Internet Scam: PayPal Purchase

This scam is really prevalent and easy to fall for when you are working fast and multitasking in processing your orders. The lesson here is SLOW DOWN and make sure everything has been thoroughly checked out. The scammer is counting on people not double checking the truth of the matter.

This scam is used in all ways paypal transactions are used - on eBay, on Etsy, Craigslist, your website - any place you are accepting paypal payments. The scammers are typically targeting high ticket items and things like electronics. iphones is a favorite one, but you can see this scam being used for just about anything the scammer wants.

Here is how this particular scam works:

The scammer pretends to buy something from you saying they will make their payment through PayPal.

The scammer waits a little and then sends a bogus email looking like it came from the paypal system saying the funds will be deposited into the account once a shipping tracking reference number is provided. But it is a bogus email and no money will be deposited and if the seller is not paying attention, they go ahead and ship out the product. Some scammers set up a bogus paypal page and provide a link in the email to click and enter the shipping reference number (and they get an extra opportunity to trick you into logging in with your paypal login and then they get access to your account and money) - other scammers are lazy and don't provide anything, figuring their scam is already complete because you've already shipped out the product.

This is slimy and successful because eBay has that whole annoying wait period to have your funds accessible while you have to enter shipping tracking numbers to prove you shipped within a certain period of time. The money HAS been deposited but they have a hold on accessing it (I never did feel that was somehow legal or right to do, given paypal is collecting the interest on the money in that hold). So the scammer is exploiting the confusion of that policy and sending a fake email saying the money is not being held but will be deposited when a tracking reference number is provided.

So many sellers falling for this scam.

You just have to get yourself into the habit of slowing down and taking the time to manually log into paypal yourself (don't click on any link in an email) and do not ship anything until you see that paypal has deposited the money in your account - whether they have a hold on it or not.