Possible scammer?

I think I have a scammer on the hook. He says he can't come see the car in person because he's deployed, will pay my asking price, but he insists on using PayPal because it's secure. Have scammers figured out how to scam someone using a very secure pay site, paypal, now?

I've been using PayPal for a few years with lots of purchases, some quite large. It is my favourite payment method and AFAIK, very secure.

Cheers...

...Mickus

YES they have. Any time they say they are deployed and can pay full asking price its a scam. I sell and buy a lot on craigslist all the time. About half of the replies I get these days are spam or scammers. They will use broken English. Copy and paste headings from the ad, not answer questions directly. Ask to talk to them on the phone and they wont answer or give an excuse. If you give them your paypal or let them western unuion you a check, a lot of times they overpay and tell you to just send the overpayment back and keep a few bucks for yourself. Then they cancel the check. Weird stuff.... be very leery. Even if they don't scam the money from you, they are phishing for your personal info. Email, name, paypal account, ect.... Then they sell off that info. I have even had guys make up a temp. fake ebay link to buy an item. Looks totally legit but isn't. Just cover your ass my friend! Lots of bad people out there these days. Heres a funny link to a scam..... http://thechive.com/2016/12/08/scammer-looking-for-a-free-bike-gets-epically-trolled-21-photos/

+1 I sell tons of stuff on Craigslist and what you have is a scammer. I get that same BS story all the time with the exact same heading.

i'd say they figured out how to scam u if u give them info needed to do so.. if u sell on ebay then using paypal is fine. if u sell on something else and they want to use paypal then not on a good day would i do it.. your story is the same i've had a few times.. was selling my Tbucket on c/l and had a fella in the navy(ya right) that got on the boat that day and could not do anything.. for kicks i gave him my address and told him to send a ck.. selling for $18k i got a $22k check from a company.. called the company and really talked to the person who supposedly signed the ck.. she said it was a scam of which i figured anyways.. i enlarged the ck and framed it as garage art..so bottom line is u got a very typical return comment of a scammer.. play with him or toss it..

'

Yea, all the signs of a scammer but how are they using PayPal to scam people. All he asked for is my account name to make the deposit. How are they getting around all that security?

I've sold many (relatively) higher dollar items over the internet using paypal...it's my preferred method of receiving payment. I am also very good friends with a few people that work for paypal, so I'll ask (again) about any scams they've busted.

I recently purchased an item from ebay....I was in a hurry and didn't do my usual check-up on the seller....when I did, I felt like this guy was running a scam...so I contacted paypal to have them check it out...they came back saying that everything in the account appeared legit but agreed the ebay account seemed sketchy. The next morning, my order had been cancelled by the seller and I received an apology message. I never did reply to the seller...figured it was part of the scam.

My suspicion is that they start off wanting to use a secure payment method like paypal and end up "getting you on the hook" and request to change payment methods at the last minute. With paypal, all you give them is an email address. It may be that they try to hack your paypal after getting that address, who knows, but I'm thinking it's what I said above...they'll start out on the paypal path and then switch it up to one of the more popular scam methods at the last minute.

Good points. I thought paypal was secure and couldn't be hacked but you never know I guess. I am stringing him along. He says he's in the army so I asked what his MOS is and what unit he is attached to. Let's see how smart he is

I have had it both ways. I have sold a 89 Mustang 5.0 LX to a deployed guy in the Navy, but he called me on the phone and we talked/discussed the deal. Then he sent me a certified check. If they are deployed, then they are in no hurry. I should know.

I have also had a recent bad PayPal experience with selling on Craigslist. Guy bought a really nice $1300 Tremec TKO-500 off of me. He had to have it ASAP so he crossed 3 state lines the same day (a Monday) to come get it. I had to rearrange my work schedule to be there. First he only paid me $1260 for some reason and then asked me to send him the money back because he used the wrong account to pay for it after telling him I wanted the money gifted to avoid the fees. Then after arguing for 30 minutes he paid me the other $40, but I was still out some money because of the 3% transaction fee. I blew it off as him being an idiot. Well, 42 days later he puts in a claim on PayPal saying the trans was the basically the biggest POS ever. So many BS reasons. Saying that he only recently installed it and now wants all his money back after flogging it for 5 +weeks. So PayPal locked $1300 out of my account over the week before and after Thanksgiving so I had to buy everything we needed on my credit card. I had about two weeks of disputes and claims to grind through and luckily PayPal sided with me and I "won" the suit, but still feel I lost due to the frustration the buyer put me through. I did not know that a buyer can dispute any transaction and not just ones in eBay. Live and learn. I'm a cash only guy now.

Sounds like you were dealing with a flaky guy on the trans deal. Asking to refund the money because he sent it from the wrong account??? ...that totally sounds like a scam.

Cash is king, but cash-only eliminates anything but local transactions.

PayPal really opened the door for me as an international buyer to purchase items that are unavailable locally but dime a dozen in the States, especially on eBay. I would have pumped over $60K through my PayPal account into the US, just on car parts!

As a seller, due diligence is the key. You don't want to lose the sale (if it is legit) but you don't want to have to pull out the burn cream (if it is a scam). Qualifying your buyer may reduce the variables but I suppose there is always risk.

I'd be really disappointed if you guys in the States were forced to abandon PayPal as a payment method through fear of being rorted. It frustrates me that in a society where it seems everyone is looking for a way to insert something in your rear, honest hard working guys (like me ::thumb:: ) are being handicapped by the a$$holes.

PayPal really opened the door for me as an international buyer to purchase items that are unavailable locally but dime a dozen in the States, especially on eBay. I would have pumped over $60K through my PayPal account into the US, just on car parts!

As a seller, due diligence is the key. You don't want to lose the sale (if it is legit) but you don't want to have to pull out the burn cream (if it is a scam). Qualifying your buyer may reduce the variables but I suppose there is always risk.

I'd be really disappointed if you guys in the States were forced to abandon PayPal as a payment method through fear of being rorted. It frustrates me that in a society where it seems everyone is looking for a way to insert something in your rear, honest hard working guys (like me ::thumb:: ) are being handicapped by the a$$holes.

Click to expand...

So true! These scammer bozos ruin a good thing.

I shot an email to my potential buyer asking him to name the unit he is attached to in the army and told him I will open a ebay add with a buy it now for him that way we are both protected. ...Nothing but crickets....

As far as I understand it the scam works this this. Money is indeed transferred to your paypal account. You check - all looks good. You release the goods to some stranger who picks it up. You are later contacted by the fraud squad as the money transferred to you was from an innocent victims account. You have no choice but to return it.

As far as I understand it the scam works this this. Money is indeed transferred to your paypal account. You check - all looks good. You release the goods to some stranger who picks it up. You are later contacted by the fraud squad as the money transferred to you was from an innocent victims account. You have no choice but to return it.

Click to expand...

I will see what I can find out from my PP contacts about that scenario. Based on that scenario, it seems PP is making the seller responsible for determining the buyer is using a legitimate PP account. In other words, it's making a 3rd party (the seller) responsible for the hacking of an uninvolved paypal user's account.

It smells like a scam, don't put much faith in him if he does respond back with an MOS and unit, if it is a scammer he's savvy enough to use google to get the information he needs to answer any military question you may have. In most cases scammers will say they can't pick the car up themselves but will arrange for it to be picked up, if you agree to sell it to him, tell him to have his people meet you in the parking lot of your local police department to pick the car up. Don't agree to a night time pick up or meeting place of their choice, I also wouldn't invite anyone I had any suspicions of to my home to pick the car up. If they refuse to meet you at you at your local police department it's a scam. As someone else pointed out, it could also be someone just trying to get as much of your private information as possible by leading you on that they're going to buy your car, they then sell that information or use it to try and access your accounts. Questions he'll ask "So I can pay you what's your PayPal information, so I can pick up the car what's your address, what's your telephone#, what's your email address, etc, etc."

Then again it could be just a deployed GI that really, really wants your car, but as a litigation and fraud consultant; I would say it's more likely a scam than being a legit offer. Proceed with caution my friend!

I got some feedback regarding the protection and liability involved in selling something to a possible scammer. First, you have to use the non-free money transfer method...there is no protection offered by the free method. Next, you must have proof that the buyer took possession of the item. I was told that the best way to do this was to ship using a method which includes a tracking number....even if it's in the same town. For items over $750, always get a signature upon delivery. It adds a couple of bucks to the cost of shipping, but leaves no doubt the item was delivered and received.

As far as shipping something that's being sold locally, ....just get cash from the buyer and meet in person...problem solved.

I got some feedback regarding the protection and liability involved in selling something to a possible scammer. First, you have to use the non-free money transfer method...there is no protection offered by the free method. Next, you must have proof that the buyer took possession of the item. I was told that the best way to do this was to ship using a method which includes a tracking number....even if it's in the same town. For items over $750, always get a signature upon delivery. It adds a couple of bucks to the cost of shipping, but leaves no doubt the item was delivered and received.

As far as shipping something that's being sold locally, ....just get cash from the buyer and meet in person...problem solved.

Click to expand...

This is good info! I caught him in a few lies, so no deal.

Cash (in person) is king!