Car Sales failure -- Paypal Fraud
Beware of Scams:
It started when my mom received a text message, the day she put up a Car sales ad on a website. The guy by the name: 'Glen Wood' did not bother to ring us up and insist to do email communication. He wanted to pay by Paypal, but my dad didn't have one, so I helped sign him up for an account. To our surprise; Glen wanted to purchase the car, without even examining it and said his 'agent' would pick it up by tomorrow. [Suspicion no.1] So we proceeded to go through the Paypal process and agreed that he would pay 1900,000 for a front payment. We were so excited that our car was going to be sold so quickly... but that happiness slowly faded.
His emails came in lightning fast. But it got more stranger, he claimed he was unable to use his credit card to pay.. and he quickly replied that he apparently did not own one. [Suspicion no.2] Even though we suggest he should ask a colleague or friend to lend their card, he ignored the questions. Why would someone who was buying something expensive like a car, not own any credit card? Worse, He had the impression that my Dad was new to Paypal, trying to work that to his advantage. He skipped every question we asked and kept insisting to follow his instructions.
Then another email came - labelled 'Paypal payment was sent' but something was wrong:
Not a cent of payment show up in my dad's account. It stated as ZERO currency for almost 1hr, so we rechecked the Paypal email and it said that the payment was 'on hold'(?!) and we had to transfer $950 through Western Union -> to a China address. [Suspicion no.3] My mom grew suspicious, questioning why we were told to pay a payment before any cash was in our account? Instead, we message him back saying he HAS to pay that amount; $950 (without hold) but he ignored that question.
This was getting very suspicious!
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My mom started to guess that this was starting to sound like a scam. My dad quickly rang up Paypal where a nice staff explained/confirmed that there was no transaction that occur and that Transaction #ID was invalid. The scamming was confirmed, Paypal would NEVER put any cash on hold nor would make customers have to transfer extra money separately away from Paypal.
Resolution: We have kept most of the 'Glen Wood' emails and reported it to Paypal and the authority. We hope that an investigation is on it's way and they can catch this con man. The mobile number was also 'uncontactable'- it wasn't even within Australia. We suspect it might be a group in China somewhere.
It was a rather shocking experience. Now I make sure that all my transfer (whether I'm buying or selling) money has to show up in my account. If I am buying from a person, I will only pay upfront where I can meet them and see the item before I pay.
Warning to anyone else who are online buyers.
It started when my mom received a text message, the day she put up a Car sales ad on a website. The guy by the name: 'Glen Wood' did not bother to ring us up and insist to do email communication. He wanted to pay by Paypal, but my dad didn't have one, so I helped sign him up for an account. To our surprise; Glen wanted to purchase the car, without even examining it and said his 'agent' would pick it up by tomorrow. [Suspicion no.1] So we proceeded to go through the Paypal process and agreed that he would pay 1900,000 for a front payment. We were so excited that our car was going to be sold so quickly... but that happiness slowly faded.
His emails came in lightning fast. But it got more stranger, he claimed he was unable to use his credit card to pay.. and he quickly replied that he apparently did not own one. [Suspicion no.2] Even though we suggest he should ask a colleague or friend to lend their card, he ignored the questions. Why would someone who was buying something expensive like a car, not own any credit card? Worse, He had the impression that my Dad was new to Paypal, trying to work that to his advantage. He skipped every question we asked and kept insisting to follow his instructions.
Then another email came - labelled 'Paypal payment was sent' but something was wrong:
Not a cent of payment show up in my dad's account. It stated as ZERO currency for almost 1hr, so we rechecked the Paypal email and it said that the payment was 'on hold'(?!) and we had to transfer $950 through Western Union -> to a China address. [Suspicion no.3] My mom grew suspicious, questioning why we were told to pay a payment before any cash was in our account? Instead, we message him back saying he HAS to pay that amount; $950 (without hold) but he ignored that question.
This was getting very suspicious!
********
My mom started to guess that this was starting to sound like a scam. My dad quickly rang up Paypal where a nice staff explained/confirmed that there was no transaction that occur and that Transaction #ID was invalid. The scamming was confirmed, Paypal would NEVER put any cash on hold nor would make customers have to transfer extra money separately away from Paypal.
Resolution: We have kept most of the 'Glen Wood' emails and reported it to Paypal and the authority. We hope that an investigation is on it's way and they can catch this con man. The mobile number was also 'uncontactable'- it wasn't even within Australia. We suspect it might be a group in China somewhere.
It was a rather shocking experience. Now I make sure that all my transfer (whether I'm buying or selling) money has to show up in my account. If I am buying from a person, I will only pay upfront where I can meet them and see the item before I pay.
Warning to anyone else who are online buyers.