Note from Audra: A very smart and savvy Dunwoody friend of mine was almost the victim of a Craig’s List/PayPal scam. I asked her to send me the details in hopes that it would save someone else from becoming a victim.
Here’s her story: Just following up with you to tell you about what happened last weekend. What I really want to make everyone’s attention is to be SO careful when selling items that require shipment and also have a SHOUT OUT to the Dunwoody Post Office as they helped me get packages back before they left PO. Below is summary of what happened:
I posted an Ad in Craig’s list, Atlanta market, to sell an Xbox 360, accessories and video games. I received a text from an individual asking to purchase these items and requesting that I mail the items to his friend in Glendale, CA. In the past I have only sold my items as PickUp/cash required, however the guy, via text, seemed to be responsive and honest so decided I would consider it this time. He offered to pay $50 extra for the shipping $20 additional above my asking price for my time and inconvenience. He requested that I send USPS, priority mail, which seemed like a reasonable request.
I agreed to sell and ship the Xbox to him and sent him a request via PayPal for the money. When he received my PayPal request, he sent me a text acknowledging it, and advised me to check my email for confirmation. I checked my email and received two separate Emails, that appeared to come from PayPal and stated that his payment was Pending upon verification that items had been shipped. The email stated that once I provided the shipment tracking number the money would be released. Again, never going through this process of selling via PayPal, it seemed like a reasonable request and looked legit. I went to the Post Office on Sat morning and paid for 2 boxes to be mailed to his requested address, in CA. I then texted a copy of shipping receipt. When the buyer receiving the receipt he then asked me to email the tracking information to onlinetracking.dept@post.com and at that time the funds would be released to me.
At that point I was starting to be suspicious so when I got home I immediately pulled up my PayPal account and saw that my payment request to the buyer was still showing as sent, that he NEVER actually responded to the request. I called PayPal directly and they confirmed that this was a Scam and I forwarded the emails to them for further investigation.
The buyer identified himself at Sgt. Rodriguez at the following cell # and email
Email Sgt.rodriguezjoshua@gmail.com
Cell # 530-719-7705
After I discovered that I was a victim of this fraud I immediately went to Post Office and although they already had closed my husband and I went around back to see if we could catch an employee to help us. Fortunately, two extremely nice postal workers went out of their way to search through two Priority Bins and were able to locate the boxes before leaving on the truck. I can’t tell you how relieved I was. It really wasn’t the fact that the items were that expensive, but the fact that I had been a victim of this scam that really made me feel violated.
Since I had the CA address I did report it to the local police and also emailed the Dunwoody Police and Crier in case they wanted information as well.
I never thought I would be a victim to this type of scam as am always so cautious, but it appears that thieves are just getting cleverer and will do anything to cheat the system.
