Beware of Paypal scam

[Emegra]

Hi guys

Just a wee warning to be aware, a good friend of mine advertised a car fro sale on gumtree, he was contacted by email by someone who agree to buy the car, then comes the sting, the buyer told him that he was working out of the country and was buying the car for his son and asked him if wouldn't mind making a payment to Western Union on his behalf (as he was out the country) to  pay a pickup company to collect the car and take it to an address in England, my friend give him his paypal details once the money was deposited into the account my friend paid this pickup company, once that was done the buyer asked if he wouldn't mind doing it again to pay for insurance which he did, long story short the paypal account was bogus in other words when my friend was viewing his paypal account it wasn't his paypal account it was a bogus account made to look like paypal and he's £600 down, it's a very clever scam so beware if any of you find yourself in a situation like this, when your in paypal check the web address is correct



Graeme

[daveinuk]

You've lost me here but the words western union would have been enough of a red flag for me to say no thanks bye. . . . . . .

Your friend (lets call him bob)  bob gives the other fella what details ? just a paypal email address? What's WU got to do with it? IF Bob's selling his car, he only needs to give the other fella his paypal email for the other fella to pay in by?  Please tell me he didn't give out an email and password??

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

And the moral of the story....

NEVER trust/click links from emails .. always go directly to the site yourself, and CHECK THE URL

But thanks for the heads up.

[Emegra]

Please tell me he didn't give out an email and password??

No he's not that green, it was all done by email I don't know the exact details because I'm not gonna quiz him about it and I don't use Paypal myself so I'm not that familiar with how it works , but essentially the scammer created a website designed to look exactly like Paypal, I've seen it and believe me it's very good then I think there's a link in the emails pointing to the Paypal website but it's not really Paypal it's the cloned site he created, so when "Bob" checks what he thinks is his Paypal account he can see what looks like the money deposited into his account so he then used his own money to transfer the funds to a Western Union office in South Carolina where presumably the scammer picks it up

[daveinuk]

He's logged in off someone else's link  . . . . .  damn  . . . .  hope he's changed his login  pass then already, surely he's covered either way? It's plain fraud? If he's been on a bogus PP site and seen his balance go up by X amount of pounds then the problem is the scammers got his card details linked to his PP account?
I don't get why he was transferring money to a WU account though? Whos? the scammers?  and why?

[Emegra]

Like I said I don't know the exact details but however it was done the scammer managed to make it so that every time "Bob" logged into his Paypal account (probably via an email link) he was redirected to the phoney account it wasn't Paypal at all it was a cloned website made to look like Paypal

I can't really tell you exactly how the scammer pulled off the rest of the sting without tying myself in knots the point of my post is to make people here aware of anyone who offers to put money in their Paypal account to pay something on their behalf, be careful when you're using links and check the web address and make sure you've not been redirected

[daveinuk]

Yeah i get the bit about the cloned site but having been involved with paypal for years, pleasure and business, I know how much they've tightened things over the last 8 or 9 years, but your post reads as though he was sending the buyer money, that's what confused me. 

[Emegra]

Ok I don't know the fine details but here's the outline

Bob (my friend) advertises his car for sale on Gumtree he's contacted by this guy using a gmail account (lets call him Jack) who agrees to buy the car Jack tells Bob he's out of the country but he's buying the car as a surprise gift for his son, Jack wants to pay for the car via Paypal Bob agrees.

Then Jack says that he has to arrange for a company to pick up the car and take to an address in Cardiff but makes up a story that because he's out of the country he can't make the payment so asks Bob if he wouldn't mind making the payment for him through Western Union and Jack would put the money in his Paypal account, Bob agrees Jack emails Bob to inform him the money has been deposited in his Paypal account Bob checks his Paypal and sure enough the money is there, so Bob goes ahead and makes the payment to Western Union with his own money Then Jack makes another story about insurance and asks Bob if he would do the same again this time through a company called Money Grab (i Think) Jack deposits the required money in Bobs Paypal account plus an extra (£70 for his trouble) Bob makes the payment once again with his own money, I don't know the series of events immediately after that but Bob eventually Phoned Paypal and discovers that no money had actually been deposited in his account and that he's been scammed

The deposits Bob saw on his account were not really his Paypal account each time he went to check his account which he was doing via email links he was being redirected to a cloned website created by Jack to look like Paypal, Bobs Paypal account was not compromised it was all an illusion.

Hope I've explained that ok



Graeme

[daveinuk]

He's got more patience than the average car seller, I'd have said no from the point he said he wasn't in the country. I know it's easy to say I can't believe people get duped by these scams, but they do, and the 'Ugandan prince that's just died and left me $65,000,000' emails are still going strong. . . . . . .  but that is just so complicated I'm surprised he could be ars** ! Western Union has got such a bad reputation worldwide I'm surprised they still let them do business, I'm amazed. . . . . 

Be interested to k now if he's not covered somehow with the card he used for funding though ? You've got section 75 on a credit card as protection but I dunno if it covers overseas scammers. . . . .  Still, if not, if he gets a crime number off the police he may have some recourse through the banks

That's a bummer getting done like that, I got duped many many years ago with an AOL scam/fake logins to steal credit card details, I smelled something fishy and rang them after several attempted logins to the fake site - had to cancel my card immediately, nothing got  taken through the speed at which it was cancelled luckily - I know it's hindsight but if he'd have tried to WITHDRAW  that first amount 'paid in' . . . . .  the game would have been up  . . . .   

[Emegra]

WITHDRAW  that first amount 'paid in' . . . . .  the game would have been up

He couldn't withdraw the money because he was under the impression the money was on hold untill the transactions were complete.

It's easy for us to say "he should have known better", "You wouldn't catch me out with that", well maybe not but to be honest Bob is actually quite a shrewd guy and I'm surprised he got caught out this way, but this was a very well laid out scam and I'll bet Bob's not the only one caught out with it.

So as Mark said earlier never use links and always check the URL





Graeme

[daveinuk]

Yep well you live and learn, I know paypal wouldn't put a payment on hold in that manner, they do withhold payments, but not because you're waiting for a series of transactions to complete but I've been around paypal a long time. If I were him I'd be pursuing every angle with the police and the banks, whichever way you flip this around, it's theft .......... but I'm pretty sure if memory serves, the biggest single problem would be getting anything BACK  from western union, these to**ers really should be shut down, even the western union agents have been caught out helping the scammers in the past, that and moneygram. . . another dodgy outfit .... I hope he gets something back ...