Has anyone ever gotten an email like this? Seems fishy to me.
Hi,
Thanks for the prompt response..Hope is still in a great
condition?Actually, I’m buying it as a birthday gift for my Dad and i
am at sea at the moment,I work as a marine Engineer on a ship and due
to the nature of my work phone calls making and visiting of website
are limited to us but i squeezed out time to check this advert and
send you an email regarding it. I really want it to be a surprise for
my Dad so i wont let him know anything about it until it get delivered
to him,i am sure he will be more than happy with it.I’ll offer $5,300
for it and also for your assistant…
i’m paying with paypal to a confirmed address that will be sent to you
by PayPal,I insisted on paypal because i don’t have access to my bank
account online cause don’t have internet banking,but i can pay from my
paypal account because i have it linked to my bank account , i will
need you to give me your paypal email address or you make a money
request and 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.
Regards,
Peter.
A few weeks ago a mate of mine got a similar-ish mail about buying a melodeon. It was worded strangely. He googled some of the sentences and it was shown to be a scam. He narrowly avoided being ripped off but i can’t remember the details of how it works. Something like - they pay with paypal, then you have to pay the courier and they say they’ll cover it, then they report the item to paypal as not received and get a refund.
But of course this guy could be legit.
A
I’m just really weirded out because he never says pipes in the whole email. He refers to them as it. I also got this exact same email when I tried to sell the chanter, I think.
It does seem off-key, doesn’t it? Did you examine the e-mail header? Might give you some clues. It sounds very similar to this situation:
http://www.suite101.com/content/car-buying-scam-using-paypal-a215956
The interested parties wanted to buy the car through PayPal only and they were emailing from a distant location that prevented them from transferring a payment any other way. One person said they were a crew member with Air Canada and another person said they were conveniently “at sea.”
… some clients purchase an expensive item and then do what they call a “charge-back” – that is they call their credit card company afterward to inform them that they will not authorize that charge. Even though PayPal assured her that she would receive her payment, once a credit card company refuses a charge, then there will be a dispute that could take who knows how long to settle.
got same email this morning. complete bullshit from some asshole chancer.
I’ve seen the same language and circumstances several times when selling on Craigslist. Anytime someone mentions they don’t have access to their bank account because of travel reasons and offers to do business via Paypal or Money Order, avoid them like the plague.
If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. PayPal only protect the seller up to £500 ($1000?) so there is a bit of a shortfall there. I wouldn’t walk away from this one… I’d run!
Sounds like someone wants to rip you off! The sentence structure itself, sends up red flags.
I too got the same email as sjcavy, same text. Clearly a scam. Thanks everyone for the info.
NIck Whitmer
Just out of curiosity, what could go wrong with PayPal, ie what is the nature of the scam? It seems to be that PayPal is pretty secure when it comes to money transfers so I am wondering what the angle on this particular graft might be. And yes, this is most definitely a scam.
Take another look at my previous post. The problem isn’t PayPal, per se. It’s the ability of the scammer to retroactively block PayPal payment after the item has already been picked up by an “agent”, or sent off to some vague address because the buyer is “at sea” and has no fixed address.
This was in my spam box this morning. In regards to selling my Donohoe set on Uilleannobsession. I know I wouldn’t trust Peter unless he re-routes his ship to my house and shakes my hand first.
Hi,
Thanks for the prompt response..Hope is still in a great
condition?Actually, I’m buying it as a birthday gift for my Dad and i
am at sea at the moment,I work as a marine Engineer on a ship and due
to the nature of my work phone calls making and visiting of website
are limited to us but i squeezed out time to check this advert and
send you an email regarding it. I really want it to be a surprise for
my Dad so i wont let him know anything about it until it get delivered
to him,i am sure he will be more than happy with it.I’ll offer $6600
for it and also for your assistant…
i’m paying with paypal to a confirmed address that will be sent to you
by PayPal,I insisted on paypal because i don’t have access to my bank
account online cause don’t have internet banking,but i can pay from my
paypal account because i have it linked to my bank account , i will
need you to give me your paypal email address or you make a money
request and 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.
Regards,
Peter.