There is no buyer.
Notice how the scammer doesn't call what you are selling by name? He uses the generic word "item", that is because he sends the same stock copy/paste email to anyone selling everything that he can find and he has no idea what you are selling and doesn't care.
There is only a scammer trying to steal your possession, your electronic item, name brand clothing or jewelry.
The scammer isn't interested in your identity or bank account only in convincing you to ship your possession to him without him sending you a penny.
The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be "Paypal" saying "kindly send the tracking number and we will release the funds".
Paypal does NOT send such emails, ever. Paypal does NOT have escrow or money holding services like that scammer describes. Paypal does NOT demand you send a tracking number before money is sent. EVER. No exceptions.
Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of being the perfect buyer, great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.
You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.
Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
If you google "cragislist buyer scam", "fake paypal email scam", "ebay escrow fraud" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near victims of this type of scam.
Check out the one and only official paypal website, read up on what paypal does and how it really works.
SCAM
Read this article on how the Craigslist Paypal scam works
http://consumerist.com/2008/10/how-a-nig...
Whike it says Nigerian this scam is used all over the world
This is why Craigslist can't be any clearer when they tell you to ONLY deal with people you can meet face to face, NEVER give out your Paypal details to anyone and AVOID ALL transactions that involve shipping.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
Their scam warnings cannnot be any clearer so I don't know why people still choose to ignore them
Any time you cannot meet the buyer in person in a public location (Starbucks, bank, library, etc) and have them give you cash in hand before you hand over your item, you are always going to get scammed on Craigslist -- no exceptions
When listing anything expensive like a laptop be sure to put something in your listing like
CASH ONLY, LOCAL BUYERS ONLY, NO SHIPPING, NO EXCEPTIONS!
and ignore everyone wanting anything else or you will get scammed
I'm actually surprised you only had one scammer contact you - normally with a laptop you'll get 3-4 people all with the same story
Don't do it.
Never use paypal on craigslist.
Unless they're going to pay you first, and you receive the money before you ship, don't do it.
This is a pretty common scam.
The point of craigslist as a rule, is to meet in person and pay in cash. It's usually how it goes.
Noel is right.
Don't ship it anywhere.
What they will do is they will make you ship it to them and then not give you the money.
The entire point of PayPay is so you can meet up in a public place (not their house, you never know what they can do to you) and do your business there. (for example, outside of Walmart)
You're not suppsoed to give someone your Paypal or creditcard number on that website, you have to meet up and do the exhange.
It's a scam. Don't fall for it.
Dont you ever ship anythng,,, they will ask you to ship it to nigeria,,,, theyre scammers!!!!!!! spread the word!!!!!!!!!!!
So I'm selling a MacBook pro for $825
I got an email from a person saying they want me to ship it to their "son" and they will pay me PayPal after the holiday is over.
They used bad grammar and didn't leave a phone number?
Is this a scam?
