A local man thought he was being careful when trying to sell something over the internet. He agreed to use the Paypal website to verify receipt of the money. But it all turned out to be a big scam. Local 12 Troubleshooter Howard Ain has the story and tips to make sure it doesn't happen to you.
Dave Berry of Wilmington is looking for some extra cash during these tough times. He decided to sell some electronic games and listed them on the internet. DAVE BERRY: "I'm in bad shape like hundreds of other people that lost their jobs there at DHL. I was trying to sell an X-Box 360 I had. So I listed it on Craigslist."
Someone agreed to buy it for more than 600 dollars. "The person asked me if I wanted to go through Paypal and I said fine that would be fine."
Soon he received an email allegedly from Paypal, the payment exchange website. It told him the money had been received and now we are verifying shipment of item purchased. So Berry shipped out the Xbox and games and sent proof because the email said "We need to verify shipment of the items before we can credit your account."
Berry says, "I shipped it to an actual address in Casper, Wyoming. It was delivered. There was a signature. You can't make the signature out the person that signed for it."
But he never got the money, so he called Paypal. "Finally I did get a hold of somebody and they said we know nothing about this transaction."
It's easy to see how anybody could fall for this. The Paypal logo looks real. Everything looks legitimate except the address you're supposed to reply to is not Paypal.com but Accountant dot com.
"That money was going for my rent and it hurts awful bad. It still hurts."
Normally, you don't send the item until the buyer's money is in your Paypal account. In this case, the thief changed that to say Berry won't get the money until he sends the shipment. That's the tip-off this is a scam.
A close look at the email account also reveals none were actually coming from Paypal's email address. Berry filed a police report and authorities tell me Wyoming police have a suspect in this case. In fact, police have an ongoing investigation about that suspect right now.
