Question about Scam?

[The Unknown Poster]

Hoping the smart peeps here can help me on this.

I posted an old car for sale on Kijiji.  Noted that it is not safetied and could be a good parts car as it has lots of good parts.  Intent was to see if a parts person would bite or else we'd just donate it.

I immediately got two text messages.  One from a Florida Area Code and one from a Memphis Area Code.  Both using very similar verbiage about paying through paypal and wanting the car "immediately".

Whats the deal with this?  Im assuming its BS but whats the scam?  They do a fake Paypal and steal it?  Or they just come over and rob me?

[Fraser]

They pay you  too much via  PayPal and ask for some  back.  Then eventually PayPal  catches up and logs their  payment to you as fraud.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

7 minutes ago, Fraser said:

They pay you  too much via  PayPal and ask for some  back.  Then eventually PayPal  catches up and logs their  payment to you as fraud.

Yep, fake email looking as if you received money too much.

[The Unknown Poster]

So Paypal disallows their original payment but by then I've reimbursed them X amount?

And do they end up taking the car? lol

[The Unknown Poster]

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/online-sellers-stung-scammers-spoofing-paypal-brand

Thanks for the info!

[FrostyWinnipeg]

34 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

So Paypal disallows their original payment but by then I've reimbursed them X amount?

And do they end up taking the car? lol

I doubt there was any payment just an email that looks like it came from Paypal but they could do it the other way too.

[wbbfan]

4 hours ago, Fraser said:

They pay you  too much via  PayPal and ask for some  back.  Then eventually PayPal  catches up and logs their  payment to you as fraud.

This.

Idk what u posted (i love classic cars though so please tell xD) but it must have hit some trigger wording. Cus ive done tons and tons of deals on kijiji and never gotten this one my self. 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

22 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

This.

Idk what u posted (i love classic cars though so please tell xD) but it must have hit some trigger wording. Cus ive done tons and tons of deals on kijiji and never gotten this one my self. 

It's happened to me. Be a hell of a lot worse if we only had Craigslist where it was full on there.

[The Unknown Poster]

It was just an old sunfire! Lol 

one reply told me they wanted the car so bad I should remove the ad from "Craigslist". Ofcourse it's not on Craigslist. 

[Atomic]

This is very common with selling cellphones on Kijiji.

It's quite likely that the texts weren't actually even coming from the States, but from Africa where many of these scams originate.