Anyone who sells products on classified ad platforms can fall prey to criminals.

As our cooperation partner Watchlist Internet informs, criminals fake overpayment for the goods and demand delivery from sellers. The sellers should transfer the transport costs included in the excessive payment abroad.

This causes them to lose their money. The Internet Watchlist shows you which other forms of fraud are common on classified advertising platforms so that you can sell your products safely!

There are fraudsters on classified ad platforms who fake an excessive payment of money to sellers and demand that the goods be delivered. The excessive payment is supposedly so that sellers can pay the shipping costs.

You should transfer the excess amount of money abroad to a transport company. Victims not only lose their product and money, but also personal data.

This enables criminals to commit crimes under other people's names. What the fraudulent purchase offers have in common is that the criminals want to conduct correspondence outside of the classifieds platforms via a private email address or messenger services and pretend to be abroad.

The perpetrators' messages are written in poor German or English. So that you don't become a victim of criminals, we will explain to you the most common forms of fraud that you can deal with as a private seller on classified ad platforms.

The PayPal trick and its types

The fraudsters feign interest in purchasing a product and explain to the other person that they are abroad. For this reason, they suggest that sellers have an escrow company pick up the goods and deliver them abroad.

Payment for the goods should be made via PayPal or bank transfer. A short time later, sellers receive an alleged message from PayPal or the bank. It fakes a far excessive payment of money (- shown here using PayPal as an example -):

This email confirms that you received an instant payment of € 2,600.00 EUR from Firstname Lastname (firstnamelastname@emailprovider.com) via PayPal MERCHANDISE payment service.

Reversals: This method of payment cannot be reversed.

Status: Pending

See the “NOTE” of the pending operation below

Payment details

Merchandise amount: € 1,900.00 EUR
Transport charges: € 650.00 EUR
Western union fee: € 50.00 EUR
Total: € 2,600.00 EUR

Transaction: 7UI9998157435632E
Description: Citroen C2
Merchandise status: Purchased
Transport

Sellers should use Western Union or another payment service provider to transfer the difference in the sales price to a transport company abroad for collection of the goods. If they comply with the request, they will lose their money, because in reality the notification does not come from PayPal or the bank, but from criminals.

In order for sellers to pay the difference in cases of doubt, they receive alleged notifications from the police, who threaten them with high penalties if payment is not made.

Fraud with fake PayPal or bank messages can be demonstrated, among other things, by the fact that when the PayPal or bank account is accessed manually, no money has been received or the sender email address used is not real.

The check fraud

Fraudsters from abroad want to buy a product and suggest that they pay the purchase price with a check.

Your contact information is required so I instruct my secretary to issue a check Certified in your name for the total amount of €14000, effective immediately.

: Please email me your contact details for the check to be delivered to you as

Name and surname on the check:
Home address:
Telephone number:

Sellers then receive a check in the mail. It turns out to be significantly higher than agreed. The criminals explain the excessive amount of money by saying that it is intended for the transport of the goods. For this reason, the sellers should transfer the difference abroad. The danger for sellers when paying by check is that it is uncovered.

The house bank initially transfers the amount of money to its customer's account, but needs some time to check whether the check is covered by real money in the sender's bank. That is not the case.

For this reason, the house bank refunds the amount of money that has already been transferred from its customers, so that sellers lose their money and possibly the goods that have already been shipped.

Sellers protect themselves from this fraud by not accepting check payments.

The Lossy Shipping Notification

Criminals declare that they want to buy a product and agree to the price. The sellers should give you their bank details so that they can carry out their transfer. This is followed by a fake bank message confirming receipt of the money. In order for sellers to receive the purchase price, they should provide the bank with the tracking number of the package:

As mentioned in the receipt of Payment and as per New Smile Bank Payment policy, we have fully debited the total amount (400.00 Eur) from First Name Last Name account which included the shipping Charges. In order to complete this transaction and get the funds approved in your account. We advise you to ship the item via Post Office /DHL/ UPS Express Delivery, and send the item to the address giving to you below and send us a Scanned Copy/Photograph of your shipment receipt (in .JPG format).

If sellers send the tracking number of the package, they do not receive any money and lose their goods. For this reason, it is safe if you only send the goods after the money has been credited to your account.

The identity theft

Supposed buyers agree with sellers on the price for the goods. They are given the bank details for the money transfer, but before they want to carry it out, they ask the other person to send a copy of their ID card as security.

“Please send me a photo of an ID and I will transfer the money immediately!”
“I cannot transfer the money without security. Send me a photo and I'll transfer the money!"
"I've been ripped off twice, now I'm more careful! Please send me a photo."
"I would never cheat on anyone! I'm just being careful. Please send me the photo and I will transfer the money in half an hour.”

Sellers who comply with the request become victims of data theft because after submitting the requested copy of their ID card, the supposed buyers no longer respond.

Criminals can use their victim's bank details and copy of their ID card to commit crimes under someone else's name, for example by placing orders at his expense or trying to take out loans.

The victim finds out about this by receiving criminal charges or warning letters. To protect themselves from this identity theft, sellers must never send copies of their ID cards to strangers.


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