Scammer contacted me via forum beware

Hattigol

A guy I knew years ago used to use crisp packets as condoms.

I think he was colloquially known as Russell Moore....

blueskunk

What a cyunt

Mike58

Scammers... Persue them , find them, then use your special skills
recommend deeper grave than normal.

hotpickups

I’ll certainly be aware in future thanks to this listing albeit I don’t use eBay much tbh. 

One question though, so PayPal doesn’t release funds unless it knows the item been delivered / received? Hence why he asked for the received button to be clicked? 

bananaman

There are various methods of paying by paypal, some of which give more protection than others. By far the simplest belt and braces way to protect yourself with a distance seller is to ask them to make a 'buy it now' ebay listing and send you the link. Ebay often has '£1 selling fee' offers on, so it shouldn't cost them the earth to do it. Then you get both ebay and paypal protection.  Reporting people to action fraud is a complete waste of time. They are up to their eyeballs. I know a lady who got scammed for ten grand (!!!!), was able to supply loads of details (scammers bank account etc., which branch he was going into and so on) and they did absolutely bugger all. So I'd imagine that when a report comes in for a couple of hundred quid fraud, they simply press the 'delete' key and go back to eating their doughnuts!

Sammy

K33EU said:

in his defence he may not be scamming you. I have had many problems with paypal releasing funds / putting funds on hold that in one case took THREE MONTHS for them to release it to me. In fact, despite my platinum ebay/paypal status they put funds on hold more often than not. They have used a myriad of excuses so they can to hold on to money for as long as they can. I assume this is to benefit them with liquidity.  I specifically will not ever use Paypal again unless its vital for this and a whole host of other reasons too numerous to mention. In short most times i find its paypal that are the scammers... 

He was probably scamming you, but agree with K33EU, Paypal aren't regulated like a bank so can take as long as they want and do what they want with you money! If you check out about paypal withholding peoples monies there are thousands of people complaining about this in the USA where paypal originate from, many having their business accounts suspended, having done nothing wrong at all!   I had so much problem with paypal where I bought some fence panels for my partner, in that they said I was a trader and wanted my business account details, which I don't have as I am not a trader never have been, and would not release my own monies until I supplied them with details of my non exisitant business account! I have reams of emails going back and forth to complete idiots at paypal who haven't got a clue and just kept repeating the same questions. They wouldn't even let me close my account and have my own monies returned which were sitting in there. The only way I finally got them to release my  monies was that, as I had already threatened them and they took no notice, I told them I had had enough and was going to take them to the small claims court and would get as much bad publicity at the same time as I could for paypal, when I won the action against them. Within three hours I recieved an email from paypal advising that the suspension had been lifted and thanking me for my patience in the investigation! I subsequently got my monies out of paypal and closed the account and would never ever use them again.  As I mentioned above Paypal are not regulated like a bank, which is ludicrous as they are handling millions of money transactions. I was going to send all the info to my MP, but it was at the start of Covid, so obviously other priorities came first. May still do at a later stage, as paypal as K33EU said, are the scammers, as they are retaining peoples monies under false pretences!

kelpbeds

Quick update, Paypal refunded me very quickly after it passed the date I could report it to them. Was very impressed with them and very glad I took the insurance!

DuncMan

Sammy said:

K33EU said:

in his defence he may not be scamming you. I have had many problems with paypal releasing funds / putting funds on hold that in one case took THREE MONTHS for them to release it to me. In fact, despite my platinum ebay/paypal status they put funds on hold more often than not. They have used a myriad of excuses so they can to hold on to money for as long as they can. I assume this is to benefit them with liquidity.  I specifically will not ever use Paypal again unless its vital for this and a whole host of other reasons too numerous to mention. In short most times i find its paypal that are the scammers... 

He was probably scamming you, but agree with K33EU, Paypal aren't regulated like a bank so can take as long as they want and do what they want with you money! If you check out about paypal withholding peoples monies there are thousands of people complaining about this in the USA where paypal originate from, many having their business accounts suspended, having done nothing wrong at all!   I had so much problem with paypal where I bought some fence panels for my partner, in that they said I was a trader and wanted my business account details, which I don't have as I am not a trader never have been, and would not release my own monies until I supplied them with details of my non exisitant business account! I have reams of emails going back and forth to complete idiots at paypal who haven't got a clue and just kept repeating the same questions. They wouldn't even let me close my account and have my own monies returned which were sitting in there. The only way I finally got them to release my  monies was that, as I had already threatened them and they took no notice, I told them I had had enough and was going to take them to the small claims court and would get as much bad publicity at the same time as I could for paypal, when I won the action against them. Within three hours I recieved an email from paypal advising that the suspension had been lifted and thanking me for my patience in the investigation! I subsequently got my monies out of paypal and closed the account and would never ever use them again.  As I mentioned above Paypal are not regulated like a bank, which is ludicrous as they are handling millions of money transactions. I was going to send all the info to my MP, but it was at the start of Covid, so obviously other priorities came first. May still do at a later stage, as paypal as K33EU said, are the scammers, as they are retaining peoples monies under false pretences!

They did something similar to me years ago. Haven't had any trouble with them since but they can certainly be a law unto themselves at times.

Ché

Two things about PayPal from my own experience which might be helpful.

if your PayPal isn’t linked to your bank account or verified in some way, you aren’t able to issue refunds if the money is no longer in your PayPal account. I had the hassle having to go the whole process for a few days before I could issue the buyer a refund. 

Another issue with not having your bank account linked or verified is the amount of money coming and going through your account. If you are selling a lot and a large amount of money comes into your account, PayPal can withhold it from you until the account is verified. 

This guy sounds like a definite scammer but the issues he describes do and can occur. 

Spikeedog

What's the alternative to using Paypal?

Barnezy

It might not be a scam. If he's not familiar with PayPal, he might think you're trying to scam him. 

You need to tell him to put the tracking details in PayPal and when the item is delivered the funds will clear. 

If I didn't know how to use it and saw that the funds were held until the item is shipped, I'd be concerned about shipping too. 

Roland

This is still going on. Simba9 has been ousted after he joined up to PM the 24 most recent WTBs with versions of:
” Have you checked with Tom via instantholmes@ outlook.com,he has a ........... he wants to part with”

ditchboy

Yep I was one of the wtb who was targeted by Simba09. Be careful. 

kelpbeds

'holmes' rings a bell, pretty sure that was the name of the guy that tried to scam me.

Mototech

Roland said:

This is still going on. Simba9 has been ousted after he joined up to PM the 24 most recent WTBs with versions of:
” Have you checked with Tom via instantholmes@ outlook.com,he has a ........... he wants to part with”

I got one of these also.

guitarjack66

Was Simba the Lyin' King?

Toneseeker

Posted my Gibson Hummingbird on Gumtree and getting lots of scam attempts.

fretmeister

Toneseeker said:

Posted my Gibson Hummingbird on Gumtree and getting lots of scam attempts.

Watermark the photos or put a bit of paper in each photo with your Gumtree ID on it - in a way that it can't be cropped out.

Roland

... and another one: “Have you checked with Tash via toh262626@ outlook.com has an ********** he wants to part with”. 

They come in as comments on WTB threads, and they come as private messages. If you receive a similar message then please let me know.

BeardyAndy

Roland said:

... and another one: “Have you checked with Tash via toh262626@ outlook.com has an ********** he wants to part with”. 

They come in as comments on WTB threads, and they come as private messages. If you receive a similar message then please let me know.

I had this one. Replied on here politely asking if “Tash” was also based in the US? No answer.