Almost fell for a scam...
Advertised a 2 seater couch for sale on Marketplace for $450 and received an offer immediately. The payment options seemed doggy so I asked them to call my mobile. They then cut all contact! Below are the two emails I was sent by a doggy paypal address.....
Payment Notification <[email protected]>
To: (name inserted)
Thu, 26 Jan at 12:35 pm
Dear (name inserted)
IMPORTANT NOTICE: READ CAREFULLY THE BELOW MESSAGES AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN SO WE CAN FINALLY PROCESS YOUR PAYMENT WITHOUT ANY FURTHER DELAY.
We are really sorry for the late response. We encountered a little problem while crediting your PayPal account, you have a pending payment of $450.00 AUD but we have a problem crediting your PayPal account with that amount because your account is not a premium business account, your PayPal account has a small limit of an amount that can be deposited into it therefore you are required to quickly expand the limits of your PayPal account to enable your account to have a fund maximum limits.
You can take this few steps to expand your limit:
Contact the last payer of your account (Annarita) to send in an additional payment of $850.00 AUD so that your account limit can be expanded, as soon as this is done, we will credit the total amount of $1,300.00 AUD into your account immediately without any further delay.
Note: An alert has also been sent to (Annarita) regarding the $850.00 USD additional payment he has to send to you, we will secure this transaction with high priority so that neither the buyer nor the seller will lose their funds in this transaction.
Sincerely,
paypal
Payment Notification <[email protected]>
To:a
Thu, 26 Jan at 12:53 pm
Dear A
You’ve received an additional payment of $850.00 AUD from Annarita.
Congratulations!!!!! Your PayPal account has been upgraded to a business account.
You’ve received additional payment of $850.00 AUD from (Annarita) and your account will be fully credited with the total sum of $1,300.00 AUD
Your funds are now safe with us and for buyer's safety, the additional payment has to be refunded FIRST for your account to be fully credited with the total sum of $1,300.00 AUD Annarita has chosen to be refunded the sum of $850.00 AUD through Osko Pay option
Final steps to follow:
1. Get your Bank account ready.
2. Collect the bank details from the buyer
3. Send the total sum of $850.00 AUD to the given bank account.
4. You are required to send us an email with clear proof that the refund has been effected through Osko Pay
IMPORTANT NOTE: YOUR FUNDS HAS BEEN APPROVED AND SECURED SO YOU ARE TO CARRY ON WITH THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN ABOVE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT TO BE FULLY CREDITED WITH THE TOTAL SUM OF $1,300.00 AUD
Sincerely,
Paypal®