SOMEONE IS TRYING TO SCAM ME!!!!!!!

It took me some time to put all this together so any help or advice you guys can give would be a real help.

This is really starting to piss me off!!!

I posted a thread a few days ago about how long Paypal money transfers take. The potential buyer to my item on Craigslist did not send me a dime and at first I thought it was an error on their part. Then I realized they are trying to scam me hoping I would ship the item before I verified that the money has been transferred. But now their efforts to screw me are getting annoying and more elaborate!

I put my Xbox and accessories on Craigslist for 600$ and soon after I get an email asking if the item was still available. I said yes and got this follow up email.




I thought it was kinda odd but played along anyway. I told her to send the money to a Paypal account. The account email I gave here was not mine. It was my buddy's. My account only has credit card numbers linked with it, but no bank account. My friend agreed to have the money sent to his account and then have it transfer to his bank account where he could withdraw it and give it to me. It was just more convenient for me to do it that way.

So she says she made the transfer and asks me to send it the next day. Well obviously I wanna make sure the money is transferred before I ship anything. I call up my buddy... "no dude I haven't got any email about a money transfer nor has my balance increased by $850".

So then I tell her to try again because it didn't go through. Also I asked her If she could relay the confirmation email to me that she got confirming the transfer of money and I get this.



Who the heck is Jim Harris!?! This is a joke!
Now I realize that this is a scam so I ignore the rest of her emails

Now is where it gets personal!
Soon after I find this in my spam email folder.



Look at the name. Paypal@service.com???
The real emails are Service@Paypal.com!!!
Of course there is still no $850 in my account.
Then I get this email.



Different name same scenario.
I ignore it.

Then I get this email. I don't think this one is legitimate either.



I did not click to remove the limitation.
I immediately log into my email account, not my friends, and delete my credit cards. I didn't get any notification that someone has tried to hack into my account. There are no odd purchases made with my card numbers on my account history. So I'm safe right? :-/

Then today I get this email.



What is this S@#T!!!!!

I'm aboulutly certain that this email is a fake trying to scare me into shipping my Xbox away to avoid problems. It's got the backwards email address, Paypal@service.com. I never got any email about a transfer! And even if one was sent it would have gone to my friends address, and he didn't get anything. The phone number at the bottom is disconnected, I got static when I tried to call it. The way it is worded seems fishy. Look at the banner. It looks like the top of their website with the links blurred out. But I could still click on them. There are a few grammar errors, there is no space between sentences in places.

This goes beyond them trying to get a free xbox. This is an elaborate attempt to get into my Paypal account!!!

What do you guys make of all this crap!?!?!

Should I be worried about my account or my buddy's account? I changed my password by the way, just in case.



-Tony

WTF????

Are you reporting any of this to paypal? That is all clearly bogus, lol @ the FBI threat, I must say, thats some pretty original work


ROFL..."to get you arrested" Seems they called in the smart one to write that...

WannaBurn said:

WTF????

Are you reporting any of this to paypal? That is all clearly bogus, lol @ the FBI threat, I must say, thats some pretty original work


ROFL..."to get you arrested" Seems they called in the smart one to write that...

Click to expand...

LMAO!!!

Oh you bet your ass I'm gonna call Paypal about it. It's 2 in the morning right now, and their phone lines open at 4am.

-Tony

I'd play along with it, and convince the idiot that you will ship, just stall. If you keep communicating with them, it might aid paypal in catching them.

True. Maybe it would help paypal catch them.

But I feel like cussing them out and sending them a F@#$ing bomb that looks like an Xbox!!!

-Tony

You DO know Nigeria is known for this crap, right? It's usually more than $850 though :-?

EDIT:

Look what just happened today! It could be worse, man

Cyparagon said:

You DO know Nigeria is known for this crap, right? It's usually more than $850 though  :-?

EDIT:

Look what just happened today! It could be worse, man  

Click to expand...

EEK That sucks!

The people that fall victim to a scam like that are typically gullible and naive. I still have my Xbox. I never even packed it up actually.

I'm not an Idiot. I knew something was fishy right away. Paypal@service.com!!! LOL!!

My biggest concern was that they may have gotten into my Paypal account and taken my personal info. I hardly use Paypal at all. That's why I posted this, to get info about the security of Paypal. I would be amazed if they did get into my account.

Plus I just figured you all might get a kick out of it!

-Tony

You live in Oceanside?

If I were you, I'D contact Pay Pal, the F.B.I. & the B.B.B. & fax them the transcripts of the Emails that you have gotten from these "LEGIT :" people. Scammers like this NEED to be apprehended, so they can't do the same things to other innocent individuals. That was VERY smart thinking to use a friends account & to take all the steps you did to protect yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back for a good job. You deserve a REP. PT. +1 for helping to make Pay Pal & open dealing on-line, safer for the rest of us. WELL DONE, ROB

Haha, they're pulling out everything from their bag'o'tricks.  NEVER click links from those emails... if you get an email from "Paypal" about this stuff, always login to your account by actually typing www.paypal.com into your browser, but you knew that, right?  


They know nothing about your paypal account except your email; they just sent those emails as scare tactics.  They have no way of hacking your Paypal account unless they figure out your password, which as long as you didn't fall for their email scam links of "click here to remove that limitation", they won't have it.  So, as long as your password isn't something easily figured out, like '1234' or 'password', it's not likely they'll guess it  ;D

Unfortunately, reporting them to anyone isn't going to do anything.  Since you weren't actually scammed, no one cares, basically.  And, they're likely not local to you, or possibly even in the US, so there isn't much of a "jurisdiction" for them to do anything, if so.  So, your options are basically either ignore them or play with them, like Snytbaggen recommended, haha.

EDIT:
I think it would be funny to send THEM a fake FBI email. There are ways of sending emails from ANY address (basically faking it) and then you can make it all serious like "Your IP has been logged and you are being monitored for fraud by the United States of America Federal Bureau of Investigation Fraud Division. Cease and desist any fradulent actions immediately or face criminal felony charges." It doesn't even have to have any greeting or closing so long as it comes from something like "fraud@fbi.gov"

are you guys saying that that 38,000,000,000 isn't coming after all
dang it i knew it i should'nt have sent that 500 dollar transaction fee :'( :'( :'(

j/k i get like one a week bank of nigera or somewhere in the uk has millions for me just pay the small tranfer fee yea right you should see the replies i send them about thier mama i think it pisses them off and they give my email to three other fruad friends of thiers

rkcstr said:

They know nothing about your paypal account except your email; they just sent those emails as scare tactics.  They have no way of hacking your Paypal account unless they figure out your password, as long as your password isn't something easily figured out, like '1234' or 'password', it's not likely they'll guess it  ;D

Click to expand...

< sidles off slowly to change his passwords >

< cue the sound of whistling > :

You're a scream John Lawson [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] & BTW, the way you 'fixed' your sig. about your stereo removed any confusion as to what you were referring to. There are a lot of people out there that don't know that ROCKFORD-FOSGATE manufactures stereo equipment & not 3000 WATT LASERS ;D ;D ;D That really should clear up any confusion in the future :-? ;D

Take a look at this:
http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

robjdixon said:

Take a look at this:
http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

Click to expand...

Posted that some time ago, the thread should be bumped for great justice