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.

The scammer isn't interested in your identity, bank account or what you are selling. He is only interested in convincing you to send him your cash.

The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be "Paypal" saying "kindly send some acceptance fee via Western Union or moneygram 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 the receiver send cash before money is received. EVER. No exceptions.

Or the scammer will send another fake email pretending to be the "shipper" and will insist you send your cash to him via Western Union or moneygram before the "paypal" transaction "completes".

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.

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", "fake shipper email 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.

This is very definitely a scam. The paypal email you receive will be spoofed by the scammer to look as it if is an official paypal email.

The scammer may not care about the item and will introduce his own fake "shipper" in an overpayment scam. In that version, the scammer wants to send you more than your asking price, with the "overage" (the whole payment is fake/fraudulent) wired to a supposed shipper by you. There is no shipper, it's just the same scammer using another name.

Or, the scammer wants to steal your computer. Either way, it's a scam and the paypal payment will be fake.

Steer clear.

100% SCAM - laptops and iphones are the most commonly targeted items by scammers

There are several variations of the Craigslist/Paypal scam

1 - this article explains the most common version which uses a spoofed email that only looks like it's from Paypal http://www.el-jefe.org/2009/12/lesson-1-how-nigeri...

2 - a version of #1 but the fake Paypal email will be for MORE than you asked for and you will be asked to wire the balance to the "shipper" or some other person through Western Union or Moneygram

3 - they pay with a hacked paypal account hoping you ship the item before the real account holder discovers the theft, reports it to Paypal and they withdraw the money from your account

4- Paypal ONLY protects you if YOU arrange the shipping to the buyer's verified address. Scammers know this but hope you don't. So they pay with their account then either send a "shipper" (scammer using another fake name) to pick up the item or they have you send to a father/son/cousin/etc overseas. Then once they have the item or you have sent it, they file a dispute with Paypal claiming their email and Paypal accounts have been hacked and there is an unauthorised transaction. Paypal contacts you asking for proof of delivery to the buyer's verified address. You won't have this as the scammer either picked up from you or shipped to an unverfied address, and Paypal refunds the money and the scammer keeps your item and resells it for cash

5 - With electronic items, scammers who have broken/damaged items scour the internet for the same make/model in other cities. They buy your item, pay with Paypal, then file a chargeback claiming the item doesn't work. They send you their broken one back and paypal refunds their money

Look how often scammers claim to be on a rig offshore

https://www.google.com/search?q=craigslist+laptop+...