Paypal newbie

I have an RV listed for sale for14k through Craigs list. The guy wanting to buy is on "deployment". He says he will put the money into my paypal account before he sends a mover to pick up the RV. Anybody ever had experiance through paypal on a large sum of money ? I called paypal and they said to just make sure you check your accounf to make sure the money is there vs just looking at a phony email saying it has been sent to your account. Thoughts please

Scam

Scam. On craigslist. Cash or cashiers check. Always

I've used paypal for a large transaction like this before, 10K. I too called and talked to PayPal and they actually talked me into it. All you give them is your email so they can't get any of your other info, then like they told you, wait for it to actually hit your bank account not your paypal account and your good, cause you will get that email that says it's been transferred but that means nothing till it hits your bank account.

Now if they start asking for more than your email address for the paypal transaction then it's a scam for sure. All just depends on how trust worthy you want to be, your selling it so if they want to send you money let them haha. I'm military myself so if you want to ask them where they are "deployed", what rank they are, branch, or anything else like that I cAn help to validate that kind of stuff

Good luck in your decision.

Thanks for response. This was his last email after a few earlier asking questions about the RV

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the breakdown. The price and condition are okay. I'm just asking about it to make sure it’s in good condition. I'm deployed out of town because I work with the Military and have been in base for some time and due to my deployment i will not be able to come for inspection, I have a mover coming for it on my behalf. So i am requesting this transaction should be done via PayPal so the PayPal charges are on me and PayPal is very safe and I have access to my funds there, that's the only reason why PayPal is the only payment option. I am straight up with you and I want you to be honest with me as well. Do you have a verified PayPal account?

Best Regards,
Williams

Ya man I mean it's definitely a different situation. Ask him some questions like, where are you at now, where are you stationed here in the states, what do you do in the military, things like that, to get more comfortable.

My time was kind of like that but not military related. I was selling a older pickup and a guy from another state saw my add and responded, he didn't want to drive it, inspect it, nothing. I thought that was kind of weird but he said that he restores them and would have someone pick it up, that's when I called paypal and talked to them. I went along with it, gave him my email so he could pay me and waited. The next day I got a email from him saying he payed when could he arrange for it to be picked up. Now this is where I could see that he has indeed "sent" the money to paypal and this is where paypal said make sure it hits your bank account. So I told him that once it hits my bank he can pick it up. So we kept in touch for about a week or so waiting for the money to hit, the reason it was taking so long was the bank said that much money takes time to clear. About a week later the money had cleared, I called the bank to make sure it was my money and was actually there and they said it was so I text the guy setting up a day/time for him to have it picked up and it was done.

So far I think just ask more questions, now if he wants to start using something different other than paypal or suggests to go to a specific/different pay site, or they need anything else from you other than your email....SCAM FOR SURE! The worst that can happen through paypal is he pays then doesn't pick it up, at least that's what I thought haha. Make sure you let him know how it's going to work, nothing happens till the money hits the account, bank account not paypal account, those are 2 different things, and he is responsible for pickup within however many days after the money hits the account, stuff like that.

Sometimes we in the military have extra money on our deployments because we don't have anything to spend it on, not to often anyone would by something unseen in person but it can happen.

As said before, the only thing he should need is your email address. If he pays you, transfer the money to your bank account right away. After it's in there, you're good.

Paypal has a lot of buyer/seller protection and it is a very safe way to do business. If he tries to do something like I'll send you a check or money order, then you go cash it and send him back money to pay for delivery or something, then that is a definite scam.

If he pays through paypal, and you actually have it in your account, it's legit. From the sounds of it, it does sound like it could be real. Normally a scam like this goes like this.

Buyer: Hi, I want to buy your vehicle, but I'm out of the country. I will pay your asking price and pay for delivery, also I will pay a little extra for your troubles dealing with this unorthodox situation.
I will send you a money order for the amount, keep your part and send the rest (for the delivery) to this address by money order, and they will arrange a time to pickup your vehicle for delivery.


I have ran into several variations of this before. One time it was for a secret shopper job I applied for. Basically they asked for my address to mail me a check and I was instructed to go to a Wal-mart money grams place to have it cashed and use their wire service to send money to a specified person to test that service of theirs. Then I was supposed to use a certain portion of it to shop at walmart to test out their floor employees and cashiers. Any remaining money I was supposed to keep.

Well I got the checks sent to me, made out to me at the exact time they said Fedex would deliver them, like down to the minute. That was kind of weird. I noticed the checks weren't from a secret shopping company in California, but were business checks from a florist in Nevada.
I immediately went to the police with the checks and copies of the e-mails, IP addresses, etc. and turned them in.
The police told me that the checks were stolen, likely from a swiped corporate ledger and that if I had tried to cash them, they would either A) go through and I would be charged with theft once it got traced back to me, but not before the other people had their money. or B)It would be kicked back because the checks were already marked as stolen and I would be charged for trying to pass stolen checks.
Either way it came out to them trying to get you to launder stolen money and you take the heat for it.

If it is from paypal, you get the cash transferred to your bank account, and they aren't asking you to send money elsewhere or pay for anything (you should be receiving money only as a seller, not paying a dime for anything else) then I'd say it'd be something to go through with as they're on the up and up.

Best case scenario, they pay you, you transfer it to your bank account, you give the guy your contact info and either their friend/family member comes by to pick it up, or they send an auto transport company to come pick it up. No matter what you should not have to pay money anywhere if this is a legit deal.

Another concern for me is that he buys the RV unseen and for some reason he is not happy because it's not what he thought he was buying etc.. It seems like he can dispute the purchase on Paypal and then gets very complicated possibly. The RV is well represented in the Craigslist description and in a separate email, I broke it down into more detail so I have been and as forward as I can be. I know it happens often but it's hard to understand why someone would make a semi large purchase without at least having a representative check it out prior.

I did send an email back to him asking about his mover etc. and needing more assurance that the deal was legit. That probably scared him off as he has not responded back

Don't do it because of this:

buys the RV unseen and for some reason he is not happy because it's not what he thought he was buying etc.. It seems like he can dispute the purchase on Paypal and then gets very complicated possibly.

Unless you have your whole paper trail, plenty of photos, and have him in writing saying condition won't matter etc etc, you'll probably lose to paypal. The buyer has a lot of power through them.

Who buys a used RV sight unseen? Even if it *seems* legit I would stay away from this one.

Hmm, this his last response
"Don't worry Pick up representative will come on my behalf after funds has been transferred to your paypal account and after you received your money cash in hand. "

Tell him to give the pick up representative the cash, then give that to you "Cash in hand."

I'd be super cautious. The seller's emails, when read as a whole, seem a bit off, language-wise. For example, virtually everyone I've ever met who was serving our country always told me they were "in" the military, not working "with" the military. I'd probably just walk away.

Gets better all the time. I have asked for a phone call next. Becoming sport now

"Don't worry Pick up representative will come on my behalf after funds has been transferred to your paypal account and after you received your money cash in hand. "

The lack of him wanting to talk to you on the phone on his own initiative strikes me as a red flag.

I ended the correspondence with this guy. Would not give me enough assurance of his legitimacy

If the money hits your account then the mover can collect. Paypal is great service, I would be concerned once the money has been delivered. Before then the mover can't take anything. Seems pretty simple and safe, all the other investigation work isn't necessary.

Another concern:
PayPal doesn't operate by the same laws as a brick & mortar banking institution and they are not governed. Once you sign the PayPal agreement PayPal can go into your bank account AT ANY time and deduct any deposits they made into your account for any reason.
So, the guys claims 6 months later that the item wasn't as described, PayPal can and often times will go into your account looong after you've forgot about the transaction and deduct those funds.
They'll hold those funds for 6+ months and good luck getting a hold of anyone at PayPal.
They don't even attempt to prove something went wrong with the transaction before they deduct the funds and you will find out via e-mail after they've been deducted. Their accusation is sufficient.

They do manage to handle thousands of transactions fairly well, but the ones that go sour are almost always large transactions leaving the recipient in trouble.
They do a fairly decent job of keeping the complaints out of the public eye, but if you do a search you will be absolutely shocked at what you read.

The only safe way is to open a PayPal only savings account separate/completely unconnected from your main account and as soon as the money hits withdraw it immediately and don't keep any funds in there. Give them access to nothing...

I've started car shopping (was rear ended on the freeway a few weeks back and my car totaled) and been looking at cars out of state. If I find one I like Paypal could be an option. Will be interesting to be a legit buyer via Paypal and see how the seller reacts.

I just got a 2nd offer for full price but this time from an " off shore oil worker" he just wanted my paypal email and he would send the funds. Just cant get my head around where the scam would go after the funds were delivered

Found this from a list on Craigs list scam using paypal. All makes sense now

1- They (the scammer) will send you a phony (but legitimate looking) email from Pay Pal indicating that the money has been sent but won’t be credited to your account until you email back the tracking number. This is complete BS because Pay Pal will NEVER asks for a tracking number before crediting you the money. If you log in to your real Pay Pal account (not some link in an email) and there is no money present and no copy of that email, then it’s obvious that there is no transaction, but how many people will go through this extra trouble?

2 – They send you an email from Pay Pal (again phony) saying that the money has been sent but you must click on the enclosed link to confirm the transaction. The link then takes you to a very real looking Pay Pal site where you enter your log in details and BAM, you just fell for an old fashioned phishing scam where the Craigslist scammer hacks your account and takes your money!

3 - The scammer pays you with a hacked Pay Pal account, (like from #2 above) the money goes in to your account, then once you send the item the real account holder reports the theft and Pay Pal
debits the money from your account. Now you have NO money and NO merchandise.

4 - The Craigslist scammer pays you with a real Pay Pal account and ask you to ship the merchandise to a different address. Once you do so and they have the merchandise in hand, they turn around and file a charge-back saying that they never received the item. It doesn’t matter if you have a copy of the delivery confirmation or an email from them asking you to send the merchandise to a different address. You have NO protection from Pay Pal if you ship anywhere other than the verified Pay Pal address – (scammers know this and are hoping you wont)

So basically always check your paypal from the actual site never click any links in a email.

I still don't understand what is so hard to wrap your head around with these? This scam is basically as old as the internet itself. Who buys a boat/rv sight unseen for full asking price over the dumbyweb? Lol