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.

[Chickychoccyegg]

This is a very well known scam op, I hope you've stopped worrying about it.
Please never click onto those dodgy links, only ever log into your own account through official channels (putting PayPal into Google search bar and logging in for example).
I'm sure you must have googled this scam by now anyway

[Jedsnewstar]

I have passed your details onto the fraud department in the police. You won’t hear from them again.

[GloriaSicTransitMundi]

Their mistake was saying they’ve sent you an extra £100 - literally no one would do that

I used to rent out a holiday home - got several people booking a stay then emailing saying they had a large company cheque for well over the booking amount. Wanted me to deposit to my bank and send them the difference. Yeah right not falling for that one! After the first time I'd immediately unblock the booking calendar and forward their email to [email protected] and not bother to reply to them.

@Tevion28 read more from the national crime centre here:

www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phishing-scams

[JaneJeffer]

Never go into your PayPal through a link from an email. Log into the site properly.

Them saying they've overpaid and want you to refund the difference with a gift card is a well known scam.

[QuinnMovesOn]

Oh, user313213521 raised an excellent point... any email you receive that looks like it comes from Paypal, just click "forward" in your mail program, it'll let you see the full address that was used to sent the email. While it's possible to spoof the sending address, most scammers don't bother. So it'll look something like like [email protected]

[Jedsnewstar]

Them saying they've overpaid and want you to refund the difference with a gift card is a well known scam.

It’s not even a new scam. I worked for a bank 20 years ago and it was done where a cheque was in some cases double the amount needed. Once the difference was paid to the scammer they would cancel the cheque.

[cookie4640]

Hubby has fallen victim to this very scam today and then received death threats and a picture of a foreigner brandishing knives and they’re going to come to our house and kill us but won’t tell us when. Bloody inconvenient that we don’t know when to expect them 🙄 oh is worried, I am not.

[TruJay]

My sister’s boyfriend had this TWICE when selling his car recently on eBay. It’s a scam, just ignore. They had their address too to come and collect the car but they never showed up harassing them when they ignored the PayPal request. I assume they just moved on to another potential victim. Bloody disgusting.

[Wildyone]

It's a scam fgs...block and report to Action Fraud. Never give put your address again.

[Suzanne999]

It’s a scam. the gift card scam is well documented online.
Ignore it. They’re probably not in UK.
Report to Gumtree.

[incywincyspidery]

I get a regular scam on facebook marketplace, where I advertise a lot of our stock that we sell on eBay.
The scam goes like this:
Customer messages and asks if item is available (usually within the first hour of listing). I reply that it is.
Customer asks no more questions, just immediately says they'll take the item (which in itself is unusual).
They say they will send a courier (usually UPS but sometimes another major courier) to deliver the money for the item and then will send a different courier to collect the item.
So the first time it happens you're thinking you know there's a scam coming but can't work out what it's going to be.
Then it comes.
They say they all they need you to do is pay the insurance for the courier- but not to worry because they'll send extra money to cover that.

To me it's obvious from the start that it's a scam but I get people trying it over and over again so people must be falling for it. Never the same Facebook account so I don't know if accounts are hacked or if the scammers have lots of accounts. I report it each time but it's still going strong.

[Maggiejardine]

There’s a warning about it on the Gumtree site as well I think, known scam. As soon as anyone mentions courier I’m suspicious

[Eightiesfan]

I wouldn’t worry about them knocking on your door OP as they are probably not even in this country.

[Kelly7889]

I've heard about this one before. It's a scam. And please - do not tell anyone your address - ANYONE - unless you have to.

[Tevion28]

Thanks for input all

[tkwal]

Scam. Bigtime. Speak to the police if you're worried about them having your address

[dragonflygirl1]

Just log into PayPal and you'll see what genuinely what. The email is likely to be fake, as has been mentioned. They also have an email address you can forward scam emails to. I had a similar scammer a few years ago and it just wasted so much time, aside from anything else. They asked for money to be sent to a person in Paris. By coincidence, I was going to Paris with my daughter the next day and so I asked for the address, saying I could drop the money off in person. Funnily enough, they lost interest!

[Mrschristmasqueen]

I used to work for the police and this is very common. If you ever sell anything for collection it is cash on collection only. If they do PayPal you (and this one clearly hasn't so slightly different!) the turn up to collect you have no proof of postage so they will request a refund from PayPal. So you have no item and no money.
Is the item a pram by any chance? Happens a lot and they are nearly always in a wheelchair. Someone once tried it with me. I said I would arrange my own courier when the funds cleared and asked for delivery address. Didn't hear back from them.

[zzzink]

There's some great advice here about reporting and changing passwords, spotting scam emails.

Just to add, if you've used a similar password elsewhere with that particular email address. I'd advise you to change these also.

And, even though it's a ballache - use multifactor .... everywhere! (Don't make the scumbags job easy!!)

[ThistleTits]

@Tevion28

Just hope they don't start harassing me

Just block and report. They're likely no where near your location, I wouldn't worry.

[trumpisagit]

I agree, block, report, forget about it

[Mandyjack]

Why have you got to pay money to Amazon? If they want a courier that's down to them to arrange and pay. I don't give out my address until I'm fairly certain they are a genuine buyer. Refund the money via PayPal if its showing if the account

[Ringsender2]

@Tevion28

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

you were answering to yourself but forgot to name change OP!

a useful public information thread, but a bit disingenuous

[Ringsender2]

@Tevion28

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

and here

[Caughtavibe]

@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.

Forward it to [email protected]

I get quite a few fake emails after DM was hacked 🙄