We all know the story about the Nigerian prince who needs a loan, if you could only just give him some money and/or all of your bank account info he will pay you back plus more ...
WELL not enough people are falling for that one these days so the scammers now have a new approach.
My husband Ian posted a listing on craigslist selling 2 of his camera lenses (speaking of, anyone want to buy a wide-angle and/or 18-200 lens?) and he got messaged by a woman with a semi-American sounding name in upstate NY who was interested in both as a gift for her son's graduation.
Craigslist has an advisory warning against dealing out of state, so Ian looked up this person in white pages and found that her name and address etc were all legit. so he messaged her back. She wanted his paypal email address, and was going to post the money to paypal and then send him a pre-paid fed-ex label to ship the lenses to her. So far, so good.
He immediately got an email back saying that the payment had been posted, and as soon as he got a confirmation email from paypal to just go ahead and send the lenses. Oh, and by the way, she couldn't use her pre-paid fedex so she added some more money to the paypal payment. Oh, and also by the way, Ian had to send them to her son (different, definitely not at all American sounding name) in Nigeria. And he had to do it ASAP.
Ian got this email from paypal@service.com :
"Dear (Ian's email address),
This is a confirmation email of the payment of $1370.00USD you received from Mrs Gabler Sara what is required of you in order for your account to be credited is the item's tracking/reference number, this number will be given to you at the courier office after you might have sent the item to the bearer, this is part of our new policy and a security measure in order to protect both the buyer and the seller, also to verify if the item was really bought from you we have sent you a confirmation email earlier to inform you that the payment is legal and has been confirmed, also to guide you against fraudulent acts.
We have included the buyer's full name and amount paid for you to know this message was really sent from PayPal. We advise that you make sure the item is sent out as soon as possible and request for a tracking number at the post office after you might have sent out the item, then you can email us the number by replying directly to this message after it might have been given to you at the courier office so as to credit your account without delay.
After we receive the number from you for security verification, your account will be credited at once, Our system has witness new upgrades, Please don't be surprised if you see us forwarding you to new customer attendants, its due to the amount of fraud going on involving our name which we are trying all our best to limit and put a stop to. As soon as we receive the requested information from you, your account will be credited.
PayPal Account Review Department.
Sincerely,PayPal Account Review Department.
PayPal
Copyright © 2000-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved. "
A few minor problems. The actual paypal email address is service@paypal.com.
Paypal also ALWAYS addresses emails using the full name of the person who has the account (ie. it would not have been addressed to his email address).
Whenever you use paypal, the money is immediately credited to your account for you to put into your bank account - it is not dependent on submitting a tracking number.
Not to mention the horrible English.
Also, when Ian pulled up his paypal account it had a big fat ZERO dollars in it.
Ian wrote back to the supposed buyer and basically said he wasn't going to fall for this, please don't be an idiot. The "buyer" still persisted, and immediately sent him another email saying that he/she was going to contact the FBI if Ian didn't send the lenses to Nigeria RIGHT NOW.
Such silliness is not worth responding to, so Ian wrote an email to paypal's fraud department instead. They wrote him back and said that yes it was indeed a fraudulent email and thanks for pointing it out to them, & have a nice day.
So - for anyone out there who uses paypal - take heed and don't be scammed!
And for all you Nigerian scammers out there - get a real job already.
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