Fake Payment Scam
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to Fraud Fridays!
Today, we will be covering Fake Payment Scams.
Fake payment scams are rampant. These can be found on almost any website and can be coupled with a lot of other scams. So, what's the short of it?
Scammers will ask you about your item that you have listed for sale on a site like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and will ask to pay you via Paypal, Zelle, or other payment portals. They are scamming you, and the payment, in most cases, does not actually exist, the email you received was sent by the scammers. In cases where you have received a payment, the scammer can dispute the payment, or the payment may be entirely fraudulent. The scammer will then either try to get you to send money to them using the fake funds that they did not send to you, or will ask you to ship the item, usually to a re-shipping facility or a parcel mule.
So, what actually happened? Let's look at it closely. You post an item to FB Marketplace or another online reselling service. A message arrives from a user stating that they are interested in your item. They proceed to ask you about payment and pick up methods. Sometimes, they will ask to pay by a delivered check, sometimes an online payment platform such as Zelle. After a bit of deliberation, they will claim to have sent through the payment. Of course, what they actually sent is just an email. These e-mails will often look like they’re from a legitimate source. Afterall, you were expecting a payment via Zelle, and here is an email from Zelle claiming to have either: steps to collect your funds, or a page stating that money has been sent to you. This is not how platforms like PayPal and Zelle send money. Part of what makes scams like these so hard to pin down is simply because they will run several scams at the same time. This is a scam to effectively steal a relatively high-value item, feign payment, and ultimately leave you eating fees. Even when payment does go through, they will dispute the charges and you will lose the money. Often times, they will even use cards that they stole from others just to be sure that they can’t be tied to the transaction. Even worse still, this can be accompanied with an “over-payment scam.” So, that email you got may claim that $4500 was sent instead of the $45 that was supposed to be! The scammer tells you that to fix this, you must send back the $4,455 because it was sent through error! This is, of course, not true. The payment either never came or will be disputed after you send the funds. That means that with this coupling of scams, the scammer received your money, your table to continue their dropshipping scams, and did it at no cost to themselves. This is a particularly egregious scam based off its simplicity. The simple nature of the scam allows the scammer to stitch together a monster of scams and bring it to life with a simple e-mail bot code.
The worst part? These scams are prolific. Any website that hosts sales is sure to be infested with these scammers. How to be safe? Deal in cash and direct payment only. Make sure the person paying you is going to be the same person you are selling to. Finally, only send items after verification of funds. A way to do this is half up front. Most people will be fine with you specifying how to pay. No one is going to send a UPS or FEDEX worker with cash to pick up the item (unless the person you’re selling to is a postal worker then, know your customer).
As always, vigilance and research will help keep you and the internet safer. Thank you very much and have a wonderful day!