I almost fell for a scam that I wanted to let all of you know about. I got married in September and I plan on selling my dress. I posted to a few sites on Tuesday. I received this email regarding my posting on Oncewed.com:
**Hi,How are you doing today?I just want to know if your Wedding dress still available.Kindly email me the final asking price,condition and if you can send some pictures to me.I can only pay Via PayPal OK....Get back to me asap. Thanks..... janeswilliams25@yahoo.com**
I responded with the information and her response is as follows:
**kaitlin,
Good to hear from you soon,I really the dress and i am buying it for my lovely sister as a surprise on her wedding which is coming up soon. I would have loved to come check it out my self but am currently in camp as military instructor for new recruits. I won't be able to leave the base until 22nd of Jan Next year.I will be paying you with my PayPal account because it's attached to my bank account and its safe and very secure way to make payment. If my mode of payment is accepted just send me your PayPal email address,(PayPal ID)or probably send me a paypal money request so that i can pay right away. I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after payment has been made, so no shipping included. I'll need your name, the pickup address or location and please include your PayPal email address for the payment and send me some recent pictures if available And if you don't have a PayPal account, you can easily go to
http://www.paypal.com/ and sign up,its very easy. I await your reply asap**
Because she was using PayPal I didn't think anything was fishy. Then her next email to me is as follows:
**Thanks for your mail Kaitlin,
I got all the information and it's has just been forwarded to my courier now OK.....My courier will take care of the cleaning so you don't need to bother yourself again. I also got the paypal request now,i will let you know as soon as i make the payment.....The pickup date will be first thing Monday Morning if that is ok by you kindly let me know as soon as possible.
Once again it's nice doing business with you.**
Once she had my paypal address she sent the following email:
**Hi Kaitlin,
I have just made the payments and PayPal emailed me confirming this. So please check your PayPal email address for the Pay Pal confirmation email. I included my pick up agent fee together with your payment,so you will proceed and Wire the excess which is $400 to my pick up agent to enable them make a booking for the picked up of the item.Please wire the agent fee to them via Western union Money Transfer.
So please do send $350.00 through Western union and use the remaining change of $50 as Western union charge.You can easily Walk to Western union office around you.After you have sent the money please get back to me asap with the Western union details, the MTCN Number which you will be given by Western union agent after you have sent the money as well as the sender's name and address so i can forward it back to PayPal for your money to be put through or you can email it to PayPal directly,that is alright as well.
Here is my pick up agent's info that you will need to send the money to through Western union:
Barbara Green Sproch
1502 Claremont Ave.
Pueblo, Co 80808
United State.
I will need the address where the item will be picked up,as my pick up agent will contact you to book a pick up time after they have received payments but they will have to book a time that is convenient for you.
Best Regards**
This is when I realized it was a scam. I googled wedding dress courier scam and so many posts came up. I emailed the person back stating I would like to make sure payment goes through before giving the dress to the courier. I didn't get a response (which at this point, I didn't expect) so I emailed again stating I was no longer interested.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be careful when selling your dress. I thought since she was using PayPal everything was okay. Make sure to really do research before giving anything away.
I hope this helps someone.