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Is this a scam?

W

whattaguy

Senior member
I'm trying to sell my Canon Powershot G7 on Craigslist, and I got this email. The scenario smells like a scam, but everything else sounds legit. There's no "Western Union" payment request, send to Nigeria, or "please use my own shipping service" in it.

Is it possible for him to scam me through these means?

Thanks.

Here's the email I got:

Am currently in Provo, Utah, i want to Purchase the (Canon Powershot G7 Camera) for my sons Birthday gift, he traveled to West Africa for a research in Shell oil Company, I will be paying you Through Paypal, these secures and protects two parties in a transaction... I will like you to send me your Paypal invoice or your Paypal identification email for payment... This information should be provided correctly to avoid wrong payment.

I will provide you my sons shipping information for shipment as soon as the payment is sent. Thanks for your anticipated co-operation.


Remain Blessed,

[Mr. Craigslist Buyer]

NB: I will be paying you the sum of ($380 USD) for cost price and shipping fee, Shipping will be through USPS Express mail.


What do you think? These things are getting harder and harder to distinguish.

Thanks.
 
Reference to Africa? Check

Words randomly capitalized? Check

Awful sentence structure? Check

Paypal? Check

Cheesy religious sign-off? Check



How is this hard to distinguish? What about that sounds even remotely 'legit'?

/facepalm
 
Last edited:
Yeah, it's legit. He's just using a stolen Paypal account, and you'll get your money. Well, you'll get it temporarily, then Paypal will freeze your account for 3 months before refunding that money back to the owner of the stolen Paypal account.

Cash only, and meet in a public place.
 
lol...he mentioned Africa, an oil company and signed it Remain Blessed

There is about a 105% chance that he is a scammer
 
nick1985 said:
Reference to Africa? Check

Words randomly capitalized? Check

Awful sentence structure? Check

Paypal? Check

Cheesy religious sign-off? Check



How is this hard to distinguish? What about that sounds even remotely 'legit'?

/facepalm
Click to expand...

Summed up perfectly.
 
whattaguy said:
Thanks your highness.
Click to expand...

0_your_welcome_butterfly_glitter.gif
 
http://community.livejournal.com/thequestionclub/75494073.html

You're not the only one. I don't think it could hurt you to just send him your paypal info (make sure your paypal password is maximum strength), but I guarantee you that there's gonna be a follow up email that looks like it came from paypal but is actually from the scammer telling you that the money has been sent. Such as in this example: http://cellbiol.com/netwatch/nigeria/BBS/posts/4471.html

paypalfundsnotifier@emailaccount.com ... emailaccount.com? really? I'm sure that's a legit paypal email address.
 
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