any possible paypal scams?

so im selling an item locally on craigslist valued at a little over $650 and i was contact by somebody who wants to buy it. however theyre throwing in extra cash and paying via paypal to have me ship it to their location. craigslists warns of dealing with buyers that arent local but isnt it safe as long as i use paypal? is there anyway this is a scam? i figure alot of people on this site use paypal alot and i figured somebody could help me out here. thanks

I'm certainly not an expert on this, but a friend of mine had a similar experience and it turned out that the account used to pay was hacked, and once the true owner got involved PayPal wouldn't pay my friend, so he lost his product and the money. That's the best I can remember, the actual details might be a little different.

thanks for the heads up. im just gonna contact paypal about my concerns and see what they say.

Sounds like a common paypal scam, i have done a fair amount of CL selling and always get a pile of emails offering more money if I agree to ship it somewhere, usually the person claims to be on a business trip and they want the item as a gift or some similar story.

i just dont understand the paypal part of the scam. i wouldnt send an item anywhere until the moneys deposited into my account. how do you fake that?

Seems if the PayPal money clears and you ship to address listed by PayPal on that account it would be hard to scam. But there is always some new angle. If you are concerned enough. You could list it on eBay for the buyer as a buy it now. This would protect you. Sure there are a few more fees, but you would be protected.

Why are they wanting to pay more? Is it a lot more and too good to be true or does it make sense to cover the cost of packaging etc? I'd give the guy a call and feel it out from there. Scammers don't usually like dealing with actual people, and if it is legit, the buyer should be just as worried that he is being scammed and you will send him an empty box or something. Just beware that sometimes people will send out fake e-mails "from paypal" saying you have your cash, so make sure the cash is in the bank if you go through with it.

k.

Only ship to the confirmed paypal address and add tracking to the package. Paypal favors the buyer, and if he/she says they didn't receive the item, paypal will reimburse the buyer. If you are going to use paypal, process the transaction and as soon as you are paid, transfer the money to your bank account. Once paypal transfers the money to your account, ship it to the confirmed address. May take a few days, but it's the only way to protect yourself. And if the emails seem shady, or anything of the like, it is probably a scam. Hope it goes well!

PS I hate paypal lol.

I've been on the other end of this several times, and paid to have something shipped to me.
If its a hard to find item or a really good deal, it makes sense. If not, be wary.
I've offered to pay extra also, due to PayPal fees, packaging costs, extra time involved, etc. So it's not necessarily a scam based on that criteria, it could just be a reasonable person.
You might get their PayPal email and invoice it directly, instead of having them initiate the transaction, it makes it look more like the money was owed. Also you could verify they are reachable at that email, this reduces the likelihood of a hacked paypal acct. (both accts would have to be compromised). As mentioned before, only ship to a paypal verified address. A phone conversation was also a good idea, you can just discuss the item briefly or something, find out their interest in it.
You should be safe if you take those few simple steps.

I talked to my friend about his experience...it was with eBay, but here was an article he shared about it:

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/letters/blog.pl?/pl/2011/3/1299728646.html

He also said that the recipient will argue that they never received the item, and then eBay refunds their money. You're talking about PayPal instead of eBay, but PayPal is owned by eBay so there may be similar policies.

HTH,
Z