Paypal Scam - Updated
Ingenious...
I received an email asking if my MacBook I had posted on Kijiji is still for sale, its condition, and my best price. I wrote back with the details.
I then received a followup email asking if I would ship it overseas, and the person would be willing to pay extra for the shipping costs. If I'd be willing to do it, I can send a money request through Paypal.
It all sounds good.....until I get a very similar email from someone else who also offered extra for it to be shipped overseas.
Unfortunately, I had already sent the Paypal money request, so the scammer's plan was in motion...
My hunch is that I am going to receive an email stating the money has been transferred into my Paypal account, and the email will include a link that goes to a Paypal website which is fake, where they will try to get me to type in my Paypal username and password. I won't bite, of course, as I will manually log into the Paypal website instead and check my balance.
UPDATE
Just as I suspected would happen, I received an email stating that the money had been transferred (and of course it hadn't) and asking me to to ship the item.
Here are the contents of the email:
Dear Peter Been (they couldn't even get my name correct),
Thanks for your affirmative mail regarding your PayPal funds....
We clearly understand your concern about our new service.
We have your PayPal fund save with us Transaction ID :- <# deleted>.
You need to get this item off to the Post Office and there you would be given a receipt to prove postage of item.
On that receipt you would find the Tracking Number/Reference Number which you need in other to get your check.
Forward it to - servicepaypal@mail2royal.com is our new tracking email address used to track and verify all the tracking number we receive in other for funds to be credited.
We only requested for you to send the Tracking Number to us in other to protect both you and the buyer.
This is also part of our New PayPal Anti Fraud Rule for safe transaction on PayPal.
Note : Forward the Tracking Number to us and not to the Buyer.
Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
The phisher's email address is "charlesdarlington23@googlemail.com", and I received a similar email from "rslinder2@gmail.com" (Rose Linder). If you come across any emails from either of these two, just delete it immediately or forward it to spoof@paypal.com.
I'm fortunate that I had the sense I was being scammed. I imagine there are others that are perhaps not as aware who could have easily been duped by this fraud.
Just as Sergeant Phil Esterhaus from the Hill Street Blues used to say: "Hey, let's be careful out there."
I received an email asking if my MacBook I had posted on Kijiji is still for sale, its condition, and my best price. I wrote back with the details.
I then received a followup email asking if I would ship it overseas, and the person would be willing to pay extra for the shipping costs. If I'd be willing to do it, I can send a money request through Paypal.
It all sounds good.....until I get a very similar email from someone else who also offered extra for it to be shipped overseas.
Unfortunately, I had already sent the Paypal money request, so the scammer's plan was in motion...
My hunch is that I am going to receive an email stating the money has been transferred into my Paypal account, and the email will include a link that goes to a Paypal website which is fake, where they will try to get me to type in my Paypal username and password. I won't bite, of course, as I will manually log into the Paypal website instead and check my balance.
UPDATE
Just as I suspected would happen, I received an email stating that the money had been transferred (and of course it hadn't) and asking me to to ship the item.
Here are the contents of the email:
Dear Peter Been (they couldn't even get my name correct),
Thanks for your affirmative mail regarding your PayPal funds....
We clearly understand your concern about our new service.
We have your PayPal fund save with us Transaction ID :- <# deleted>.
You need to get this item off to the Post Office and there you would be given a receipt to prove postage of item.
On that receipt you would find the Tracking Number/Reference Number which you need in other to get your check.
Forward it to - servicepaypal@mail2royal.com is our new tracking email address used to track and verify all the tracking number we receive in other for funds to be credited.
We only requested for you to send the Tracking Number to us in other to protect both you and the buyer.
This is also part of our New PayPal Anti Fraud Rule for safe transaction on PayPal.
Note : Forward the Tracking Number to us and not to the Buyer.
Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
The phisher's email address is "charlesdarlington23@googlemail.com", and I received a similar email from "rslinder2@gmail.com" (Rose Linder). If you come across any emails from either of these two, just delete it immediately or forward it to spoof@paypal.com.
I'm fortunate that I had the sense I was being scammed. I imagine there are others that are perhaps not as aware who could have easily been duped by this fraud.
Just as Sergeant Phil Esterhaus from the Hill Street Blues used to say: "Hey, let's be careful out there."
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