Can Paypal hold my money?

shahidemran

HI, Just sold my item on Ebay yesterday to some one in Nigeria, I recieved an email from Paypal that they are holding my money untill I send them the Tracking Number, It is not showing any balance in my Paypal account. Shall I ship the item and send Tracking number? Is it safe? Please advise ASAP

zincoxide

WOAH!!! You are being scammed!!

Do not allow this transaction to proceed or else you will lose the money and the product you are sending. Do a search on this forum and you will see hundreds or threads dedicated to paypal & ebay fraud, almost all of which originates in Nigeria.

zincoxide

The email you received is most probably NOT from paypal, it is from the scam artists themselves. I've been looking but cannot find a good thread for you to read.

Usually what happens, is you send the goods then find that the person has never actually paid or has paid with a stolen credit card or stolen paypal account therefor you suffer a chargeback and weeks where your paypal account will be frozen from use.

Cancel the transaction straight away to avoid suffering any losses, send the email you received from paypal to spoof@paypal.com (I think, someone else may know better) and also contact the eBay fraud dept to let them know.

Above all else, do NOT trust whatever your buyer says, just make sure you DO NOT complete the sale. We are all here to help should you have more questions.

masonic

As zincoxide says, this is a scam. Paypal will never do this. Ignore the e-mail and file an unpaid item dispute against the "buyer".

tigermatt

Here is the page on the PayPal site linked to the phishing email https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/general/SecuritySpoof-outside - it has the email address to forward the message to. (spoof@paypal.com)

Also, open up an "Unpaid Item Dispute" on eBay, and check out their Phishing Email guide: http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/. (Might be a good idea to forward the message to eBay as well, and say you opened an unpaid item dispute - spoof@ebay.com.

Do any of my links not work? If so, please PM me and let me know.

shahidemran

Hmmm Thanks Mates, I really appriciate your cooperation, here is the header of email which APPARENTLY recieved from Paypal

From: "service@intl. paypal.customer" <paypal_online@mail.usa.com>
To: ?????@hotmail.com
Subject: PayPal PaymentTransaction Reciept ID Number 6D694274EY338930K
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 04:14:34 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Originating-IP: 66.178.40.2
Received: from webmail-outgoing.us4.outblaze.com ([205.158.62.67]) by mc3-f20.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.211); Mon, 14 Nov 2005 01:15:37 -0800
Received: from unknown (unknown [192.168.9.180])by webmail-outgoing.us4.outblaze.com (Postfix) with QMQP id F10A418001B1for <?????@hotmail.com>; Mon, 14 Nov 2005 09:14:36 +0000 (GMT)
Received: by ws3-2.us4.outblaze.com (Postfix, from userid 1001)id BA9FBCE301; Mon, 14 Nov 2005 09:14:35 +0000 (GMT)
Received: from [66.178.40.2] by ws3-2.us4.outblaze.com with http for paypal_online@mail.usa.com; Mon, 14 Nov 2005 04:14:34 -0500

So the sender is Received: from webmail-outgoing.us4.outblaze.com so the email sender is sending email from outblaze.com, not from paypal....Intresting & intellegent.
Anyway I forwarded that mail to spoof@paypal.com with full headers. Thanks again mates.

masonic

shahidemran wrote:

Hmmm Thanks Mates, I really appriciate your cooperation, here is the header of email which APPARENTLY recieved by Paypal

Looks like you've got a few people to send complaints to, then. BTW, you can't leave all that personal info in your post. Best scrub out the email and IP addresses at least.

shahidemran

masonic wrote:

Looks like you've got a few people to send complaints to, then. BTW, you can't leave all that personal info in your post. Best scrub out the email and IP addresses at least.

Sorry mates, Sorted

tigermatt

shahidemran wrote:

Sorry mates, Sorted

Good Good!

cougar_3

Did you click through their email to get to their 'paypal' and if so, did it ask you for any personal details - password, bank details etc. when you say it is not showing any balance in my paypal account = did you get to your paypal account through paypal.com or through the email

If you entered any details through the email, change your password at the very least. I would also suggest that you run a virus scan and preferably adaware or some other anti-spyware program.

angelcake

sooooooo glad you asked on here first!!! PHEW