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PAYPAL SCAM HELP!!!!

Hello everyone,

I haven't been on these forum very much (I'm Dutch, so I check out the Dutch forum more often), but I still wanted to warn you for the following:
About 2 weeks ago I sold my Lakland 44-01 with ChiSonics to a man in New Jersey.
He was talking about using paypal, so it seemed safe. Also his English was OK and he would pay me 820 Euro's including shipment costs.
A day later 'PayPal' e-mailed me that I received the 820 Euro's, but I wouldn't be able to use it untill I gave them the Track & Trace code from the shipment.
This sounded quite logical to me, so I send the bass to New Yersey and gave 'PayPal' the code.
A week later I got another e-mail from Aaron Martinez (the scammer) via 'PayPal', which you can see under this text (Don't mind the 'Robbert' he is my friend who helped me with PayPal, my name is Cas).
Remarkable was how his English turned from normal to bad.
Also he said 'The Lakland' or 'the bass' in his other mails, this time it was 'the goods'.

Hi Robbert

Good day to you,i was told by paypal you have shipped the goods but
was not given the tracking number which they told me they will send it
to me when its time to have it...

Secondly,i noticed an extra € 230.00 EUR was deduct from my accountt
after € 820.00 EUR was already deduct for the goods,i mail them to let
them know about this and they told me its an error..so they told me
the money will be refund back...pls do their wish so that i can have
my € 230.00 EUR back because i really need it to pay my daughter text
book in the college this week...

Thanks and Kindly reply me asap

Aaron
Next I got this mail from 'PayPal'
Dear Robbert *** ******,

Congratulations !!!!!Your Order has been dispatched for delivery into your PayPal Account address provided and this will be received in a couple of Minutes.We are very sorry for the late in Delivery.

But there is a problem about the payment sent to you, Our Accounting Department has made an error with your payment which means an extra funds was deducted from buyer account,we advise you to refund the money back to the buyer.

The deduction of € 1050.00 EUR has shown on the Buyer's Account instead of € 820.00 EUR and has been credited into your PayPal account but will not show on your account history for now.You are advised to send the money to the the buyer address below Via Western Union Money Transfer and settle this issue by refunding the sum of € 230.00 EUR before we transfer the total fund of € 1050.00 EUR into your PayPal account.


Name:Alvaro Carvajal
Address:78 park ave apartment 2a
City:Summit
state:New Jersey
Country:United States
Zip code:07901

We regret to inform you that the payment may not get to your PayPal account address until you settle this possible issue with your Buyer.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused you, because that is problem that we're going through since we have not credit your account and Aaron Martinez has contact Us about his Fund that was deducted from his account.

Thanks for your understanding.

Sincerely,

PayPal Team.
Here they're talking about WESTERN UNION, which is used by most scammers. Something was VERY wrong.
And last but not least:
Dear Robbert *** ******,

Congratulations !!!!!Your Order has been dispatched for delivery into your PayPal Account address provided and this will be received in a couple of Minutes.We are very sorry for the late in Delivery.

But there is a problem about the payment sent to you, Our Accounting Department has made an error with your payment which means an extra funds was deducted from buyer account,we advise you to refund the money back to the buyer.

The deduction of € 1050.00 EUR has shown on the Buyer's Account instead of € 820.00 EUR and has been credited into your PayPal account but will not show on your account history for now.You are advised to send the money to the the buyer address below Via Western Union Money Transfer and settle this issue by refunding the sum of € 230.00 EUR before we transfer the total fund of € 1050.00 EUR into your PayPal account.


Name:Alvaro Carvajal
Address:78 park ave apartment 2a
City:Summit
state:New Jersey
Country:United States
Zip code:07901

We regret to inform you that the payment may not get to your PayPal account address until you settle this possible issue with your Buyer.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused you, because that is problem that we're going through since we have not credit your account and Aaron Martinez has contact Us about his Fund that was deducted from his account.

Thanks for your understanding.

Sincerely,

PayPal Team.
That's just ******** (excuse me). What all started with normal e-mails in normal English, ended with this.

Robbert noticed that all the 'PayPal' mails came from the adress; [email protected]., usually this should be [email protected] (Notice that there's no dot behind the real PayPal adress: it should be just .com instead of .com. ). Several site's told us that this is done in many scam's.

I probably lost my bass, which means I lost my money
I've been busy all day trying to get the package back or the money, nothing seems to work.

I've called TNT, USPS, Summit's Post Office, Summit's Police Office...
If there's anyone on this forum who can help me, please!!:crying:
 
Sad story.

Whenever, I'm contacted about a problem from Paypal, or another online company and think it might be legit, I close the window (and email). Then, I enter Paypal.com in the (web) window to enter their site, normally.

I've never had a valid problem. The emails that I've received never have been legit. So, I'm very suspicious of potential bogus emails, and the people that may be behind them.
 
Yeah I contacted the police in Summit (where the bass is going), but they where very rude and wouldn't help me.
I haven't contacted the Dutch police yet, I've been very busy with other things to get the money or bass. I guess I'll do that tomorrow too.
 
Check your actual PayPal account, and see if the funds are there. If not contact the real PayPal and tell them whats going on and how they can assist you in resolving the scam properly.

Never click on an email through PayPal, it's probably a scam email. Always go to the PayPal webpage itself log in properly, and then check whats going on within your account. In fact I ignore all PayPal emails and always use the site directly. There's just too many PayPal scammers out there to know whats real or not via email.
 

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