Hi, I've listed an item for sale on another website, have had this reply:
"Thanks for the swift response am ok with the listed price as i am buying this for Dad and due to the nature of my job and location...i will not be able to come for inspection,am a very busy type as i work long hours everyday,i have gone through your advertisement and i am satisfied with it.
As for the payment..i can only pay via the fastest and secure way to pay online(PayPal) here.
I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after the payment have been made ...so no shipping included.
You can now send me your PayPal email so i can pay in right away and also include your address in your reply.If you don't have a paypal account, you can easily set up one...log on to www.paypal.com.au and sign up its very easy... i would have loved to talk to you on phone but i work mainly offshore, our phone is down on the rig right now due to bad weather, we can only communicate with our base for now.await your reply asap."
What do you think? Dodgy or not?
Definitely a SCAM. Check this thread:-www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=63127
That being said you might want to play him along for some entertainment.
Alternatively you might tell him you know it is a scam, you have tracked his location and that the FBI is coming to bust his ass.
Always dodgy .... don't think to many people get scammed by this one anymore as it is very well known..
Paypal is a scam.
www.paypalsucks.com/
Here's how I got scammed.
1) pay through paypal via bank deposit
2) oops, bank $ levels are low
3) pay by credit card, whatever.
4) all is good
5) next day
6) next day
7) your bank payment has been accepted.
WTF?!
it auto tries to make the payment. there is no hint or indication it will do this, until you read the fine print ...somewhere. all indications are that it is unsuccessful, the language used etc.
The scam is making it somewhat easy to make a mistake with the system, sometimes. Most people most of the time find it easy and successful, but there is enough of a percentage to make a killing on the side. And you'll never get through the wall of homogenous call centres.
Obviously the other party wasn't scamming me as they had no idea how i'd pay. they said they received the first payment, then their account got put into negative the same amount. paypal were asking them for money they said they never even received. I believe them.
the money, quite a sum, got lost somewhere in paypal. You can spend days talking to a headless, homogenous, indian based organisation. In the end I gave up out of frustration. Got some of it back through insurance, but not even half.
You can read everybody else's stories on www.paypalsucks.com. I hate it. </rant>
Thanks for the link, Cisco. I was telling OH that I'd heard of similar scams, then realised it was that thread I'd read. Silly me.
Panda, I bought something online a few months ago, paid by paypal. The item never arrived, the sellers phone always turned off. Contacted paypal, they said nothing they can do because they don't offer protection if the goods aren't as stated. I had never received the items, but they insisted I wasn't covered because the goods weren't as stated. Ended up giving up on that one.
You know I read that as "Papal scam". I was wondering what the Popes got up to now 
Just a tip for people, it pays to have a look into the functionality of your paypal account.
If you choose to use paypal for receiving money it should only be done either via ebay or you, personally, sending buyers (from within paypal) an 'invoice' using the 'Request money' function.
My other hot tip is have your paypal account linked to a credit card not your bank account. That way you are somewhat insured for you get scammed.
I'm always buying and selling via Paypal and never had ad issue
1) Paypal.com.au is not a scam
2) If you haven't received the item you can transfer your money back
3) You will not giving the item to anyone till you receive the money in your account and before you giving the item to anyone you'll confirm the name via email and you ask the guy to sign up a hand written receipt with his driving license number.
If you have the money in your account what kind of scam is that?
Personally I think paypal is the safest way of getting paid and paying people without revealing your bank account detail.
I have had nothing but good results using Paypal. I use it heaps. It is far easier and quicker and cheaper and safer to transfer money overseas than using banks.
You can send money to any email address using Paypal, although there is a fairly hefty fee for them to retrieve the money. It's still better than banks.
In a couple of cases where I had prooblems with stuff I bought Paypal refunded my money. Once the threat of reporting to Paypal/Ebay was enough to get a refund.
I use PayPal as a payment system for my business and never had any issue.
However, this sounds distinctly like a Chargeback Scam....
Wouldn't touch it if I were you.
SCAM! Just send them a reply saying you have reported them and have forwarded the e mail on.
