I stupidly gave my address and have been daft

[Tevion28]

I am selling something on Gumtree for £600 that any potential buyer has to collect anyway somebody messaged me on Gumtree to say its very nice and that they want it. They then gave me thier email and asked me to message them on it. I messaged saying hi and they replied saying they want it and can they have my details including address in order to pick it up and pay by PayPal.
I gave all details and I then got a message from them saying they had paid the £600 plus an additional £100 but its pending in my account and won't be available to me until I've paid an amount via Amazon to the courier to collect it. I checked my PayPal it wasn't showing anything as pending but I got a PayPal notification which I found in my spam saying I have £700 pending. I have now ignored the buyer has I think they are up to something and I've had another email saying how can I be so heartless as if I don't follow through they can't get thier £700 back. I'm getting worried as I previously gave my address. I'm so bloody stupid.

[XelaM]

If they have paid, you can't cancel! Why is it "pending"?

[jedessine]

@XelaM

If they have paid, you can't cancel! Why is it "pending"?

They haven’t paid, it’s a phishing email trying to pass for Paypal.
Very very common scam on Gumtree and Marketplace

[HotToddyColdSauvignon]

Why did they send you an additional £100??

They can recall the payment surly. Trust your gut. Refuse the payment and sell to someone else

[NiceTwin]

Report to Gumtree.
In future do not correspond with them off the selling site, whichever site it might be.

[Sparklesocks]

Anyone who ever wants you to come off the app/site to message them and mentions a courier you need to pay is a scammer. In future never go off gumtree messages or accept anyone who offers to pay more with a courier.
They’re very unlikely to do anything with your address - they just want your cash via their fake link. Block them, report to gumtree and file it under experience.

[NiceTwin]

@HotToddyColdSauvignon it is a scam.
They claim to have sent more money than the item to pay for a courier. They don't want the item, there is no money, they are hoping the vendor is not savvy to the scam.

[Applebrewsterstea]

Scam scam scam.
Had something very similar. Report it.

[lapasion]

Glad you trusted your gut. As an aside, never accept PayPal for an item that’s being collected. You have no proof the item was given to the buyer so they can do a chargeback.

[3wisepigeons]

It's a known scam. Do not give them any money

[Bogeyes]

It's a common scam.

[Tevion28]

Just hope they don't start harassing me

[Sparklesocks]

Block their address on your email. They’ll most likely want to channel their energy into finding new victims rather than harassing those who have sussed them.

[Tevion28]

It says on the PayPal notification that it can't be reversed and £100 needs paying by amazon gift card or bank transfer never seen this type of scam before.

[jedessine]

@Tevion28

Just hope they don't start harassing me

Don’t worry I’m sure it’ll be fine xx
Next part of the scam was probably going to ask you to reimburse the 100 pound extra or ship the item or smtgh
They might not even live in the UK

[jedessine]

@Tevion28

It says on the PayPal notification that it can't be reversed and £100 needs paying by amazon gift card or bank transfer never seen this type of scam before.

Here exactly! They don’t want to come pick it up, the plan for the scan was for you to send money so I wouldn’t worry about being harassed at all x
Good call on recognising the scam

[Tevion28]

Said they can't pick it up themselves as they are in a wheelchair and now I've give them nothing but regret.

[Crunchysnap]

I sell a lot on PayPal and as a previous poster has said this is a phishing scam. They have your email so have sent a fake payment email to you (hence why it has ended up in your scam). Check the email that it came from, then google it. I bet it is not an official PayPal email.

Do not pay anything. Just ignore it. 100% a scam.

[Tevion28]

I have a feeling they might be foreign something about thier wording

[Sparklesocks]

It’ll most likely be a fake PayPal email made to look legit. If you look at the address it came from it’ll probably look a bit off. Also when you think about it - why would Amazon provide courier services? Let alone via gift card payment. They’re a retailer - they courier their own products or third party sellers’ products via their site, you can’t hire them to courier personal/non Amazon items for you like gumtree transactions. But it’s easy to get sucked in - the scammers do it because lots of people get caught out.

[Tevion28]

Try all they want but there is no way I would send £100 without seeing the money available in my account.

[Tevion28]

Has a matter of fact I wouldn't conduct any sale that way its gonna be collection only paid in cash.

[alexdgr8]

i've seen something similar happen on freecycle.
say someone asks for a wind-up gramaphone.
not surprisingly there are no offers.
then after a little while someone replies saying, sorry they have only just seen your request as they have been busy clearing out their late aunt's house, had to move a whole lot of stuff quickly, and there was actually an unwanted gramaphone. they've had to ship it to their distant house but can get it back to you for a small courier fee.
of course, it is a complete fiction just to get you to send them money, which is forbidden on freecycle.
people can be taken in, esp if they are helpful, decent people themselves.
beware. forewarned is forearmed.

[WorstXmasEver]

Scam.

[SoonbeSpringtime]

This scam dates back several years. It’s all over the PayPal community forum and many others too.

[MenaiMna]

Screenshot the email and report it to PayPal through the app. Say to PayPal hat you will not accept attempts at payment from this person in case they try to "prove" they're real by doing a phone id. Just keep it listed and sell to someone legit for cash. This is definitely a scam and it's only ever happened (and rejected by me) when doing high value items on Gumtree. Anyone who tries to overpay for a partial refund is up to no good.