Craigslist, Ebay and other online buying/selling scams.
#90442 by liwed Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:41 am
Hi there,
I am selling my car on gumtree.com.au (australia) and I have already received reaction to my phone and via e-mail saying that they are interested, but cannot make an inspection and want me to give them my paypal details. The other one wants paypal and address. What do you think about it? Is there any way they can use my details for "not good things" (stealing, hacking my account or whatever). The reason why am I wondering if it is a scam is because they both wrote me almost emidiatelly after I posted it online and they are both offshore.

Thank you
Pavel

EDIT: the guy actually called me on the phone, I could not understand him properly but it seems he wants me to forward some other money via western bank.


example of an e-mail:

"Thanks for mailing back,am ok with the price and the condition,am
buying it for my holiday,because i'll be coming soon from our rig as
am a petroleum engineer on a rig offshore,i won't be able to come for
the inspection due to the nature of my work,i would have love to call
in person but our satellite server has been down which restrict our
calls.i will be paying you through PayPal,pls get back to me with your
PayPal details 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.
Await your reply."
paul mangion [email protected]
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#90513 by Justin Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:11 am
Hello liwed!

Yea this is a scam! The "buyer" will want to pay via PayPal. You would receive very real looking but fake emails from PayPal telling you the "buyer" has made a transfer to you of the purchase price plus shipping. Once you wire the money to the "shipper" via Western Union or Money Gram for the shipping cost the money will be realesed to your PayPal account. It's all lies to get you to send the money to the fake shipper which is just the scammer playing another charecter. The PayPal emails are fake and the scammer never sends you any real money.

PayPal does not offer escrow services like this the transactions are instant. If you logged into your PayPal site directly from their website not through links the scammer sends you would see there was no transfer made. PayPal is also in the business of making money doing money transfers just like Western Union is so paypal is not going to tell you to use a competitor.

Just drop buyers like this. Only deal with someone willing to meet in person look at the car and pay cash. No checks with shipping either.

Justin

#97615 by dbronkhorst Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:19 am
And "Paul" is at it again, just received this from him:

Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2012 05:00:47 +0100
Subject: Re: *** for sale ***
From: [email protected]
To: ***

Thanks for mailing back,am ok with the price and the condition,am
buying it for my holiday,because i'll be coming soon from our rig as
am a petroleum engineer on a rig offshore,i won't be able to come for
the inspection due to the nature of my work,i would have love to call
in person but our satellite server has been down which restrict our
calls.i will be paying you through PayPal,pls get back to me with your
PayPal details 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.
Await your reply.
#97644 by rap Sun Apr 22, 2012 5:22 am
Today I got an sms from"Paus no number attached to the message - which normally is something a company does (eg banks etc). That made me suspicious. But I emailed him thinking it might be a dealer. And then I got the exact same reply as noted above. I said I don't use paypal and he then offered to transfer the money into my bank account. However, it would be crazy to give bank account details to a stranger over the internet.
#102813 by juventus88 Thu May 17, 2012 8:08 pm
This time it's [email protected]

I just got the exact same thing, can't someone be able to track this person!?

I almost went all the way until I noticed when i asked him, where will the bike be delivered too & he completely ignored me.

This was for a bike that I was trying to sell on Gumtree.

emails in order from top to bottom

Thanks for mailing back,am ok with the price and the condition,am
buying it for my holiday,because i'll be coming soon from our rig as
am a petroleum engineer on a rig offshore,i won't be able to come for
the inspection due to the nature of my work,i would have love to call
in person but our satellite server has been down which restrict our
calls.i will be paying you through PayPal,pls get back to me with your
PayPal details 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.
Await your reply.

-------------------------------

ok mate,i will let you know when the payment has been made and also contact my pick up agent.he will be signing the transfer papers on my behalf and all other necessary papers.

----------------------------------

Ok mate,the payment will be made shortly.

I was just about to pay when i had this problem with the pick up, my
pick up agent says i will need to pay for the pick up before they can
schedule a pick up time, they charged me $550 for pick up and
delivery, and payments for pick up made through them is made to their
corporate international headquarters which is in the united kingdom
and the payments is made through western union money transfer, i will
add the $550 to the money i will send through paypal as soon as i have
made the payments, i will email you and let you know and please i will
need you to help me send the money to my pick up agent Hq in the UK
through western union money transfer, this can be done from any post
office ,there is always western union money transfer section in most
post offices(you can do it online as well at http://www.westernunion.com)...,
i would have done it myself but as i am at sea and did not bring my
credit card aboard, i am a little incapacitated.I will appreciate your
help here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have just completed the payment and i expected paypal to have
notified you to this effect.check your mail folders(inbox,spam and junk
mail) i sent $**** (I have removed the amount) in all.i added $*** but $550 will be sent to my
agent in United Kingdom through western union at post office,the extra $100 is to cover the western union fee.
Paypal said they will not release the fund until you email them the
western union details for verification,and also to enable my pick up agent to
come for pick up and inspection.Here is the agent's details where the money will be sent.

Frank Page
45 Pelly Road
E13 0NW
London,England.

please get the necessary details sent to paypal (Money Transfer Control
Number)MTCN and senders name and address used to send the $550 so that they can release the whole fund into your account.Please get back to me once done.

Thanks.

I don't know if I should email him back or just let it go, but i don't want him to continue emailing me
Last edited by juventus88 on Thu May 17, 2012 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#102815 by Dotti Thu May 17, 2012 8:11 pm
Ignore him.

If he persists, tell him you contacted paypal and they told you the email was fake (forward the paypal email to [email protected] and they really will tell you that), so you will not be doing business with him. Tell him that any future emails from him will be forwarded to the FBI (no need to actually forward them, they won't do anything--but it is just to make it clear that you are NOT going to call for threats or anything else.)

Need to post photos? http://scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3219
Are you a victim of a romance scam? Read here for advice and FAQ's.
#104835 by DougV Sun May 27, 2012 1:16 pm
Hello, I've been trying to sell a car via craigs list and was contacted by someone called Jose Dave with a similar email to those posted here. Wants to buy the car sight unseen for the full amount for his sons birthday and is a petroleum engineer who is currently out to sea etc. etc.. I was suspicious so I searched the web and found your site. I thought I would post his email addresses in an effort to alert other folks of this scam. They are JoseDave [email protected] and [email protected]. I guess it's not only buyer beware but seller beware as well. Thanks for the great site. Peace DougV
#111430 by harrypotter Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:55 am
Hi all,

I had a similar one too, the buyer wants my paypal account :)

A SMS sent right after my car put on CarsGuide.com

and an email afterward (his email is [email protected] he called himself John Lewry .... strange last name)

From: [email protected]

"Hi, I really appreciate your quick response over my request, I have gone through it on the website and am highly interested in it. i really want to get the car so i will accept your offer for the lowest price as you have stated. I would have come for an inspection, but due to the nature of my job and location I will not be able to come for inspection, As am a very busy type and I work long hours everyday, I have gone through the advert and I am satisfied with it. Due to the amount involved in this transaction i will be paying via PayPal account which is the safest and secured online payment mode, If my mode of payment is accepted kindly send me your PayPal email address so i can make the payments as soon as possible or send me a payment request from your PayPal account so i can effect payment to you right away. if you don't have PayPal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to http://www.paypal.com.au 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, I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after the payment have been made and he will take up everything after payment have been made… so no shipping included. Thanks for been kind and considerate..
await your response asap.
John

"

SCAM.......................
#116981 by vsop Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:23 am
I had messages from these scammers in response to an ad for a motorcycle on gumtree.com.au.

First I had SMS messages with phone IDs Kyle, paul, and france.will. They asked for a reply to email addresses:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

I followed up on the email to Paul Mangion before realising it was a scam. Got the fake emails from paypal. They have become slightly more urgent, threatening legal action, etc.
#117108 by Bubbles Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:17 pm
Welcome to ScamWarners vsop. As you probably realize, there is no legal action they can take against you. Just stop all communication with them and either void anything they send to you or turn it over to the police with the emails you have received.

They are the ones who are operating outside of the law.

Bubbles, former Scamwarners moderator.

Rest in Peace 24 June 2015.

Gone, but never forgotten.
#121739 by almostdone Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:20 pm
I'm so glad I checked this out this post, thanks everyone! I also got an immediate SMS from [email protected] after I posted an ad on Gumtree. I sent a brief email and got the same email verbatim from Paul Mangion about being overseas, sending a courier to pick up the car and requesting my paypal account or bank account details. I thought it was too good to be true and it turns out to be the same scam. I won't bother replying.

Interestingly, I also got immediate SMSes from a [email protected] and [email protected]. The first one was exactly the same as the plmangion12 SMS. The abbottbrooke20 SMS was slightly different so I sent a brief reply. I then got back an email along the same lines of being overseas, using a shipping company to pick it up and asking for paypal account details.

Have to be so careful nowadays! I have also posted on carsales.com but no such scammers as yet...
#123340 by bbryant85 Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:57 am
I also listed a car for sale on gumtree and got a reply with in 5 minutes of it going up.

Hi thanks for reply, i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now. I
am buying this for my son as a surprise gift. I can only pay through
paypal at the moment as i dont have access to my bank account online(i
dont have internet banking with it), 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, you can set one it cant take you
less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your paypal email so l
can pay. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after
payments has been sorted, l will be waiting for your reply asap..

obviously a sus email so put his email on google and ended up here.
Just thought i would warn people that "Craig A. Sultan [email protected]" is another scammer.

Brett

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