I’m selling a bike; it’s been advertised on a couple of forums including STW. I’ve had a couple of emails from a guy that have something strange about them, something tells me to be cautious. I’ve now had the following email:

“Andrew
have just made the payments now and i expect paypal to have emailed you by now ,check your paypal email address INBOX/SPAM/JUNK if you have been messaged yet,i sent £2,320.00 in all, paypal said they would be holding the funds because of the excess payments of £700 added meant for transportation of the bike and due to the fact that i emailed them about the excess payment i made,until they get the western union information from you,the bike is being delivered to my Son in Australia in Queensland, i will need you to send the £650 to my pick up agent Headquarters via western union money transfer(this can be done from the post office, as they usually have a western union agent there),i added extra £50 to cover the western union charges which shouldn’t be more that £50-50 but just to be sure i added £50, Here is my transporter agent Headquarter info needed to get the money sent through western union money transfer:

AGENT INFO TO TRANSFER THE FUNDS
Name:Thomas Moseley
Address:Viale europa 45
Aversa 81031
Napoli
Italy.

Please kindly email the necessary details to paypal :the mtcn which you will be given at the western union after the £650 has been sent as well as the sender’s name and address used to send the money through western union used in sending the £650 so i can forward it to paypal or better still you can email it to paypal directly,that is fine with me as well for the money i sent to be credited into your account after they might have receive the information they needed to release the whole money in your account..And i will need you to send me your home address and mobile number in full so that i can forward it to the agent to know where the bike will be collected.
Cheers”

Am I being scammed? There is no money in my Pay Pal account despite having had a reasonably official email from PP saying that funds have been received but are on hold. I will email PP to see what they say.

Any thoughts?

Yes, you are being scammed.

Yes

Western Union?

Why is that even mentioned if he used PayPal?

What’s the SMTP details on the ‘PayPal’ email?

Please send me £650 in cash I have sent you an email that says I have sent you £3220.

What is likely to happen is…

You send the £650, the other money disappears from your PayPal account. If you have posted your bike, that will be gone too.

It’s pretty obvious really isn’t it. Thought I’d ask.

Thanks.

Tell him that he can make some money if he helps you out. Tell him that you have several millions dollars trapped in a Nigerian bank account…

You had to ask? Thats the worrying part.

Hang on hang on…
Let’s not jump to negative conclusions here…

He seems keen to buy (as he’s already sent MORE than enough money for the bike)
He sees kind and genuine – it’s a gift for his son FFS.
More so, he lives in Italy, and his son lives down under – I mean, what a kind father.
All this suggests English isn’t his forst language, hence the long and overly descriptive email.

TBH, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt, be glad your bike is sold, and get transferring the £650 to him…

DrP

At this point I’d normally be saying “if you have to ask ‘is this a scam’ then yes, it’s a scam.” However, this couldn’t be more blatantly scammy if it read, “Hi, this is a scam. Please send me free money. Yours, Scammy McScammington, 27 Scam Plaza, Scammersdale.”

Specifically, it’s an advance fee fraud. They pay you, you pay them, they reverse the transaction, you cannot.

Anything that mentions western union and unnecassary details that I don’t give a shit about if i am selling a bike. I would walk away.

“if you have been messaged yet”

“Please kindly email”

Nigerians, eh? They can’t avoid using those little telltale expressions and phrases.

100% certain it’s a scam. Tell him you are not some kind of oyigbo mugu.

Sorry, I missed this.

There is no money in my Pay Pal account despite having had a reasonably official email from PP saying that funds have been received but are on hold.

It’s inordinately easy to send you a forged mail which looks like it came from Paypal, doubly so if they already have your details and can go “Dear Andrew…”

Blimey that’s like late 1980’s skill levels of early internet scamming.
Even Western Union. Even the average Nigerian that’s graduated from scamming kindergarten would put together something more realistic.

Run away faster than a Jamaican 100m athlete on banned substances.

edit: or post it up on a 419 baiters forum. and have some fun 🙂

Does anyone want to buy a bike?

Ive just found your potential buyer doing his day job….

Here

i will need you to send the £650

I would consider sending him exactly six hundred and fifty monopoly pounds.

Oh wait, no I wouldn’t. He might get an email suggesting rapidly doing one. If he was lucky. Or return him a copy of some other 419 style scam.

lol – this is a wind up right?

Why not say you need him to cover the costs associated with the 650, and ask him to paypal gift you £65 to cover the 10% fees….

or ask him for a tattoo … http://www.419eater.com/

LOL@ Scammy McScammington, 27 Scam Plaza, Scammersdale.

I’d be all for winding him up a little bit as well, you could reply pretending to be really stupid and ask questions about his explained process ‘but what happens then?, but what if you’re a scammer?’ and just drag it out for a laugh, include some innane nonsense about the lovely weather and austraila or something.

I wonder idly whether the £650 is to make the transaction come alive?

Does anyone want to buy a bike?

I’ll buy it. Paypal gift?

Cougar – your contributions to this thread have brought a happy tear to my eye. 😀

I got a letter yesterday telling me I’d won the £125000 on the European postcode lottery, all I have to do is pay some money to their agent in that London to release the funds and they’ll pay me my winnings ASAP.. 😀
Yours sounds like a scam though..

I’d have stopped reading at “Western Union”….