Thank you for hearing me out. I sold a Mac Book Pro on Craigslist on 6/14 to a guy for $1900. He was living abroad, so I sent him a money request through PayPal for the said amount. Then I got an email from PayPal saying that they would send me a confirmation email as soon as I got paid. Then I got another email from PayPal stating that, to protect the buyer and the seller, I needed to send them a tracking number after I mailed the package. The email looked legitimate, but at the bottom the shipping information was addressed to Lagos, Nigeria. I thought that this was a little strange, but since my PayPal account said pending, I thought that all they needed was the tracking number.
So I sent the package on 6/15 and emailed them the tracking number so I could get the transaction confirmed and PayPal would credit my account. I received an email back stating that the package was confirmed and that my account would be credited as soon as possible. I waited a day, then sent them an email letting them know that my account had not been updated. They sent me an email stating that the transaction amount was so large that it could take 1-2 days for my account to be updated. I waited another day and sent them another email, but this time I got no response.
Then I called PayPal directly. They told me that they never received any money from the buyer and that they never sent out the request for confirmation email or the verification email. They told me that the buyer set up a fake PayPal email system so that I would believe everything was okay. I tried to call the postal service to put a hold on the package before it was too late. Unfortunately, the package had already left the US.
Now I have nothing. I needed that money to help me out of a severe bind. I'm sure there's nothing you can do, but I felt it necessary to report it anyway.
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