Lara F. Johnson
Complaint 355278 Details

This all started after I placed an ad on craigslist to sell my Long Arm sewing Machine and quilting table.

I received an email response from Lara F. Johnson on 11/22/2016 at 3:16 pm regarding the sewing machine and we corresponded back and forth several times and after I sent her more pictures of the machine and answered information on where and when it was purchased, she agreed to purchase the machine.

She requested that we handle the financial aspect of the transaction through paypal and requested that I send her an invoice through paypal. Which I did to her email [email protected], the invoice was sent for 1800.00 to that email address on 11/23/2016.

Her emails seemed reasonable. I even forwarded to a friend and they agreed so I proceeded with the sale. However they now appear to be the same that appeared with other scams. Wish I had found this and realized it but this bitch really played me..

On 11/24/2016 I received an email that said she needed to add transport fees to pick up the machine to the invoice and that the money had been taken out of her account and transferred pending into my paypal account and that I needed to send an amount of 880.60 via money gram to the shipper Daniel Abielo in at 5240 Cedar Mill Drive, Hiram, GA 30141. I did this on 11/25/2016

I also received emails from what I believed to be [email protected] that confirmed the request for additional funds and that they were pending to be added to my paypal account. Hindsight these emails were scams and not from the real paypal but they sure looked real to me.

I got additional information that said the shipper Mr. Abiola needed insurance money for the shipment of 620.00. Lara Johnson sent me an email that said she again needed assistance with the transaction as her military job and deployment did not allow for her to access any cash directly to send to the Shipper Mr. Abiola. I also then received an additional email from [email protected] that confirmed an additional 620.00 was added to the invoice and was pending for my account and would be deposited to my account once the transaction was completed. Lara Johnson then sent an email that she would include an additional 100.00 to compensate me for any problems I had with this transaction. I received subsequent emails from [email protected] that verified the extra money to the invoice and all was pending for my account. I sent a money gram on 11/25/2016 for 620.00 to Daniel Abiola for this fee. I then was reassured by the additional [email protected] emails that the transaction was safe and my money would be deposited when the transaction was complete.

on 11/26/2016 I received a paypal email from [email protected] that said Lara F. Johnsons account had been double charged for the 620.00 and that this amount had been added to the invoice and was in a pending status as well. I questioned the transaction quite a bit but I guess I was too trusting and simply wanted to sell the long arm machine badly, after all I was reassured that the funds were pending at paypal and would be released to me once the transaction was completed. So I again stupidly desparate to sell my machbine and get to my "pending" money sent another money gram for the 620.00 reference to Daniel Abiola.

I received interim emails from both lara Johnson at [email protected] that all would be resolved on Monday November 28th and I would receive all of the pending amount. I then on Monday at 5:28 I received an email from support@paypal that said since the transaction was now over 4K I would need to send an additional 880.00 increase to my my paypal account to a higher level or gold level. I also got an email from Lara Johnson that said do not send that money and allow her lawyer named James Tellier to review it. This person of course subsequently advised me to pay the amount and that sometimes paypal works in this manner..

I then on 11/28 got a response from [email protected] that said I could send the 440 and transfer the rest later when the transaction was complete. so desparate was I to get this transaction completed and receive my pending money I sent another moneygram to David Monoh so again after the [email protected] emails confirmed. I again sent money gram for 440.00 reference # 66325386 to David Monoh. I corresponded in email several times through the day with Lara Johnson.

When I arrived home today after work I contacted paypal finally because I couldn't get any response from the [email protected] and sadly learned that I had totally been taken and scammed the money grams had been picked up and none of the paypal emails I had assumed had come from paypal itself had actually in fact come from paypal and I learned I had been scammed. So here I sit. I am beyond furious with this bitch and so hope she can be stopped. She sent several emails about sewing, and extra fabric for her "sister" to use the machine on. Her military bullshit. I wish I had checked this email out and I would have found this site...