Can you say Scam...

[Crazcnuk]

This is the one I got yesterday in response for the ad for my 78E:


Thanks for the prompt response and am happy to hear from you and i
will like to let you know that i have gone through the advert and am
very pleased with it,So i want to buy it for my personal use and i am
at sea at the moment as i am a marine engineer and due to the nature
of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted
but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email
regarding it. I really want it and am ready to buy it. I insisted on
paypal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i
don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my paypal account, as
i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your
paypal email address and the price so i can make the payments asap for
it and pls if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to
set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up, after you have set it
up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with
paypal so as to put the money through. I have a pick up agent that
will come and pick it up after i have made the payments,So kindly
send me your full home address so that i can have it forwarded to the
agent who is coming for the pick-up and inspection and am ready to
make payment for it immediately you e-mail me back with the
information requested for...i look forward to your fast
response..thanks

--
what your fina price for this item.. hope is still available to buy


As I understand it, they make payment, pick up the item, then reverse the payment thru Paypal.

I am tempted to contact Paypal and see if they want to set up a sting (or is Paypal THAT insecure).

[cywelchjr]

This is the one I got yesterday in response for the ad for my 78E:


Thanks for the prompt response and am happy to hear from you and i
will like to let you know that i have gone through the advert and am
very pleased with it,So i want to buy it for my personal use and i am
at sea at the moment as i am a marine engineer and due to the nature
of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted
but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email
regarding it. I really want it and am ready to buy it. I insisted on
paypal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i
don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my paypal account, as
i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your
paypal email address and the price so i can make the payments asap for
it and pls if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to
set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up, after you have set it
up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with
paypal so as to put the money through. I have a pick up agent that
will come and pick it up after i have made the payments,So kindly
send me your full home address so that i can have it forwarded to the
agent who is coming for the pick-up and inspection and am ready to
make payment for it immediately you e-mail me back with the
information requested for...i look forward to your fast
response..thanks

--
what your fina price for this item.. hope is still available to buy


As I understand it, they make payment, pick up the item, then reverse the payment thru Paypal.

I am tempted to contact Paypal and see if they want to set up a sting (or is Paypal THAT insecure).

As I understand it, they don't even go through paypal at all. They send a fake paypal email saying you received the payment and bank on you not actually checking paypal before they send someone to pick it up. Then if you oblige, you end up without the goods and without the money because they never actually sent any money via paypal. If they were actually going to try to do the sting using paypal that might be worth it, but I'm pretty sure that if you sent them the information, you would get an email saying that paypal received the payment and then someone would show up to pick up the bike, and if you had checked paypal there would be no payment showing. This might be something to get your local law enforcement in on though.

[Crazcnuk]

I was wondering, as I can't see Paypal, or any other payment broker being so open to fraud.

I had similar replies to the ads for my 80 Special and Monte Carlo.

[Ken Talbot]

I did a bit of reading about reversing or cancelling a PayPal payment, and it appears to be pretty onerous, certainly much more than a "hit the button and it happens" kind of thing. PayPal's dispute resolution process seems to be so involved that I really doubt any scammer would be using it. The bogus payment verification e-mail would be much easier to pull off.

Any thought about sending a note back to the scammer telling him to PayPal his payment to his pick-up agent, then have the agent show up with fresh minted greenbacks?

[Crazcnuk]

Except, I can't see very many being stupid enough not to check Paypal to see if the money is there. Especially on large amounts.

I check on relatively small amounts.

[DGXSER]

Any thought about sending a note back to the scammer telling him to PayPal his payment to his pick-up agent, then have the agent show up with fresh minted greenbacks?

Exactly what I did Ken, told him to paypal the money to his "husband" and he could bring the cash in hand at pickup. Heard nothing back ever since.