by African scammers.

I expect the scammer is really in Africa or Malaysia (where a very large cell of African scammers currently exists).

He tried to fool me into thinking he paid me sending me an email (claiming to be from paypal)saying the transaction is completed had to spoof paypal. Even after I said I wasnt going through with the sale of my item! His name came up as Bryan Flynn this is the Haulage Company he claims he was using for me to pay via Western Union I dont know if this a legitamate company but he seems to think it is:
Haulage Exchange
Name: Bernadine Paulette Francis
Address: 69 Jalan Ismail,Ampang
City: Kuala Lumpur
Postal code: 50450
Country: Malaysia

[AlanJones]

Hi leagar72

Could you post up the email address that the 'Haulage Company' is using.

Regards

Alan

This is one email I have recieved claiming to be from pay pal (which I know it isnt) will send some more. The links in this email I have not opened!!

Notification of An Instant Merchandise Payment Received from Bryan Flynn (Transaction ID: 5X472815E1267414M)?

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24/11/2011
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service@pa?ypal.com

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https://www.paypal.com/us

Dear
This email confirms that you have received an Instant payment of $ 2,800.00 AUD from Bryan Flynn ([email protected]) via PayPal MERCHANDISE Payment Service.

View the "NOTE" of this pending transaction below


Payment Details
Merchandise Amount: $ 1,700.00 AUD

Agent Charges:

Taxes and Insurance:

Total:

$ 1,100.00 AUD


$ 0,000.00 AUD


$ 2,800.00 AUD

Transaction Id: 5X472815E1267414M


Quantity:
1

Merchandise Title:









Transport Company: Haulage Exchange




Name: Bernadine Paulette Francis
Address: 69 Jalan Ismail,Ampang
City: Kuala Lumpur
Postal code: 50450
Country: Malaysia


Address Status: Confirmed https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=p/pop/confirmed_address


NOTE: This is to confirm to you that the said amount has been successfully transferred by Bryan Flynn and has been deducted from his PayPal account,which is ready to be credited into your account,been that this Payment has been subjected to be a Payment for an MERCHANDISE purchased from you, we reserve the right to make sure this transaction is safe and secured also to verify the legitimacy level on this transaction because of the high sum of funds involved.


The above sum includes the charges of the shipping company and taxes.(as per PayPal MERCHANDISE PAYMENT POLICY). You will receive a Message from the PayPal Customer Verification Department Shortly informing you on how to send the shipping charges and taxes to the transport company to the above details as soon as possible.



You can reply to this message directly using the reply button in your email to submit the required information or to contact the PayPal Customer Verification Department and include either transaction ID or reference number (PP307) quick recognition of this transaction.
Sincerely,
PayPal

PayPal Email ID PP307

Important Information on how to complete your recent transaction (Transaction ID: 5X472815E1267414M)?

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24/11/2011
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Dear
You have received a PayPal Payment of $ 2,800.00 AUD from Bryan Flynn ([email protected]).

A temporary hold has been placed on this transaction!

As mentioned in the receipt of Payment and as per New PayPal Payment policy, we have fully debited the total amount (above) from the buyer's account which includes the buyer's shipper's pick up fees.


In order to complete this transaction and get the funds approved in your account. You are to send $ 1,000.00 AUD to the shipping company through a Western Union Outlet, and notify our customer care service with a scanned copy of the western union receipt (It should be sent in JPG format).

NOTE: This is important as a security measure to ensure safety of this transaction.


Please, find below the name and address of the shipping company's agent whom you are to send the funds would be sent via Western Union Money Transfer.

Click Here Locate Nearest Western Union Office

Transport Company Haulage Exchange


Name: Bernadine Paulette Francis
Address: 69 Jalan Ismail,Ampang
City: Kuala Lumpur
Postal code: 50450
Country: Malaysia

Address Status: Confirmed https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=p/pop/confirmed_address












https://www.paypal.com/us/mrb/pal=KZAL42RVE3MQS
Your Account will be credited accordingly upon the receipt of details requested. It should be sent in JPG format

You can reply to this message directly using the reply button in your email to submit the required information or to contact the PayPal Customer Verification Department and include either transaction ID or reference number (PP307) quick recognition of this transaction.
Sincerely,
PayPal

PayPal Email ID PP307

Re:

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indokid@gm?ail.com

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Payment completed
Please check your PayPal email for confirmation as you should have received notification from them.
Also let me know your schedule,contact and location for the pickup
Here is the shipping agent's info that will be picking the money up

Name: Bernadine Paulette Francis
Address: 69 Jalan Ismail,Ampang
City: Kuala Lumpur
Postal code: 50450
Country: Malaysia

On the Western Union receipt,you will find the MTCN number and also the name you used in sending the money and the exact amount sent,all these will be needed by the agent in picking the up

NB:I sent extra $100 for Western Union Charges

Bryan

Western Union Information Required - (Transaction ID: 5X472815E1267414M)?

4:59 AM
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PayPal logo
Hello

We are contacting you regarding your Transaction with Bryan Flynn. We are still expecting to receive the necessary Western Union Information from you, and you are required to send the Western Union information to us within the next 24HRS or the necessary Legal Action would be taken against you.

You are required to send to us the Western Union Information Stated Below for Verification:

(1) Sender's Name;
(2) Receiver's Name;
(3) MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number);
(4) Amount Sent;
(5) Western Union Receipt.

So you should go ahead and send the $ 1,000.00 AUD within the next 24HRS, and we shall be expecting to receive the Western Union Information from you as soon as possible. You can contact us if you have any question(s).

Sincerely,

A. Williams,
The PayPal Team

There were alot of links within these emails which I hadnt opened wasnt game enough to but hopefully that will be last I hear from them.

Alan I am not sure what or which email account the haulage company is using the emails that I had recieved contained alot of links which I didnt want to open they may have contained the info within those links as to the Western Union link that had the MTCN no ect. I do use an antivirus but not sure what Im going to open. The scammer said that the haulage company that he was using was going to pick it up from my home but he asked me to go to western union to pay with the extra money he said he put into my paypal. I hope this is enough information but if I recieve anymore emails I will post them here. Thanks

[AlanJones]

The way you've posted the emails makes it a bit hard to read, but it looks like the address that they are using to send you the fake PayPal emails is [email protected].

Could you PM me the headers of one of the emails that you received that pretends to be from PayPal and then I can analyse it and see where it has really come from. There is a link here - http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/19.html that explaind how to get email headers.

Alan

[AlanJones]

I've had a look at the email headers and there are 3 email addresses of interest -

"[email protected]" <[email protected]> is the email address that the mail pretends to be sent from. It has been set up so that the sender name displays as [email protected] in an attempt to convince victims that it really is from PayPal.

[email protected] is the email address that the email was really sent from

[email protected] is the ReplyTo email address. This is the address that any replies will be sent to.

Thankyou Alan I can PM the headers of the other emails associated with this scammer if that would be of any help to others. Question is with that information what can you really do with it? This is all new to me. Would you know where they come from? Thankyou again

[AlanJones]

The other headers aren't really necessary as they will probably show the same information.

We can't really do anything with the headers except post the information here in the hope that if potential victims do a search on Google for the email addresses they might see the information and realise that they are being scammed.

Often (although not in this case) the headers will provide us with the city and country of the scammer, so that we can show they are not where they claim to be.

Thanks so much guys!!! This person just tried the same thing on me...we had a Gumtree ad too. Thought it sounded suspect when they said a company would pick it up, payment would be made with Paypal and they didn't even ask any questions about the vehicle!! The only information I had was a phone number +15134944772 and 2 email addresses [email protected] and [email protected] so I decided to do a search on Google, thats how I found out your story. We are a struggling family with 7 young children so THANK YOU for putting this info online!!!!!!!!!!!