Craigslist Paypal scam.

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Not quite a Newb Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 26

Obvious scam, but how does this work with Paypal? I'm familiar with the bogus bank draft or cashier's check version, but isn't Paypal supposed to be pretty secure?

Quote:

I am very glad to hear back from you. I am a University Senior
lecturer residing in Brooklyn ,N.Y. I came across this ad on
Craigslist and thinking of my Daughter as a Christmas gift, I would
love to get an awesome present for him, which he really wants, he was
currently transferred from USA to West Africa with his team on a
research on Human development under world Health Organization.I'll be
paying you through PayPal,it's secure and protects two parties in a
transaction. I will forward my son's residential address to you for
shipping as soon as the payment reaches you. Please kindly get back to
me ASAP,so that i can make the payment there.

NB: what's the actual price for the item and i will include $ 200 to
cover up the cost price for the shipping fee. Get back to me with your
PayPal email asap.

The ad is for an engagement ring, so the scammer actually bothered to change "son" to "daughter" one time in his boilerplate, but didn't follow through.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 26

Ahh,

I see from this thread that they send you fake emails from paypal stating that payment has been made.

I suppose some of them are sophisticated enough to make a fake Paypal page so it looks like you're viewing your account, and they may even phish your password this way. Nice.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 5

Since i am an ebayer seller and buyer i can tell you that ebay/paypal is there for the "customer"

Paypal protects the buyer. If the buyer complains, paypal will give them their money back in many cases. This happens often if you look. People will pay for the item and the shipper will ship immediately, but then the buyer sometimes will withdraw the transaction asap, or file a complaint after several days.

if the seller cant prove the item was sent, the item was in condition stated they have their moeny taken out.

this is the scam isuppose.

And yeah there are several GOOD phising emails/pages for paypal.

I actually got to one and i tried to go to a certain link on the page and it would not load and realized it was fake.

Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:22 am

Firefox,

Although the scammer could theoretically do what you suggest (and it may happen on rare occasion), if they open a PayPal account, PayPal would likely catch on to them quickly, and since they often lie about who/where they are, the last thing they probably want to do is face too many questions when they try to get the money back.

What we have seen with most of these is more simple than that--scammer sends an email to the seller, spoofing the paypal "you have received money" email. Scammer then follows up with lots of fast and hard pressure on the seller to send the item, often sending even more fake paypal emails, stating that payment has been made and the seller needs to ship the item immediately or action will be taken against the seller. The goal is to get the seller flustered enough to ship before looking to closely at the "payment".

Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:31 pm

FYI, the fake PayPal e-mail will usually contain a statement like this:

Quote:

As soon as you send us the shipment's tracking details for security purposes and the safety of the buyer with the seller, the money will be credited to your account after confirmation.

If you straight bait these guys and waste a bit of their time by "delaying shipment", an e-mail from FBI headquarters will usually arrive within a day threatening you with a full investigation or legal action.

The Craigslist scammers are more responsive than the typical nigerian 419 scammers, in my opinion. They don't fall for the long winded or far-fetched stories.

If you want to bait Craigslist scammers, keep your e-mails short and straight... but just be slow to respond and send some dll files or fake shipping receipts.

After sending a few dll files, I like to send them a USPS insurance receipt (which cannot be tracked). The scammers write every day asking where "the item" is (they frequently cannot even remember what the item is they bought).

- Joe Edson

P.S. - Because the spoof PayPal e-mails can be well crafted and cause folks to fall for their crap, I always forward the spoofs and headers to "[email protected]", which gets them shut down pretty quickly.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 2:14 am

Tips for regular buyers

To avoid being stung by fake e-mails, always log on to your paypal account and check to see that the payment is received.

If you get an e-mail that says payment will be credited when the item is shipped, say "I won't ship until I receive payment. If you're willing to buy this, pay for it."

Sometimes (rarely) the scammers will actually send you funds. The funds are funded by stolen credit cards or hijacked bank accounts.