Paypal help!!

DH and I recently sold an item over Craigslist. I received the following email from Paypal:



Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.

Dear (our email address)

You received an email from PayPal company. You have got funds of $350.00USD pending to be credited to your account for goods bought. There was a transfer of funds from (person we sold the item to) and the fund is pending to be transferred to your account. So as soon as we receive a Shipping Tracking Number from you via email, your account will be credited immediately.


Below is the verified shipping Information:
(shipping information; it's an international address)


I'm not 100% sold on having to ship this electronic item without actually having received the payment (and wouldn't be able to afford to ship it until Thursday anyway). It is NOT showing up in my Paypal account as a pending transaction at all which seems a little "off" to me. Does this sound fishy to anyone else?!

Advice?! Help?! I've never sold anything before, only have used Paypal to purchase things and DH has never used Paypal.

I would call paypal directly and ask them, they usually have 24 hour customer service and they will let you know. There ARE plenty of phishing and fake ones out there, but general rule of thumb is "If it isen't in your paypal balance it aint been paid"

I agree, I would call. When I get emails from Paypal, they say my name in them. I've both bought and sold on Paypal before, and I've never had any experience with a transaction being held pending shipment.

I'm on hold trying to talk to a Paypal representative...

How'd it go?

the guy said that there isn't any pending payments into my Paypal account at all and told me to forward the emails i'd received to their fraud department and they'd check it out and let me know if everything was legit or not.

everything just seems "off" about the whole deal. it's a cell phone that we're selling (unlocked for sprint). the guy was really excited about it and said he needed it for his cousin which ok, that's cool. but the address that he wanted us to ship the phone to is in Smurfia so right there flags went up (the Paypal guy told me that they don't do business with Smurfia at all...)

i told DH that if the guy emails him about anything at all to just ignore it until we hear back from the fraud team. i'm just concerned that this person will use the phone for illegal things and then it would get traced back to us and we'd get in trouble too (and i work for the gov't so that would suck extra hard)

Quoting clay matthews:" the guy said that there isn't any pending payments into my Paypal account at all and told me to forward ... [snip!] ... and then it would get traced back to us and we'd get in trouble too (and i work for the gov't so that would suck extra hard)"

Yeah, that definitely sounds like a scam. Depending on what kind of phone it is, it probably couldn't even be used in Smurfia. Sometimes there are scams where people are really just trying to get personal information from you so that they can get money from your paypal. If I were you I'd consider changing your paypal email address and make sure you have a really complicated password.

Yeh basically HE sent you the email pretending to be from paypal saying he paid you, and that you wont get the money until you ship it, so you ship him a free phone. Email him back and tell him to go smurf himself lol

Quoting Klaus:" Yeah, that definitely sounds like a scam. Depending on what kind of phone it is, it probably couldn't ... [snip!] ... paypal. If I were you I'd consider changing your paypal email address and make sure you have a really complicated password."

its a Samsung Epic. My password is pretty complicated but I will consider changing my email and the password again; good suggestion!

Quoting Mrs. Reynolds:" Yeh basically HE sent you the email pretending to be from paypal saying he paid you, and that you wont ... [snip!] ... that you wont get the money until you ship it, so you ship him a free phone. Email him back and tell him to go smurf himself lol"

i'd told him we wouldn't ship it until we got paid so when it said that they wanted the tracking number before the payment was released it struck me as odd. he'd asked us to take the ad off CL too which i told DH we wouldn't do until the phone was no longer in our possession.

i'm just glad I'M the one who was dealing with the payment end of the transaction and not DH; he may have actually sent it without having the payment received and then we'd not only be out shipping fees but also not have the phone! once we hear back from the fraud department (if in fact is IS fraudulent) i'm changing the listing on CL (and also changing everything that went along with it)

Quoting clay matthews:" i'd told him we wouldn't ship it until we got paid so when it said that they wanted the tracking number ... [snip!] ... department (if in fact is IS fraudulent) i'm changing the listing on CL (and also changing everything that went along with it)"

You can actually send a bill to someone on paypal and print shipping labels right from the website so that they know you did it, but it's always on the site. Never through email.

<blockquote><b>Quoting Klaus:</b>" You can actually send a bill to someone on paypal and print shipping labels right from the website so that they know you did it, but it's always on the site. Never through email."</blockquote>




That's good to know too. I'm so Paypal illiterate

Got an email back from Paypal today. It was definitely a phishing attempt. SO glad we DIDN'T actually ship anything. The guy has never contacted DH to ask if it's been shipped and if he DOES, we'll just block his email.

Thanks everyone!