does a seller ever have to make a payment to the buyer?

Hi Guys,

I recently upgraded my computer to a beautiful new thing, and decided to sell the old one cos it still has a lot of life left in it.

I posted an advertisement for it on a local trading site, which specialises in face to face transactions for local buyers - basically, someone responds and if they agree to your price you are meant to meet up in public and exchange the goods for cash, in a public place.

anyway, I got messaged by some guy who says he is from my area but away for awhile so could I give him a paypal account so he could make the payment to me.

I gave him my paypal details but then he came up with all this extra crap he hadnt mentioned before - he cant come pick the computer up so he will get a transport company to come round and collect it for him.

I told him this sounded way too complicated and risky cos if he doesnt inspect the computer before he purchases it then he might say something is wrong with it and ask me to give him his money back or if it somehow gets damaged by the shipper he might say that it was already damaged and expect to be reimbursed, so I told him face to face where he could inspect it, or nothing.

I thought he would then give up on it but the next day I opened up my email and saw two emails -
one claiming to be from paypal saying that he had paid me the money for the computer PLUS the shipping company, and then an email from him saying that I had to forward the money for the shipper to western union, on his behalf!!!

I have never heard of anything like this - when you sell something it is the BUYER who is expected to make the payments and deal with that sort of stuff, not the seller! he never even asked me if I agreed to forward the money to his shipping company, he basically just told me to do it! not once did he write "would you please make the payment to my shipping agent on my behalf?" cos if he did I would have said "no".

If he had told me upfront and asked me if I was okay with it, I would have said "no, deals off" but then I just get this email saying I need to forward $550 to his shipping company by western union!

so is this a scam? or does paypal legitimately expect sellers to make payments on their buyers behalf??? help!

This is a scam. The PayPal email is fake, the shipping company is another character played by the scammer, no money has been sent to you, and PayPal does not hold money while waiting for you to send money by Western Union. Do not respond to the scammer; give him no clue how you found out it is a scam.

This is a scam. The PayPal email is fake, the shipping company is another character played by the scammer, no money has been sent to you, and PayPal does not hold money while waiting for you to send money by Western Union. Do not respond to the scammer; give him no clue how you found out it is a scam.

thank you, I am quite well versed in romance scams but had never encountered this sort of thing before, probably cos I dont sell much online! so the email from paypal is fake and he wants me to send my real money to him by western union? evil!

I was a bit suspicious when he told me I could make the payment "online at www.westernunion.com.au" and I thought "well if you can do it online why dont you just make the payment to them yourself, why get me to do it???" but now it is obvious... cos he never made any payment! thanks!