Selling online and buyer offers to pay over the odds for postage via Paypal

[Hurling Fan]

My son's friend (aged 17) is selling his Xbox 3 and one game on Donedeal for €200. The ad was only placed a few hours when he gets an offer of €180 which he accepts. Then the buyer says he in the Navy and is buying the Xbox for his son and will pay €100 postage and would like to pay through Paypal. Alarm bells start going off as to why somebody would pay so much postage. He goes into school today and his friend in school is also selling his Xbox and received the identical correspondence. He is not going to go ahead with the sale.

I would have thought the Paypal would be safe and wonder if anyone else has come across this.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Here is how it works courtesy of boards.ie

They send you a fake email which you think has come from paypal confirming the payment. You ship the goods off.

Or they send you more by accident and ask you to send them back the balance by wire transfer.

Or they use stolen card details to pay via paypal which could be coupled with you sending money back to them - when card is found to be stolen paypal come after you for the refund.

There's a few variations to it.

 

[Boyd]

Slightly off topic I know but E200 for an Xbox 360 plus one game is not a good price IMO. I bought one on DoneDeal few months ago for E80, including two wireless controllers and USB controller charging point (no games). IMO to get real offers he should reduce the price.

 

[Hurling Fan]

Brendan - thanks for reply. Find it very scary that this is happening with Paypal - thought it was very trustworthy. If that person hadn't overdone the postage offer, I don't think any alarm bells would have rang.

Username123 - thanks for your comments. Its my son's friend that is selling it so will pass on your comments. Don't know much about Xbox resale value myself.

 

[jhegarty]

You can buy a new xbox for €199 , so that is enough to tell something isn't right.

 

[elcato]

Find it very scary that this is happening with Paypal

It has nothing to do with paypal. The scammer is saying he will pay by paypal, your son gets an email (authentic looking paypal website link) and thinks he's quids in and sends off the xbox.