Am I about to be scammed?

[Wools]

Just navigating the murky depths of FB Marketplace and think this is the closest I’ve got to being scammed. What does everyone else think?

Asked a guy for Pay Pal payment. He said he sent it but I received nothing. He said to check again and then noticed 2 emails in my Junk Folder. They both come from a @gmail account and the body of the email is asking for me to:

“We had a problem while crediting your funds of £350.00 because your paypal account status is not a business user which makes your PayPal account needed to be added into business user, because this amount seems to be above your limits so you have to take this urgent step to expand your limit.

To fully expand your account into a business account, contact the buyer of your item to send in an additional payment of £150.00 into your paypal account to expand your limit. Soon as this is done, we will credit your account with the total sum of £500.00”

It’s bull****, right?

[wakka]

100% a scam.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, walk away.

FB Marketplace is great, but completely unregulated.

[Wools]

Thanks, everything was going great but his 'screenshot' of payment looked odd, he sent me 2 quick messages asking for a screenshot of an email and then complained when I said 'I checked on PayPay and my account doesn't show it.' He said, yes but what about any email, check your junk Folder...

At that point I found them and immediately noticed the @gmail and the odd instructions around Business accounts.

Thanks for the confirmation, will try and delete / block him.

[Cassius_Smoke]

That opening paragraph reads like someone with a limited understanding of English.

[Lebowski]

Facebook marketplace is the real Wild West of selling with it being so unregulated its just full of scammers, it's good for local stuff bikes furniture and larger items that you cant get rid of easily on ebay. A lot of the specialist groups can be pretty good too but the only way id ever play for things is via paypal goods and services, run a mile if they say PayPal gift only or bank transfer.

[importaku]

The rule of thumb is ignore any links in emails telling you to click to log in and goto your paypal account direct & look at it. If theres any problems with your account or in or outgoing payments paypal will be telling you in the inbox messages folder on there. The amount of times i have been told there's problems with my account then i go on my own and log in without clicking any of their scummy links to see my account is fine.

if your paypal account is fully verified then you'll already have a decent limit way more than what that seller is trying to pull.

[nonny]

Yeah 100% a scam. I only use Facebook for local stuff, cash in hand... and even then it's pretty dodgy.

[MartyG]

If you have to send money to someone in order to be paid for something, it's always a scam. Ask people who sent Musk Bitcoin.

And just FYI

While the PayPal transfer limit for normal users is $4,000, verified users can send or accept a maximum of $10,000 in a single payment. Additionally, users with a linked bank account can send a maximum of $25,000 per transaction.

[Brad]

Deffo a scam but I want to know what the next stage is! So far you have no money. What if you asked the scammer to send another £150? Presumably at this point he says no... but what if you send me £150 and I send it back to you? SCAM!

[wakka]

Yeah and then when you’ve sent the £150 it’ll be another email from “PayPal” saying there’s a problem and to resolve it the buyer needs to send another £150. And he says oh well if you can just lend me another £150.

And this dynamic will continue indefinitely until you stop sending money at which point the buyer will go very quiet indeed.

[Neon Ignition]

I can't believe that so many people are being so cynical about sending money online.

If it weren't for me the Prince of Nigeria wouldn't be now just $400 US dollars away from unlocking his fathers inheritance!