carsales.com.au [email protected]

So, to start, caught this one before it went too far so didn't end up getting scammed, but it was a good effort on their part.

I advertised a near new vehicle on the Australian carsales.com.au site and had a text message that contained an email address to contact an interested party.

Emailed 'Darren' who said he worked in the mines in Queensland and was currently working in Bass Strait so couldn't physically inspect the vehicle. He was 'obsessed' with the particular vehicle we had for sale and was happy to pay the full asking price (which to be honest is a little high so we can negotiate, and that should have got me suspicious to start).

He then requests to pay via Paypal after asking for email address and full name (I am guessing to be able to address the 'official' Paypal letter with my full name), this is then followed up with an official looking Paypal request that states that the full amount has been paid + a freight a charge (in this case $2300).

The full amount is supposedly on hold until I have desposited the freight charge into a Western Union bank account.

Now, I have finance on this vehicle and know that the only way to legally sell it is to have it paid off in full and the money confirmed from the seller before doing ANYTHING, so would have cottoned on soon enough anyway.

Also know that even 'pending' or 'on hold' transaction will actually appear in your Paypal account summary when you are logged in, so this is another place to check.

The biggest give away however is the email address:

[email protected]

If anything comes from this address, no matter ho official looking, IT IS A SCAM! The other dead give away is the request for a Western Union transfer, Paypal NEVER use this method for ANY of their transactions. Aloso, please do what I did and report it directly to Paypal, simply forward any suspicious looking emails to [email protected]

Hope this helps anyone out there, just wanted to share, I am glad I didn't get caught but I can see how easy it can be to get scammed. It all sounds so convincing.

Welcome to Scamwarners denehall,

Thank you for your post. Could you please post the scammers email address and a couple of his initial emails to you. Remember to remove any of your personal information.

Sure, thanks for the reply,

email address as follows: [email protected]

First email...
-----------------------------------------
Hi, I am very keen about this vehicle and I am interested in
purchasing it. The vehicle description was very well detailed and it
is quite satisfactory, could you confirm your final asking price ?

please get back to me with the price ASAP.

Cheers Darren.
-----------------------------------------

Second email...
----------------------------------------
Hi there, Thanks for getting back,

A co-worker of mine has this type of vehicle and I am genuinely obsessed with his vehicle, I have always wanted to take his vehicle for a ride which is why I decided to buy one for myself, I would have loved to come for an inspection of the vehicle but I am working in Bass Strait presently, I’ve been working on the CSG projects in central Qld - living in the drilling camp etc.

I am willing to buy the vehicle at your requested price and arrange the pick-up of the vehicle with a Private Courier Service, I do not have internet banking but my Bank account is linked with my paypal account so I am able to send payment to your PayPal account directly and I will pay the paypal fees too, I had used them a couple times on eBay and they seem quite secure, in order for me to secure the payment of the vehicle, I would require the details below from you;

Your PayPal EMail Address :
Full Name :

Does the vehicle require any work at all ?

Cheers
-----------------------------------------

Final email before the 'official' Paypal emails
-----------------------------------------

I have just completed the Payment of the vehicle and I think you
should have received an email from PayPal regarding my payment, you
should check your Inbox for the e-mail before continue reading this
message, Once you find the messages I need you to go through them
before continuing to the next paragraph.

I'll be needing your address so that the pick up can scheduled,
the vehicle would be picked up by a Private Courier Company which I
have been using for a while and they are very reliable.
If you have received the email from PayPal you should by now have
noticed that I made an extra payment of $2,300 which you will have to
help me transfer to the Shipping Company through Western Union for the
freight charges I am sorry for the hassle but i am unable to do it
myself due to my present location.
You will be needing to transfer the money to the Courier
Headquarters that is in China, Below is the details that you will be
needing to transfer the money at Western Union;

Xuan Ji
Add : 0751 Renmin South Road
City : Shenzhen
Province : Guangdong
Zip Code : 518001
China

Also after you make the transfer, you will need to send the
Western Union receipt to paypal as they said it is required for proof
of the trasnfer that you had made, I would like you to go through with
what I have explained and get back to me as soon as possible.

Cheers.

P.S you can go to your nearest post shop store to use Western Union.
----------------------------------

I have deleted the official looking Paypal emails from my SPAM folder so don't have these ones. The language is quite casual though and just a bit 'off'.

Anyway, hope this helps anyone out there, I am guessing unfortunately most people end up her after the fact, education is the hardest part...

[AlanJones]

The biggest give away however is the email address:

[email protected]

If anything comes from this address, no matter ho official looking, IT IS A SCAM!

This is a legitimate PayPal email address. What will have been fake is the ReplyTo address, which would not have been on the PayPal.com domain.

Could you check your trash folder for the fake PayPal message? If you find it, post it with complete headers. It should be obvious looking at the headers that it's fake.

This exact scam started on me. The exact name 'Darren' and also the exact same emails word for word as you posted. I also got the Paypal emails however they ended up flagged in my junk email. Suspicious enough. I then typed in the address from China they gave into google and it led me to this post. So I thank you sir for posting this.

I knew it was too good to be true and a bit of a sketchy story to boot.

Hello,
I had a similar experience yesterday.

I had a solid gold set in sale in Gumtree. I had two messages interested in the Gold set abd asking I should reply to their email address.

FIRST BUYER MESSAGE:
What's the lowest price for your Jewelry Ad,best way to get me is via my email ( [email protected] )

SECOND BUYER MESSAGE:
What is the lowest price for your AD on gumtree? Kindly reply me directly to my email [email protected]

Then I send both the asking price, the second was quicker to reply abd asked for details as why I am selling and if I accept Paypal because he is not in town and wants this set for special someone overseas. I said I don't mind but I only send to Paypal address. Then I got these emails from [email protected]® that payment is made but on hold and I should post item and send tracking number so the amoubt can be credited to me!

This is one of the emails:


Dear [my full email address],

This message is originated from PayPal company.We have received an order from our client which is your buyer regarding the payment made to your PayPal account.
The payment has been successfully made but due to security reasons we have to receive the shipment tracking number before we credit your account. This is a new measure we are taking to protect both sellers and buyers against fraudulent customers. **PLEASE NOTE** Once shipment has been verified and the tracking number sent to us, You will receive a "CONFIRMATION Email" from PayPal ® informing you that the Money has been credited.

Note: gumtree and PayPal will be responsible for the item loss or damage once we receive the tracking number


You may contact the PayPal Customer Verification Department and Quote the Above Transaction ID for quick recognition of this transaction by replying this email.



Copyright ©2014 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved. PayPal is located at 2211 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95131.


PayPal Email ID PP468.

__________________________

and so I felt something is not right I searched and found forum. and with the other seller the same this happened and I received Email from [email protected]®
with the same contents of the other buyer and the same asking method only this time he want to post to Sydney instead of China!

hope this helps someone out there.

Please be aware!!

I have forwarded all emails to [email protected] please do the same if this happened to you.

NEVER EVER PAY ANYTHING OR SEND ANYTHING UNLLESS YOU RECEIVE PAYMENT AND CHECK IN YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT NOT THROUGH YOUR EMAIL.

Thank you

Good luck to all.

PayPal does not hold any money pending shipment. Any email purporting to be from PayPal and saying so is fake.

Those single-line emails both look African.

I was simmilarly scammed through this email - [email protected]

It was not a car but I was selling a guitar and scammer contacted me to buy, his name was - Andrew Bennet <[email protected]> from Las Vegas, Nevada. He wanted to pay via paypal and said, that he will pay also the transaction fees. I received email from fake paypal adress [email protected] There was the confirmation of payment from him but they cant transfer it to my Paypal account because of the ammount of money, I have to pay first the transaction fees and sent part of the money to their agent for recalculating it. He will also pay World Wide Courier who will bring the item and organize meeting. He wrote that he use them a while and they are very reliable- I have never seen this courier before.
We made an international transaction via Moneygram. I had to go to pay fake "Paypal" agent

Agent : Aliyu Ibrahim Abubakar
City: Deira
State: Dubai
Post Code: 375851
Country: United Arab Emirates

After I have received another email:

Hello,


i have receive mail from the shipper that some changes have just been made to the transfer you made the shipper address has been change so you have to go back to Money Gram location you send the money and change it to the new address below.


Agent First Name: Salome
Agent Last name : buadze
City: Tbilisi
Address: Tbilisi
Post code: 0105
Country: Republic of Georgia

Hope to hear from you as soon as possible.


Thanks..

that I had to change the adress of the receiver It was suspicious. I have sent email to [email protected] and was confirmed that this email([email protected]) is phishing and scam and NOT REAL Paypal.
But I did sent the money...
Called moneygram and they said it is known scam and the transaction could be canceled .They will send me the money to receive it back.
Giving it there as a warning for anyone getting email from them, it is FAKE!!!!