PayPal and Ebay fraud

[_JP_]

OK this is the most serious message I have and hope to post!
No real need to reply just maybe sticky to help others out.

Over the last few days I have been scammed out of £1090 for a laptop on eBay,

I DONT WANT OTHERS TO MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE!

NEVER EVER BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ ABOUT PAYPAL BEING SAFE

ITS NOT!!!

OK, when it comes to PCs and Internet most of you know I am very knowledgeable, if you don't then I am

but even the best can be had by a good con-artist.


I had sold a laptop, like my other 120 transactions on eBay no problems, I've spotted the past scams and not been caught, I don't have any dead relatives that have left millions, although the amount of emails saying I have a dead relative there's no one left in my family and I am a multi-billionaire!

OK on with the scam!!

I received an email from paypal saying I had received £1090 for the eBay item, I checked it out, check paypal and yes it was legit and there it was!
OK I should have been cautions when the person was asking for next day delivery, but hey the moneys there in paypal, its all confirmed and there..

I looked at the shipping address and it was US, OK the guy could be over here or moved here, I contacted him and said the address was no verified and I would not ship, I then received an email from paypal saying he had a new confirmed address and safe shipping was now possible, great all looks good, I have the money, I have a confirmed address. WRONG


The confirmation email was fake, but my god a dam good fake, all the URLs were real paypal links, it had the correct transaction numbers, EVERYTHING looked genuine, I looked at the message source and all was OK, no links with aliases to some fake server to steal info, The give away is in the Internet headers which does not show unless you look at the properties of the email in a program like Outlook or Mozilla, with some web based email services you may not be able to check this, the headers came from a company that hire out server space and virtual servers

So I have shipped to an unconfirmed address and he has contacted his bank and pulled the money back!!
The email said it was confirmed, but after speaking to paypal they say they don't send emails like that, scammers are inventive, and I guess paypal cant make people aware of every email they are likely to send


OK my advice to people for what its worth!

Be safe with large amounts/Expensive Items, or small!
Check the email, and double check it
Check the money is in paypal don't trust an email saying it is
PAYPAL DO NOT SEND EMAILS SAYING NEW ADDRESS CONFIRMED!

I would say to the person, you will only ship once the money is transferred from your paypal to bank, but even this is not safe paypal can just pull the money back after from your account!

just have a read of http://www.paypalsucks.com/


I guess the only safe was is cash and check its real then!!

I'm now contacting eBay, paypal and the police, even trying the company that the spoof email came from as its a hosting server to find out the IP and get the ip traced to an address that it was logged in to from.

[matdodd]

Good luck with tracing them JP, I hope you find them.

[jimmy]

Oh man, sorry to hear that JP, my friend at team17 got scammed in pretty much the same way by some guy in indonesia (ok, warning bells). He had his mobile on ebay and this guy contacted him saying he needed one asap and would he end it early and send it the same day. so, my mate cancelled the auction, got the paypal money in his account and went to the post office at lunch time. Got back to his desk and a couple of hours later paypal took the money back and said it was a fraudulent transaction (from a hacked account). My mate wasn't in time to stop his parcel so he lost the phone / money.

The number of cameras on ebay which are obviously fake auctions was staggering last time I looked. All being sold from legitimate accounts that had been hacked. The one time I asked a guy to make sure the auction was real, which it was, he got really offended that I'd asked and proceeded to abuse me, nutter.

[flick5848]

Really sorry to hear that mate.

I have had fake emails from ebay with a question from a potential buyer but on closer inspection of the email the colours didn't look quite right and then I noticed the date of the email was about 2 years ago when I didn't even have an account.

These are probably common emails that most people get but I just thought I would make you aware of these as I think if you clicked to respond to the message it would ask you to login and once you did that then your logon details might be stolen

This is only a guess as I have had a few of these messages now and delete them straight away.

These emails only go to your email address and not your ebay messages so if in doubt log into ebay and check

[Mrs oOple]

That's terrible JP, I'm sorry to hear this has happened to you. Good luck in hunting down the criminal and I hope you manage to reclaim what is yours.

[mole2k]

Another big problem on ebay is the shear amount of fake memory cards. More specifically Sandisk extreme series CF cards.

[_JP_]

shit happens, it was such a good fake!!, I was dubious at the start and should have gone with my feelings!

I have his address and some big mates.

Plan is to try and get the moneyback via police and then go down and pose as a delivery driver with the hi-vis vests and ask for him, then bat him and rob his flat

Anyone up for a trip to london

Flick, I always check email so much, many people dont, problem is I was not quite as smart as I should have been!!

[matdodd]

Sounds like a plan JP

[_JP_]

I really did post this to make people more aware, its all too easy to miss somthing!!

[flick5848]

Originally Posted by _JP_

I have his address and some big mates.

I'm 6'5" and up for a trip to London anytime

B*stards !!

[_JP_]

Originally Posted by flick5848

I'm 6'5" and up for a trip to London anytime

B*stards !!

I need a bigger car to get you in mate!

[flick5848]

Originally Posted by _JP_

I need a bigger car to get you in mate!

Oh right I thought you would be going down in a delivery van

I'll stay home then

[_JP_]

I guess I could hire a van to fit a load of mates in

[flick5848]

I would be happy to travel down in one of those coffin shaped roof boxes from halfords but I would have to get the train back because the box would probably get used once we get hold of the guy

[_JP_]

lol made me smile

[matdodd]

Its ok, we can use Butchs van

[losixxx]

Originally Posted by matdodd

Its ok, we can use Butchs van

thought he'd sold it to first models chap?

CDS have a battered ole transit we can use! plus some of mark's harley m8's probably do this sort of this every sat night for fun

[_JP_]

sounds like a plan

[BenG]

Originally Posted by _JP_

I need a bigger car to get you in mate!

I'll buy a Landy with the spikey bullbar

Serisouly, this is just no on, I hate been taken advantage of. Definitely contact eBay and PayPal, they only way they can fix something like this is to make sure it wont happen again, and hoopefully re-imburse you.

Hope you get this sorted out soon mate

[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by BenG

Definitely contact eBay and PayPal, they only way they can fix something like this is to make sure it wont happen again, and hoopefully re-imburse you.

Problem is as far as Paypal is concerned they have fixed it by reimbursing the buyer who paid for goods that didn't turn up.
Paypal and Ebay have plenty of buyer protection to stop newbies being hit by scam auctions, stops them being frightened away when the first thing they buy they get scammed over.

A quote from Time Tunnel Models, who have been scammed themselves in the past, from the Tamiyaclub forums:
If it's unconfirmed, it does not matter if you have a signed docket with his name and address on it, confirmation from him that he's received it, positive feedback and a photocopy of his driving license plus a signed photo of his Mum holding the box, if he then decides to claim he hasn't received it via Paypal, he will get the money back and you will be USC without paddle.
Paypal very very much side with the buyer, and if it's an unconfirmed address they don't even bother checking the rest of the details. Why? It's more to do with their status further up the chain with those that actually issue credit cards (i.e. Visa and Mastercard) and Paypals continuous efforts to reduce chargebacks coming into their systems from these cards, as eventually Paypal (who in themselves are effectively classed as a big retailer by Visa/MC) will get charged more and more on interchange fees the more chargebacks that are lodged against them that they lose. They would rather just refund and leave you in the brown stuff because it clears their pitch against further investigation by V&M.
Paypal Seller Protection in effect only covers you if the address is confirmed and you send it via a means that is trackable and (this is the bit many don't realise...) it's signed for, and the signature is visible online if it's worth over a certain value, and the signature is of the addressee. If it's any other signature, they can claim it's not them and they'll still take the money off you and you'll have to fight to get it back, even if in those terms they claim that's not the case.




Saying that this sounds more like a hacked Ebay/Paypal account. The legitimate owner has seen money taken from his account and Paypal has given it back, not nice as it's guaranteed someone is losing out.

Sorry to hear of your loss JP. Contact the police first, if it's someone young someone turning up at their door usually gets the goods back, if they are experienced scammers it's hard to prove they have it (unless you have some really big 'helpers')