Craigslist Scam
Complaint 218409 Details

Selling a vehicle on craigslist, Jason Cotwell (so he said it was his name) contacted us saying he wanted to buy the vehicle for his son for his birthday, but unfortunately had to leave out of town; he was an oceanographer. He said he would pay via paypal and send a carrier agent to come get the vehicle. I received emails from "paypal" saying the shipping amount had to be sent to the carrier agent in order for the funds to be approved in my account. I had never done a transaction for this amount through paypal and the emails looked legit and were from the same email address they always from from. I sent the money western union, then a little later received another email saying another fee of 1500 for insurance before the funds were approved. I told him i couldn't up front anymore money as i was not expecting to put up my own money. The following day after sending only some of the amount i didnt get anything back from paypal nor did i hear anything back from the guy, so i called paypal where they informed me it was a phishing email.