My friend was victim of online scam recently, I never heard of this way of scamming so to me is new…
She advertised an item for sale on gumtree website, item was a BN branded bag worth about $500. Someone responded by sms from an overseas number (started with +44, so seems like from UK) asking if item still available, and to respond by email back to [email protected] ONLY. So she replied by email to the address given, saying yes, the item is still available.
This “James Arthan” responded back by email saying he is from USA and wanted to buy this bag for his daughter in Thailand. So he gave a Thailand address and asked my friend to find out the shipping cost to send the item to Thailand and let him know. He said he will pay by paypal or bank transfer, and my friend asked if he can pay in SGD and he said yes, probably by paypal it's possible to pay by SGD.
So my friend went to post office to find out postage cost for the item to Thailand, and there were 2 options: normal shipping and express shipping, both trackable, but express shipping more expensive of course. She informed “James Arthan” the 2 options and he chose express shipping (cost was about $60). So he asked for the final total amount he needed to pay. My friend informed him the total cost, including the fees payable to paypal for this transaction since he should pay for this too. He was agreeable and asked for my friend’s paypal ID and said he would pay ASAP.
About few hours later, my friend received an email from paypal saying there was an amount of $XXX on hold by paypal, sent by James Arthan, and addressed to her account. However, as paypal's policy of protecting buyers (and sellers), the seller must produce proof of shipping of item with tracking number before paypal can release the funds to her account. My friend asked her brother about this and her brother told her Qoo10 also works in similar way, that the payment by buyer is “on hold” in Qoo10 system until buyer clicks on “Delivery confirmed” after receiving the item, then the payment is released by Qoo10 into seller’s account. (I think her brother is seller on Qoo10 so he knows). So seller does not get the payment IMMEDIATELY when buyer pays, and there is some leeway of time for buyer to even cancel the purchase if change mind about it later on (so there is a time "lapse" before the money actually gets credited into seller’s account).
So my friend promptly went to post office to ship the item to Thailand. After that she submitted the tracking no. to paypal and also informed James about it. Then after few hours, ANOTHER email from paypal came saying that they had received the tracking no. and it was valid, and they were going to release the payment to her account. However, in the process of doing that, they (paypal) realised that it was the first time her paypal account is receiving payment from a US paypal account, so there needs to be an “activation step” for this. And this activation step involves a REFUNDABLE amount of SGD650, which has been debited from buyer’s account, so needs to be paid back to buyer’s account via a POSB account in SG, then to show proof of receipt of this transfer to paypal, then paypal will release the payment of item PLUS SGD650 into her account. Paypal said this SGD650 is the “standard” amount for this process across all countries.
At this point my friend realised something was fishy, because why should this “activation payment” be paid to a POSB account in SG instead of to paypal directly, since paypal is the one who is implementing this step. At about the same time, she also received an email from James, who sounded upset that paypal had requested and deducted this amount from him, and he said he had to contact a friend in SG to “borrow” his friend’s POSB account to use for this “activation” transaction. The POSB account no. is 115-40813-5 – in case anybody recognises it!
Of course my friend didn't do this transfer in the end, and she submitted the “paypal” emails to paypal who confirmed that they were indeed fake emails! – but of course the emails had paypal logo and letterhead etc, so was very convincing and also that’s why my friend was not suspicious the first time.
So at least she did not lose the SGD650, but the thing is she lost her branded bag which was delivered FREE (because my friend paid for the delivery cost!!) to the buyer (“his daughter”) in Thailand.
So for everyone who sells items on websites, forums, etc., pls beware of this kind of FRAUD buyer!! Even if these scammers don’t manage to trick people into transferring “activation” money directly into their account, they already gain by getting their “purchased” items FREE with FREE express shipping!!!
My friend’s brother told her she should have asked for direct bank transfer instead of going by paypal in the first place. So sellers, please make sure the payment is ALREADY REALLY received into your bank account before you ship/send the items!
She advertised an item for sale on gumtree website, item was a BN branded bag worth about $500. Someone responded by sms from an overseas number (started with +44, so seems like from UK) asking if item still available, and to respond by email back to [email protected] ONLY. So she replied by email to the address given, saying yes, the item is still available.
This “James Arthan” responded back by email saying he is from USA and wanted to buy this bag for his daughter in Thailand. So he gave a Thailand address and asked my friend to find out the shipping cost to send the item to Thailand and let him know. He said he will pay by paypal or bank transfer, and my friend asked if he can pay in SGD and he said yes, probably by paypal it's possible to pay by SGD.
So my friend went to post office to find out postage cost for the item to Thailand, and there were 2 options: normal shipping and express shipping, both trackable, but express shipping more expensive of course. She informed “James Arthan” the 2 options and he chose express shipping (cost was about $60). So he asked for the final total amount he needed to pay. My friend informed him the total cost, including the fees payable to paypal for this transaction since he should pay for this too. He was agreeable and asked for my friend’s paypal ID and said he would pay ASAP.
About few hours later, my friend received an email from paypal saying there was an amount of $XXX on hold by paypal, sent by James Arthan, and addressed to her account. However, as paypal's policy of protecting buyers (and sellers), the seller must produce proof of shipping of item with tracking number before paypal can release the funds to her account. My friend asked her brother about this and her brother told her Qoo10 also works in similar way, that the payment by buyer is “on hold” in Qoo10 system until buyer clicks on “Delivery confirmed” after receiving the item, then the payment is released by Qoo10 into seller’s account. (I think her brother is seller on Qoo10 so he knows). So seller does not get the payment IMMEDIATELY when buyer pays, and there is some leeway of time for buyer to even cancel the purchase if change mind about it later on (so there is a time "lapse" before the money actually gets credited into seller’s account).
So my friend promptly went to post office to ship the item to Thailand. After that she submitted the tracking no. to paypal and also informed James about it. Then after few hours, ANOTHER email from paypal came saying that they had received the tracking no. and it was valid, and they were going to release the payment to her account. However, in the process of doing that, they (paypal) realised that it was the first time her paypal account is receiving payment from a US paypal account, so there needs to be an “activation step” for this. And this activation step involves a REFUNDABLE amount of SGD650, which has been debited from buyer’s account, so needs to be paid back to buyer’s account via a POSB account in SG, then to show proof of receipt of this transfer to paypal, then paypal will release the payment of item PLUS SGD650 into her account. Paypal said this SGD650 is the “standard” amount for this process across all countries.
At this point my friend realised something was fishy, because why should this “activation payment” be paid to a POSB account in SG instead of to paypal directly, since paypal is the one who is implementing this step. At about the same time, she also received an email from James, who sounded upset that paypal had requested and deducted this amount from him, and he said he had to contact a friend in SG to “borrow” his friend’s POSB account to use for this “activation” transaction. The POSB account no. is 115-40813-5 – in case anybody recognises it!
Of course my friend didn't do this transfer in the end, and she submitted the “paypal” emails to paypal who confirmed that they were indeed fake emails! – but of course the emails had paypal logo and letterhead etc, so was very convincing and also that’s why my friend was not suspicious the first time.
So at least she did not lose the SGD650, but the thing is she lost her branded bag which was delivered FREE (because my friend paid for the delivery cost!!) to the buyer (“his daughter”) in Thailand.
So for everyone who sells items on websites, forums, etc., pls beware of this kind of FRAUD buyer!! Even if these scammers don’t manage to trick people into transferring “activation” money directly into their account, they already gain by getting their “purchased” items FREE with FREE express shipping!!!
My friend’s brother told her she should have asked for direct bank transfer instead of going by paypal in the first place. So sellers, please make sure the payment is ALREADY REALLY received into your bank account before you ship/send the items!
