Scam Email: Rachael Cox

I'm seeing more scammers using their standard scam approach on Etsy, pretending to want to buy items. In order for their scam to work, they'd have to convince the seller to do the transaction outside of Etsy and outside of PayPal (though scammers do create fake paypal pages and then pretend to have paid sending a fake PayPal Confirmation page, or they will end up saying something like paypal isn't working or accepting their payment and then offer the wire transfer option they were after all along).

Remember, their ultimate goal to overpay with fraudulent money and ask you to send the "difference" on to someplace else, typically a non-existent shipping company, and always via a wire transfer. So their money is fake and your money is good. And they are untraceable once they pick up the money.

So just do not accept overpayments, do not accept money orders, only agree to ship to the billing address of a credit card (they will have some story about moving and needing items to go to the new address) - have them confirm the billing address (most scammers have stolen credit card numbers and do not know the billing address), and never never never never (have I emphasized this enough??) use wire transfers to do business transactions.

Listing: [name of item here]

Hello Seller,
Am Rachael Cox,I came accross your item on Etsy, i will like to buy the item,is it ready for the immediate purchase, before i proceed with the payment i will Like to ask about the item..

1) Is the item still available for sale?

2) What is the present condition of the item?

3) Do you accept PAYPAL as your mode of payment?

4) what is the final asking price?

kindly get back to me with your reply to my private email:

( rachael_cox10@yahoo.com )

hope to read from you soon,

Best Regards.

Scam Email: Monika Hasler

Here is an scammer who is writing private messages to sellers on Etsy, pretending to be a buyer. The email is no different then the emails they send outside of Etsy, not realizing that Etsy takes care of the payment. I guess they are hoping to pull a desperate seller off the Etsy system to do a transaction via wire transfer (the mode they need to steal your money and disappear). I hope they got reported.

Monika Hasler (monika.hasler@yahoo.com)

         Etsy ID: monikahasler626

Monika Hasler July 3 2012 11:26pm EDT
Hello Seller,
Am Monika Hasler,I came accross your item on Etsy, i will like to buy the item,is it ready for the immediate purchase, before i proceed with the payment i will Like to ask about the item..

1) Is the item still available for sale?

2) What is the present condition of the item?

3) Do you accept PAYPAL as your mode of payment?

4) what is the final asking price in USD?

kindly get back to me with your reply to my private email :

monika.hasler@yahoo.com

Best Regards.