Scammed by someone pretending they were from PayPal

This was the scam sent to me, I lost $315 before I realised it was all a scam. Don't let anyone pretenting to be PayPal get you.




Dear <removed - dotti>

Be aware that you are 100% safe with PayPal and you do not need to worry about anything concerning this transaction as we are currently holding the money which is $750.00 AUD,We also want you to know that your money has already been deducted from the buyer's account and it cannot be returned back to him which means that it is secure with us but has been put on hold and will not be credited into your account until we receive the necessary details from you sent to the address given to you so that we could be able to credit your account after you have sent us a copy of the receipt given to you at the post office where you sent the money.

We will only credit your account as soon as the money has been sent to the bearer and you send the Western Union receipt to PayPal for confirmation.And due to the security measure that we are trying to protect both the seller and the buyer,we are here to help in way but can't do this until the mtcn number is been screen valid before the payment can be clear,so don't need to worried about this as the money as been deducted from the buyer account,you are advise to go ahead with this transaction.

Note:As this transaction was done via our e-mail payments service, any inquiries and necessary information should be sent to us by directly replying to this message, because of the status of this transaction, it has not been passed on to our customer care phone service section,and all inquiries should be directed to this e-mail address as it is the one monitored for your transaction.

The transaction has been screened and has proven to be 100% legal and real. You are hereby advised to go ahead with the transaction and send out the pick up Insurance fee $300.00 AUD to the bearer before we are able to credit your account, For security reasons email the Western Union payment receipt to PayPal only and wait till your account is being credited before emailing the receipt to the buyer.


Thank You
PayPal Team

Welcome here, and thank you for posting this scam. First of all could you remove your e mail address from your post? Otherwise you'll get a lot of spam or other scam e mails coming in.
Paypal never puts a 'hold' on money that is send. Paypal is just a tool to send money from one person to another, like a mailman delivering the mail. They have no business interfering with payments.

One other important point to keep in mind: Paypal is a payment service. Western Union is a competing payment service. Paypal will never demand that a customer use a competing service for any transaction.

Thank you for posting, louraine47.

Other information on this scam, from the emails you sent me:

Scammer name: Robert Nicole
Email address: [email protected]

Another scam email with name scammer asks victim to use for Western Union payment:

I just want to inform you that i have just completed the payment and i hope you must have been notified in your email about the payment i made through PayPal, you can check your e-mail for confirmation of payment, I have just make the payment of $750.,i have decided to add the amount of $400 which i paid through paypal,you can now send $300 to my pick up agent via western union so he can be able to come for the pick up and also PayPal said they won't release the funds until they get the western union information from you due to the fact that i emailed them about the excess payment i made and this is being delivered to my Dad,.I will need you to send the $300 to my pick up agent Headquarters where they normally confirm any commission payment to via western union money transfer(this can be done from the post office, as they usually have a western union agent there) , i added extra $100 to cover the western union charges which shouldn't be more that $60-75 but just to be sure i added $100, Here is my pick up agent Headquarter info needed to get the money sent through western union money transfer
Name: Paul Johnson
20 Median Road
Upper Clapton Hackney
Country: United Kingdom
Zip Code : E5 0PL