buying a car with pay pal scam

This person James Palm texted me me within 3 hours of my posting on auto trader-848-667-8372. The area code shows New Brunswick. He later sent me this email saying he lives in Oklahoma. Checking Scamwarners I see he has been posted twice- Aug 18 and Sept. 21 with the exact content below...

Hi mate thanks for mailing back, i will like to come for the inspection in person but due to the nature of my job as a supervisor on the oil rig because i am working with Gulfport Energy Cooperation so i can't come as am off shore right now, so am okay with the price and the condition,because i am buying it for my vacation and i will be coming home very soon i would have love to call in person but we have a bad weather condition our satellite server is not stable. So i will be paying you through PayPal,kindly get back to me with your PayPal details and more pictures so i can proceed with the payment and contact the courier agent who will come to pick it up and deliver it in my place at Oklahoma. And i insisted on PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my PayPal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, and please 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, and the agent will come for the vehicle pick up and signing of all necessary documents after i have made the payments.

Watch out for him....
Await your reply.


James Palm..

Here's his email address

From: James palm [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: October-10-12 7:14 PM

Here's his email address

From: James palm [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: October-10-12 7:14 PM

Hi everyone, also look out for;

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

90% of all inquiries I've had are these scams - they are not even subtle!

Here's a couple of address

Alexandra Collins were the names on both emails

[email protected]
--
Hello,

I came across your ad and i am interested do you still have it for sale?


After reply I received this one.


[email protected]



Thanks for your response, I am sorry I am not available to view due to the nature of my job, I am in the United States Army and serve as a CBRN Specialist (74D). I want to buy this for future use. I am currently deployed wont be back till December. We are not allowed to make or receive calls frequently for security reasons but we have internet access and that is our major means of communication to the outside world. I am OK with your asking price and if you dont mind, I can only pay through PayPal at the moment be cause its the most secure way to make or receive payment online this is why I'll prefer using PayPal to pay you, all I need is your PayPal email to make the payment and if you don't have a PayPal account, its pretty easy to set up at http://www.paypal.com. I also have a few questions for you.

Whats its condition, any damages? Can I see a few closely taken pictures? Are you the original owner and what is your reason for selling?

I hope you consider my offer. I am ready to buy, so you can take the add off craigslist. I'll have a courier person come for pick up and storage after I make payment and money is in your hand. Thanks for understanding, hope to read from you soon.

Hi Folks,

I've got some more info to add. I received a suspicious email in response to a car for sale and went to Google. Found this helpful thread. I was wondering how it could be a scam if money is deposited into a Paypal account but you folks answered that for me. Here are the details...


from: james smith [email protected]
to: ((MrSeaMonkey))
date: Sat, Nov 17, 2012 at 11:27 AM
subject: Re: 1993 BMW 325is
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com


Thanks for mailing back, I don't have the chance to come and view it
cos of the nature of my job, i am a chef,am at the sea,i am buying
this for for my sister, i am at sea right now but i wouldn't mind
seeing a few more pictures of it, and I am okay with your price.Right
now the only way i can make the payment is via paypal as i don't have
access to my bank account online and theres no way i can issue out a
check or something here, but i have my bank account attached to my
paypal account,and this is why am using paypal to pay you, all i will
need is your paypal email address to make the payment,and if you dont
have a paypal account,its pretty easy to set up and it very
secured,log on to http://www.paypal.com its also the same as me paying you
directly. i hope you consider this cos i really don't want to miss
this deal.I have a pick up agent who will come for the pick up after
payment have been made.Thanks for understanding.many thanks

I've got another one. So here is an email address to add to the list. The email address pattern seems to be a super common name (James Smith, Anna Adams, etc.) followed by 3 or 4 digits and then @gmail.com


from: Anna Adams [email protected]
to: [[MrSeaMonkey]]
date: Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 2:46 PM
subject: Re: 1993 BMW 325is street and track car - $4500 (Lafayette, IN)
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com

Hi,
Thanks for your mail,I will not be coming to view it because of my
Job,i am an oceanist and i am buying this for my Dad. i accept your
offer and i will be happy to accept my offer.I can only pay through
paypal at the moment as i dont have access to my bank account
online,but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i
insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email
address to make the payments,and if you dont have a paypal account
yet,its pretty easy to set one up at www.paypal.com i will be
expecting your email. my mover will come for arrange to pick up after
payment clear .Thanks and nice doing business with you...

Here is a new alias for this scam.... watch out... not sure if it helps but here is the phone number that a
text came through on... 347-868-1761

Let's take "Scott" down


Scott Streller <[email protected]>


Hello, thanks for mailing back, i will like to come for the inspection in person but due to the nature of my job as a supervisor on the oil rig because i am working with Gulfport Energy Cooperation so i can't come as am off shore right now, so am okay with the price and the condition,because i am buying it for my vacation and i will be coming home very soon i would have love to call in person but we have a bad weather condition our satellite server is not stable. So i will be paying you through PayPal,kindly get back to me with your PayPal details and more pictures so i can proceed with the payment and contact the courier agent who will come to pick it up and deliver it in my place at Oklahoma. And i insisted on PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my PayPal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, and please 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, and the agent will come for the vehicle pick up and signing of all necessary documents after i have made the payments.
Await your reply.


Scott Streller..

Thank you so much for posting all of this information! I recently put my car online to sell and received an email from "Scott Stratten" saying word-for-word what was posted by another user. I thought it seemed a little suspicious and this was confirmed by the information I found here. Another email I have received that was using the same wording is Julia Koch [email protected].

Hope that helps!

[b]THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! [b]
I received an email via 4WD Action Australia website that was identical to some of the ones listed here from a "Jesse James". I thought it sounded odd so I googled it and found this. Thank goodness for sites like these!

Hi all, I just happened to find this forum and I'm glad I did! I posted my car for sale today on a few sites and I received a text message from 805-244-6977 a number based out of California which is a long distance away from where I'm at.

The first text message started off by asking if the car was available, when I told them it was, they responded a little while later with this....

Its my pleasure reading from you, How was your night?.. You can send me some pictures here is my email address ( [email protected] ), but i really want to say i am ok with your car and the details you gave plus the firm/advert price. Well, This transaction will be done via paypal, dont know if you have an account with them as i want this transaction to be as quick as possible. (if you don't have an account, its easy, safe and secured just log on to (http://www.paypal.com) to get one and get back to me with the email used with your name and address. I will arrange for the pickup as my mover will come for the pickup at your location, all you have to do is get back to me with the date and time you will be available for the pickup at your location after you must have confirm the payment in your account. I want you to get back to me as soon as possible if this is ok by you so that i can proceed to the payment at ones.. Await your prompt response. Thanks and have a lovely weekend.

After reading that, I got the feeling that the guy is too eager to buy the car and he hasn't even seen it or tried to talk me down in price. Generally I have trusted PayPal in the past, but felt something wasn't right so I did a search and found this thread and I'm glad I did!

I don't want to be scammed or have my account hacked into, so I sent him the following response..

"Thanks for writing, I'm doing fine. I have pictures posted on the ads so there's nothing to send. I'm very sorry, but due to the large number of scams going on, I'm only accepting cash as payment. If you are truly interested in the car I recommend making a trip here to test drive it and see if you really want it. If you pay for it in cash, I'll be happy to hand over the keys. If you are still interested let me know. Have a great night!"

He hasn't written back since. He is probably a scammer, so beware if you receive any texts or emails from him. What do you guys think?

I think I'm going to set up a fake email to handle inquiries about my car, I don't want to hand the scammers my real email address.

It is a definite scam. Numbers on that exchange are provided by Bandwidth.com, which provides internet-based phone numbers. So in reality, the scammer could be anywhere.

We do recommend using an unrelated email address for online sales to protect your private information.

Those who wish to take the privacy protection a step further may also used prepaid cell phones or google voice numbers.

I got the same story of working on an oil rig and blah blah blah. Name steve Macdowell , email [email protected]

'm very glad you want to sell this to me, i actually wanted to buy this for my dad abroad, i reside at (255 richardson street Pickering Ontario L1v 6b8)) due to the distance, also due to the nature of my job (offshore service technician) at an Oil rig, i am out of town at the moment, so i wont be able to come to see for myself or pay cash but i rely on the information you gave me about the vehicle? i really need you to send me the pics(inside and outside) asap so i can decide on the purchase asap.

Thanks for the advice! I'm glad I didn't continue talking to that scammer! I created a fake email to handle the inquiries and caught another scammer. This time I decided to have a bit of fun though and hopefully freak them out a bit.

Scammer Info
Alias: Paul Taylor
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 862-246-7132

Here's the text message I received from this scammer:

do you still have vehicle available for sale if yes pls get back to me on my private email for quick responds [email protected]

I sent an email to him from my fake email address with the following message:

Hi,

You sent me a text asking about my car that I have for sale. Yes, it is still available. All the details are posted in the ad as well as the pics. If you have any questions or want to take it for a test drive let me know.

Thanks,
MT

MT stands for "Magical Toaster" which is the fake name I used for the email account

A long while later I received a response from the scammer... he was probably a bit confused by the name I used (or he would be if he had some intelligence). Anyway, here's what he sent... it's obvious its a scam.

Hi,
Thanks for the quick reply, i'm in the navy currently stationed in Baltimore & will take it for the asking price. I'll be making the payment in form of a Money Order, i also have a private shipper that will come over to your place for pick-up after confirming payment. I will also be needing your help plus trust on the deal because the payment coming to you will consist of the sales price plus the shipment money for the shipping company.All you have to do is that as soon as you receive the Money Order, you'll get it cashed and deduct your selling price and forward the balance to my shipper via Western Union so that they can come for the pickup the next day. kindly get back to me with your address below so i can make arrangement for the payment.

Full Name:
Address:
City:
Zip code:
Phone No:
Final asking price:

Hope to hear from you soonest & thanks for your understanding.

Regards

I decided to be a bit creative in my response and sent him the following... I figure since he's lying to me, there's nothing wrong with inventing a fictional story to send back so here's what I wrote:

Hi,

So you're in the navy? That's fantastic! My dad is in the navy and he's stationed in Baltimore too. You don't need to worry about paying a shipping company, I can just bring the car to you myself when I go up there to visit him next week, and best of all I'll do it for free! It'll save you the money and you can just give the money to my dad - cash please. I'll call him right now and make the arrangements. This will be great! Isn't this such perfect timing!!

Thanks so much!

That was fun, I can't wait for another scammer to contact me so I can invent some more hilarious, coincidental and fictional tales to inform them that they're scam isn't going to work on me.

another one......f*cking idiots

Johan Petersson <[email protected]>