Offers an iPhone at a good price, says will negotiate; says accepts Pay Pal, Pay Pal invoice for $500 initiated by seller; Pay Pal payment in the amount of $500 made to his account. Seller states he lives in Tampa, buyer in St. Pete, FL. After 5-days no delivery is forthcoming, seller no longer answers e-mails of inquiry. Case opened with Pay Pal who states it takes 7 to 10 days to resolve if 'theft of funds' was intended (they attempt to contact Seller for 7-days by e-mails, as no phone is listed... Then they may attach his bank account if he still has one!)
USPS clerk informs me this is a common con-game where the 'seller' dupes the buyer by taking an empty-box with a fake return address to an automate P.O. Gets tracking, and possibly insurance receipts using a stolen c/c, then removes the postage part of the attaching label and sticks a few stamps on it, when picked up it is returned to sender for insufficient postage and may languish in a dead-letter file 'forever'. Meantime the buyer has false tracking info as that label was also not attached (likewise with insurance if used). It cannot be tracked and as usual it will show only acceptance, and a notice tracking info is delayed... in the extra days this and the complaint status requires, the con-man closes out his bank account and re-opens with false ID somewhere else and does the same to anywhere from one to a hundred 'dupes, promising to send each the item on a given day, transfers the cash from Pay Pal into his new account, etc., etc.
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