Yesterday morning I put up a few items of IKEA furniture on Kijiji. I’m always amazed at how quickly I receive responses for the things I list – I’m either selling things too cheaply or have a super-compelling pitch style. 😉 I received a message from someone yesterday – they were the second person to express an interest in the item, so I wrote them back saying that I’d keep them informed if the first person bailed on the purchase. This was the response waiting for me this morning:
“i will like to purchase the item out rightly,I am willing to offer you $1400 for it and i will be paying you with my credit card via my PayPal account,I will also like you to send me your paypal details(PayPal e-mail address) including your phone # so i can effect payment to you right away and make sure you get back to me so that i can arrange for pick up as i will like the item to be picked,so no shipping included.i will appreciate if you can get a PayPal Bank account to make things more easier for both of us. NB:Honestly, I do not know the actual worth of this item because I’m always busy sailing. If my offer is not ok, Let me know so i can shoot up abit or bring it down as the case maybe. Thank you for your understanding, while i await your urgent response.”
So they want to pay $1400 for items that I listed for $250? And all because they’re too busy sailing in the land-locked provice of Alberta? Gosh, what a deal for me! I’d better hand over my PayPal email address and my phone number on record so I can get all that extra money! Sheesh. I’m not sure what sort of scam they’re trying to pull with my PayPal email address and phone number – I suspect some sort of identity/account theft, though if PayPal’s security is that lax, that concerns me a bit. Regardless, it’s good to remember that if something seems to good to be true, it is.
I put a dog up on Petfinder once, and got scam offers for as much as $3800, with an international agent personally picking the dog up at my house.
I just sold my iPaq 6945 on Craig’s list. The first contact I got was in a similarly bad English and wanted it shipped internationally. I amended the ad to say “local pickup in cash only.”
hi jason,
i'm having the same experience selling my car. i've had about 10 scamish sounding hits, some with multiple emails, offering to buy my car immediately – even at higher price, but they want to use paypal. i'm not biting, but just typed 'kijiji paypal scam' into google to see what others were experiencing and your blog was the first to come up.
great to run into you this way!
hey good catch i got the same sort of email response for my car that i am selling, the guy responded…
“Thanks for the prompt response and am happy to hear from you and i
will like to let you know that i have gone through the advert and am
very pleased with it,So i want to buy it for my personal use and i am
at sea at the moment as i am a marine engineer and due to the nature
of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted
but i squeezed
out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it. I
really want it and am ready to buy it. I insisted on paypal because i
don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet
banking, but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c
attached to it, i will need you to give me your paypal email address
and the price so i can make the payments asap for it and pls if you
don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to
http://www.paypal.com and get it set up, after you have set it up i will only
need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to
put the money through. I have a pick up agent that will come and pick
it up after i have made the payments,So kindly send me your full home
address so that i can have it forwarded to
the agent who is coming for the pick-up and inspection and am ready to
make payment for it immediately you e-mail me back with the
information requested for…i look forward to your fast
response..thanks”
being the supicious type i of course googled 'paypal kijiiji scams' and got your blog. THanks for posting that.
Aug 23 2011 Same scam. Andrew wants me to send him $800 to initiate the shipping of my Escape to England from Edmonton. PayPal is his legitimacy. He will never use it to send the $9800 for the car. What he hopes for is that I’m stupid enough to advance him $800 through Western Union Money Transfer. I had 3 like him on my ad. All from out of town, all wanting to pay through pay pal. I told them that they should be ashamed of themselves and perhaps find something to do that will make their mother’s proud! I advised Kijiji of this.
I’ve had two hits on my motorbike. All I have them to contact me was my phone number, so I got two replies in slightly-off english as well. They had a 724 area code… After a google search I learned that’s from pennsylvania. Both were fine with my price, one said off the bat he’d give me $700 on top of my asking price. Both want to use pay pal. I might string them along a bit farther for my own entertainment, see how far they will go. “so I just remembered my bike has a crack in the window, a broken chain…”