Beware.. selling HD Camera online

Hey all, I'm selling my HD camera on gumtree, now I was sent an email from Samantha Fabrice-Anthony ([email protected])

Email 1
Hi there *******, you have received a reply to your Gumtree posting " Panasonic HDC-SD10 HD Camcorder with 8GB SD card" (ad# *******) from <[email protected]>:
Is this item still available, what's ur price?

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I replied Yes and the price

Email 2
Hi, thanks for the mail.....I'm ok with the price but i will be paying
through paypal as paypal is a secured method of payment. kindly send
me a paypal money request including £50 to cover the paypal and
postage cost to my paypal email at [email protected], i will
immediately transfer the funds as soon as i received the money
request.

Samantha.

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I at this point wasn't too sure about it, it just didn't seem right.. So got another email

Email 3
Ok, kindly send me the money request asap.

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So I sent the request and got this email then..

Email from paypal (I know now it's BS)

otification of an Instant Payment Received from Samantha Fabrice-Anthony ([email protected])Tuesday, August 24, 2010 2:09 AM
From: "PayPal Service" <[email protected]>Add sender to Contacts
To: *****************@yahoo.com



Dear **************,

This email confirms that you have received a payment of €310.00 EUR from Samantha Fabrice-Anthony ([email protected]).

View the "NOTE" of this pending transaction below

Payment Details

Purchased From:*************@yahoo.com
Transaction ID: 5KN40511FK640701Q
Item # Item Title Quantity Price Subtotal
xxx Goods 1 €310.00 EUR

€310.00 EUR

Shipping & Handling via Royalmail Int'l Signed for to 234XX
(includes any seller handling fees)

Shipping Insurance (included):
€.00 EUR


€0.00 EUR


Total: €310.00 EUR
Shipping Information


Address: Engr. Osagie Dennis
Plot 16 Oluyole Estate, Ring Road,
Ibadan, Oyo State,
23402, Nigeria


Address Status:
Confirmed

NOTE: The Buyer has provided a confirmed Address. Please ship the item paid for, this transaction is Covered by the PayPal Buyer Protection Policy, you can view the Seller Protection Policy.

Due to security measures, funds has been held until the shipment tracking number is confirmed. funds has been debited from the buyer's account. However, Pending Payment may not be accessible in your account until we are able to verify the Shipment Tracking Number that the item is in transit.

Payment is presently appearing as "PENDING" in your account, will be "APPROVED" when the verification process is completed. Below is the process to send the shipment tracking number in order to complete the verification of the transaction.

IMPORTANT: The Tracking Number must be e-mailed through our Automated Verification ISL. You may address the details directly to the Administrators ([email protected]), Payment will be cleared immediately the verification is complete.


Your monthly account statement is available anytime; just log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com/uk/ HISTORY. To correct any errors, please contact us through our Help Center Email at [email protected]

To receive email notifications in plain text instead of HTML, update your preferences sign in to your PayPal account.


PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay

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Still wasn't sure so I emailed Paypal, while waiting I came across this site today and seen the same thing, so I blanked it, and now just warning others. I'll be reporting this to paypal and who else I can..

I hope this help's others, before you get robbed, lucky enough I checked first, when in any doubt check.
Regards
Logan

Welcome here Loganforand.

Thanks for posting this! I am glad you got suspicious and started googling, and found out it was a scam. Paypal will never "hold" the payment from the buyer untill the goods from the seller have been shipped, or ferified. Paypal is a payment service, just simply sending money from one person to another. They don't need verification for anything.

From: "PayPal Service" <[email protected]>

This is another good thing to notice. Any email coming from PayPal would be from an @paypal.com address, not a free email service (in this case mail.com).

Glad to see you checked on this when you weren't certain and avoiding losing your camera.

Oh yeah, welcome to SW!

Welcome, loganforand. Thanks for posting this information.

Jim's point about the use of an accountant.com email address is a good one. Please be aware, however, that scammers can and do spoof emails that appear to come from paypal.com so while that is a good thing to look for, it doesn't always mean legitimacy if it looks like the email is from that domain.

Hey All,

The same thing has happened to me, I'm selling a desk on gumtree and it's the same sequence as above! Thought there was something odd with the emails so i googled the name and found myself here! Many thanks for the info.

Welcome jessi29, glad to hear you found this info about the scammer. Thanks for taking the time to post.

Hi Loganforand,

I have just received a nearly identical email with someone wanting me to post a large quantity of keyrings to Nigeria. Just wanted to say a big thank you for this article - which has saved me from being robbed. I will also be reporting this to PayPal now!

Kind Regards,

Jenny

Hello,
This is the exact same thing that is happening to me, the same address and all. What will I do I emailed paypal, well I think it is paypal and they are telling me to do something I find strange. Can you please help if you can.
Thankyou.

[AlanJones]

PayPal do not ask you to do strange things - any money sent to you will show in your PayPal account, with no exceptions - there may be restrictions on withdrawing it, but that will also be shown in your account. PayPal do not get involved in holding money while someone provides shipping information or proof that they have sent money to someone else.

Please post the email address that is used for sending the email from PayPal and also the reply-to address.

Paypal said the money got held up in their database and that I would have to send money to the buyers chosen bank and then they would send me the money from the database?
The email is [email protected].

[AlanJones]

^^^That is a made up scammer excuse - money does not get held up in databases and PayPal would not ask you to send money by another means.

What was the reply-to address of the email that you were sent?

Thank you..I'm sorry I don't understand what you mean by reply-to address?

[AlanJones]

If you press reply on the PayPal email, what email address is shown for the mail to be sent to.

Im only after noticing the first reply back from paypal ([email protected]) had a different email address than the other email address that was telling me to send money ([email protected]). But when I click on reply to the [email protected] address it is the same address it does not change, they replied with a different email.

What do I do know just forget about it or what?