Is this a scam? I honestly cannot tell...

braddersthemod

Hi, its my first post here and Im hoping one of you experts can help me.
A couple of days ago I listed a bass guitar amp and two very large and heavy speaker cabinets for sale. I listed them on ebay, gumtree and shpock. I have sold through ebay and various sites since 2006, so Im not inexperienced, but recent events have left me scratching my head.
 Last night I recieved an offer on shpock of the full £500 asking price, which I accepted. But the offer also came with a message from the seller asking me to email them if the item was still availible as this was her late mothers shpock account. I thought that this was a little strange, but i figured I didnt have much to lose by sending an email. So I emailed the buyer confirming the item was still for sale if they were interested. I almost immediatly got this response.

"Great! please consider it sold and please cancel every other appointment regarding it as i am willing to pay your full asking price because i need to buy it for my cousin as a gift, i have read through the advert and I'm totally satisfied with it,sadly i would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and me being inwheelchair.I have a courier agent that would help me to pick it up at your preferred location after you have received your money and i'll pay you via PayPal.Where is the pick up location so that i can inform the courier agent about it now?. Meanwhile you can send me your PayPal email and registered name so that i can send the money right away and choose a good time for the pick up after payment has been received and also please confirm the exact amount i will need to pay in order to avoid mistake..."

I cant explain why but this immediatly set my scam senses tingling. Not to mention that Im not very keen on sending it via courrier. Its about the size of a desk and I have no way of packaging it. Plus due to the weight and size any courrier fees would be astronomical.

So i emailed back asking which courrier service they were planning on using and also explaining the difficluties in packaging them up and my concerns about damage to the items.

They replied with this...

"The courier will definitely take care of it perfectly. Send your PayPal account"

So I dont really know what to do at thia point. On one level the story seems plausable, but its so bizzare, and the wording of the emails so strange that im very suspiciouse about giving any more details away.
Any thoughts or advice would be welcome! Also, sorry about any bad spelling on my part, im typing on my phone and spelling is not my strong point!

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Scam ignore 

soolin

That is one of the most common scams going, just google some of the key words. I am surprised you haven't come across it before if you have been selling for a while.

Just ask yourself how are you going to comply with the paypal requirements to use a fully tracked online service that proves delivery to the address that paypal give you and you will see how the scam works.

braddersthemod

_shel said:

Scam ignore 

Thanks for replying! This is what im thinking too, but I just cant see what there is to be gained by it, or hiw it would even work. Unless its just a really convaluted way of phishing.

shaun_from_Africa

braddersthemod said:

_shel said:

Scam ignore 

Thanks for replying! This is what im thinking too, but I just cant see what there is to be gained by it, or hiw it would even work. Unless its just a really convaluted way of phishing.

The scam works in one of  3 ways, all of which see you losing the goods and money.

1/ In the unlikely event that the "buyer" has a genuine Paypal account, they send payment and arrange for a courier to collect the goods. They then open a dispute for goods not received and as you can't prove delivery, Paypal find in the buyers favour and take the money from your account. 

2/ The buyer has access to a hacked Paypal account and then proceeds as above.

3/ The most likely scenario.
You get a fake email that looks like it originated from Paypal but in reality, it came from the buyer/scammer.
It states that they have received full payment for the goods from your buyer and once the goods have been handed over to the courier, they will release the money into your account. The goods get handed over and that's the last you see of them.

This scam has been going on for years.
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Selling-on-your-website/Scam-on-Gumtree/td-p/1012769

soolin

braddersthemod said:

_shel said:

Scam ignore 

Thanks for replying! This is what im thinking too, but I just cant see what there is to be gained by it, or hiw it would even work. Unless its just a really convaluted way of phishing.

Shaun-from-Africa has explained it in depth, but I would ask again 'Just ask yourself how are you going to comply with the paypal requirements to use a fully tracked online service that proves delivery to the address that paypal give you and you will see how the scam works.'

braddersthemod

Thanks everyone for your replies! Its honestly the first time iv seen this particular scam, I guess iv just been lucky! Iv blocked and reported the buyer.

GabbaGabbaHey

The scam side of it has been well covered above, but just a note that the first warning sign should have been that the contact from the scammer was completely generic (i.e. it didn't mention the particular items being sold here - bass amp/cabs) and is obviously designed so that the wording can be used when responding to any For Sale advert.
I would also be a bit suspicious about somebody telling me that they are in a wheel chair and also have hearing loss. It's not the sort of information which those genuinely afflicted would tend to share in an initial email!

cymruchris

Any communication on any sales ad on any sales website that encourages you to connect via email outside of their secure messaging facility is most likely to be a scam. 

Spoonie_Turtle

GabbaGabbaHey said:

The scam side of it has been well covered above, but just a note that the first warning sign should have been that the contact from the scammer was completely generic (i.e. it didn't mention the particular items being sold here - bass amp/cabs) and is obviously designed so that the wording can be used when responding to any For Sale advert.
I would also be a bit suspicious about somebody telling me that they are in a wheel chair and also have hearing loss. It's not the sort of information which those genuinely afflicted would tend to share in an initial email!

And also not, in themselves, genuine barriers to either driving themselves to pick the things up or having someone accompany them if they needed help unloading the other end!

It always makes me laugh so much that people casually throw things like this in thinking it's so tragic and life-limiting that of course they wouldn't be able to do *anything* if this were genuinely their situation. (Can you hear my eyes rolling out of my skull yet?!)

in_the_Cotswolds

I had the same happen to me when I was selling iPhone and iPad. One person was so desperate for me to send the phone to them saying it was their right as it was a legal deal.  My reply was, as soon as the money is in MY Paypal account I will send it.  However you can always buy one from CEX etc that means you'll have to pay for it.  Funny thing was I didn't hear anything back.