below is an email i got from paypal. I had posted on craigslist an item to sell and this guy said he put the money in my account and wants me to mail the watch. im unsure if this email is real or fake.. anyonoe know?
Dear Samantha Cappel,
You have an Instant Payment of USD $400.00 from Vernan Leman([email protected])
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Payment Details
Purchased From: [email protected]
Transaction ID : 3W492537HE3468708
shipment
Quantity Price Subtotal
Goods
1
$400.00
USD $400.00
USD
Shipping & Handling via to USPS EXPRESS MAIL 5-7 Days Delivery to 23401 :-
(includes any seller handling fees) $00.00
USD
Shipping Insurance (not offered):- 00----
Total: $400.00
USD
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Delivery Information
Address:
Adebayo Morufu
69 chris idowu street
Ejigbo
Lagos
Nigeria
23401
Address Status: Confirmed
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Important Note: This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED"but will not be credited to your account until the shipment reference/tracking number is sent to us for verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller.
Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited.
Send tracking number to us or email us through this mail [email protected] and our customer service care will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment's tracking number to us for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller,the money will be credited to your account.
**PLEASE NOTE**
Once item has been shipped and the tracking number sent to us,
You will receive a "CONFIRMATION EMAIL" from PayPal® Team informing you that the Fund has been credited
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Thank you for using PayPal!
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
100% scam.
There is no buyer.
Notice how the scammer doesn't call what you are selling by name? He uses the generic word "item", that is because he sends the same stock copy/paste email to anyone selling everything that he can find and he has no idea what you are selling and doesn't care.
There is only a scammer trying to steal your possession, your electronic item, name brand clothing or jewelry.
The scammer isn't interested in your identity or bank account only in convincing you to ship your possession to him without him sending you a penny.
The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be "Paypal" saying "kindly send the tracking number and we will release the funds".
Paypal does NOT send such emails, ever. Paypal does NOT have escrow or money holding services like that scammer describes. Paypal does NOT demand you send a tracking number before money is sent. EVER. No exceptions.
Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of being the perfect buyer, great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.
You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.
Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
If you google "cragislist buyer scam", "fake paypal email scam", "ebay escrow fraud" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near victims of this type of scam.
Check out the one and only official paypal website, read up on what paypal does and how it really works.
SCAM
That is NOT a real Paypal email, it's a spoof
1 - Paypal specifically prohibits ALL transactions with Nigeria due to fraud. You cannot receive money from Nigeria as Paypal do not allow any accounts there and you cannot be told to ship to Nigeria as Paypal do not allow users to ship to Nigeria
2 - Why would Paypal ask you to send a tracking number to a free @in.com address?? Paypal ONLY uses @paypal.com addresses
3 - Paypal NEVER asks you to send a tracking number before your account is credited. That's not how Paypal works. If you go to Paypal.com and there's no money it was never sent
4 - this scam has been targeting Craigslist users for years. This article from 2008 explains how the scam works http://consumerist.com/2008/10/how-a-nigerian-stea...
5 - Why are you ignoring Craiglist's very clear scam warnings where they specifically tell you to ONLY do transactions with people you can meet face to face, NEVER give your paypal details to anyone and AVOID all transactions involving shipping. This transaction has not one but THREE very obvious signs you are being scammed
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
Cut off all contact with this criminal and forward that fake paypal email to [email protected]
Ignore the future threats - the next part of the scam willl be another fake paypal email threatening you with a lawsuit or calling the FBI if you don't ship the watch. Then you'll get a fake email that looks like it's from a lawyer or the FBI threatening you with arrest or a lawsuit. Ignore them all - it's all part of the scam and the scam follows the same script. They will eventually stop in 2-3 weeks once they know you aren't falling for it and will move on to their next victim. But now your Paypal account is at risk - they will target you with phishing scams going forward so the best thing would be to set up a new email account to use for your Paypal account so they can't target you
The email layout is okay, but sending to Nigeria? Scam central, I would be careful.
Why not check your paypal? Just don't access it throught the email, but go to the offical site directly, it should appear on your accounts listing.
Also most emailing system has an advance or more actions option, select that on the email, then 'View Full Header', you can tell if a email is a phishing email that way quite easily in most cases. This shows the return path and servers it's gone through, so if they are faking the return email address you can tell.
TOTAL SCAM.
Someone from Africa is looking on Craigslist in YOUR town to buy something?
RED ALERT!
Paypal is "holding funds" until you ship the item?
BULLSHYT! Paypal doesn't do that!
I work the window at the USPS and I see someone coming in to mail something to Nigeria once a month or so ... I always ask them, "Do you know this person?" They say, "No." I say, "Is this something you were selling on Craigslist"? They say, "How did YOU know?" I warn them that it's fake, and that the USPS won't pay an insurance claim because we will be able to prove it was delivered.
You'd be giving away your item, AND losing the money on shipping ... BAD DEAL.
It's funny, though, if someone INSISTS on sending their item ... and then we see them a week or two later, looking "sad as shyt" and trying to file an insurance claim ... THAT'S when we get to laugh in their faces!
Don't let us laugh in your face!
This has scam written all over it. Anyone that sends a message claiming to be from eBay, or some other real company, and the mailing address is in Nigeria, it is a total scam. Report it to Yahoo and PayPal immediately.