Tag: Paypal

Craigslist PayPal Scam

On By Michel McDonaldIn ScamsLeave a comment

 

Today is the second time I have spoken with someone regarding this issue. Someone I know was trying to sell her engagement ring, and she placed an ad on Craigslist. Just for the record, she lives in Tennessee and the person who responded said they live in Ohio. This person said they sent $4,350.00 to my friend via PayPal, but my friend did not see the money in the account that she had just created for this specific purpose. She received several emails from “PayPal” and here they are with my commentary. I’ve highlighted several issues with these emails.

First off, you can tell if an email is a scam by looking at who sent you the email. Notice how it says service@paypal.com, but then it says paypalsfundsalerts@inbox.lv? Well, if you get an email that shows 2 different email addresses, red flags should go up. Out of curiosity, I went to inbox.lv and that website does exist and anyone can create an email address with any name they want. This is not a valid paypal email address because they would not go out of the @paypal.com system. It just doesn’t happen. So that is my first red flag.

email to and from

This is the first email. I used Gimp to highlight. I created a box around the text, then used the paintbrush to add yellow with 50% transparency, which is why the black text looks faded. I just wanted to clarify that before you went any further.

Ok so here is the first email. They emailed her to tell her that they placed a temporary hold on the funds of this transaction. Why would they do that? I know she has just created this PayPal account for this very purpose, and she never intends on using PayPal again because she doesn’t trust it. She has a checking account with a brick and mortar bank, why would she need PayPal?

So I’m a bit confused here. They placed a temporary hold of $4,3500.00, but she is supposed to Money Gram $750 to someone, then send them a picture or scanned copy of the Money Gram to PayPal? What? That’s not how this works. This is crazy to me!

email 2 money gram

This is who she is supposed to send $750 to. Who is this? This is a 3rd party. PayPal would NEVER have you send money to a 3rd party via Money Gram. I’m sorry, but this is crazy to me.

email 2 money gram florida

Another red flag for me is that they would NEVER spell Walmart or Money Gram without caps. Also, check out my 2nd highlight where they started a new sentence without the space.

email 2 walmart or money gram

Ok, so that is the first email. She told this person that she never got the money and that she didn’t feel comfortable sending $750 via Money Gram. I mean, why would she feel comfortable doing that? I feel uncomfortable for her. So then she gets this email. First of all, look at the date. 12/05/2015. Todays date is 5/12/2015 so they got that backwards lol. If PayPal were to send an email out, they would have the correct date. Second, when someone sends you money on PayPal, a representative does not contact you personally. It just doesn’t happen. The computer will generate an email telling you that you need to verify your account before the funds will be deposited into your account. So that is a huge red flag for me. Third, they misspelled PayPal. You see my highlight that says papal. The last thing about this email is the Money Gram Transfer. I am still very confused about that.

email 1 contents

And finally they sent out a third email. Let me just repeat what I said before, if PayPal were to email anything to you, it would be their computer, not an actual person. They are pleading this Hazel persons case. “You Have to understand that Hazel Lane is a loyal customer of PayPal.” You have to understand is their first sentence? Why? I don’t understand this. Why are they pleading for someone? They spelled have with a cap. Then read my 2nd highlight “to loose the money.” You don’t loose money, you lose money. Then they said it is clear you are trying to scam her which will be taking up legally. WE WILL, is what they meant to say. Then finally “which can lead you loosing this account.” You don’t loose something, you lose it. Oh and they are threatening 5 years in prison. Then finally in the last highlight they did it again with the separation of sentences where they added a period, but then forgot to add a space, but this time the next sentence begins without the cap and it says “please for any Question reply directly back to this email.”

email 3 you have to understand

Oh and finally the logo at the end SCAM DEFENCE. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s spelled with an S not a C. Defense. Also the N is raised a bit oddly in that logo.

I told her what I thought and that she should call PayPal directly and I found their number on Google Search and she called and they told her that this is a scam. I told her to cut off communication with this person and to delete her PayPal account since she has no intention of using it any further. I also advised her to change her email password and to block this person on her phone since they were communicating via text message.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know when you are being scammed, but some people, particularly young and elderly people don’t get scammed too often, so they don’t see the signs right away. That’s why I am happy that she sent me a message asking me what I thought about this whole thing. Another friend of mine fell for this scam when she tried selling her laptop on Craigslist. They pressured her to ship it out overnight, so she ended up shipping out her laptop and never got a dime and spent around $50 shipping the laptop to… get this… NIGERIA! If that is not a big giant red flag, I don’t know what is. If you are ever in doubt, the minute you see the word Nigeria, RUN! Don’t pass go, just run! And when I say run, obviously I mean shut it down. Stop all communication and call PayPal directly.

If you have to question something, then perhaps there is something wrong with it. Also, you know the old adage, say it with me, If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you want to see what a TRUE PayPal email looks like when you get money, this is it. They don’t add any fancy graphics or personalize anything. Know the difference and stay safe.

proper email

Make Holiday Money Online

On By Michel McDonaldIn Blog, Make MoneyLeave a comment

christmas cash

Want to know how to earn money on your smart phone or computer for the holidays?  It’s not very difficult, although it does take a lot of time and patience.  Here is how I make extra money.  Blogging, surveys and watching videos online.

Blogging

Blogsvertise

Click Advertise on My Blog

Blogsvertise isn’t as good as it used to be, although I am not counting them out of the game because it is possible that some day I might get new opps, although it has been a long time so I’m not holding my breath either.  They usually send you an email telling you to write a 200 word, 3 paragraph blog post and you get paid a certain amount of money depending on your blogs rating.  The higher your PR is, the more money you will make.  Although from what I understand, Google doesn’t use PR anymore, advertisers still request PR1 or PR3.  They do have pay-per-click opportunities, but I have never made a dime from those, so they don’t work very well.

It takes 30 days to receive your payment through PayPal and there is no limit to the amount of money they will deposit.  If your payment is $10, then they deposit $10.

PayPerPost
PayPerPost is a company owned by IZEA.  They send you emails with leads and you can either accept or decline them.  You just write your blog post about the website and enter the link to the post and you get paid 30 days after it is approved.  There isn’t a limit to how much money you can withdraw, but know that if it is under $50, they will take $2 from you.  It’s a good thing to wait for that to build up to $50 though.  I still have $23.50 in my account, although it has been quite some time since I have gotten an opp.

SocialSpark

Set Your Price. Choose your Advertisers. Sign up for SocialSpark!

SocialSpark is also owned by IZEA and for some reason I get more opportunities here than PayPerPost, although it has been quite some time since I have.  I also have a pay-per-click (PPC) ad on my blog which does generate revenue each month, so whether I write a post or not, I will receive money in my account, although it is a tiny amount.

Much like the other blogging websites above, they send you an email telling you that you have a lead or an opportunity and you either accept the lead, or take the opportunity, whichever the case may be.  Unlike the other 2, when you are ready to write your blog post, you have to write it within the website, not your own.  They will post it to your blog on a specific day and time, usually the next day or so.

It also takes a month to receive your payment, and like PayPerPost, you can withdraw any amount you want, but they will take $2 out if the amount is under $50.

Surveys

Swag Bucks

Search & Win

Swag Bucks is a great way to earn money by doing surveys, watching videos, playing games, downloading apps and getting paid to shop or search the web.  I haven’t received a payout yet, but that’s because it is not the easiest way to earn money because I get disqualified from I would say 8 out of 10 surveys because I didn’t meet the criteria for whatever reason.  You earn very little for watching videos and I haven’t even figured out how to earn money from playing games yet.  When you do earn swag bucks from surveys, it is a good amount.

When you have 450 swag bucks you are eligible to redeem a $5 gift card for Amazon.  Some rewards are 500 for a $5 value, but Amazon seems to require less.  They do have good rewards though, like Amazon, Target, PayPal and Starbucks, just to name a few.

SuperPay.Me

SuperPay.Me is a new website (new to me) that I just started using.  In just a short amount of time I have earned $1.43 and 104 points from doing surveys, installing apps and watching videos.  One of the very odd ways of earning money is by clicking a banner ad which opens a new tab in your browser, and you have 5 to 60 seconds to look at a website before you earn your credit.  The credit isn’t a lot, but it’s free money, so why wouldn’t you do it?

The reason I am suggesting this website is because you can withdraw any amount of money you want at any given time.  Like say you have made $1.00 and you want that dollar, like right now, you can withdraw it to your PayPal account.  How you make money from points is you can either get a $5 Amazon gift card for 500 points, or you can convert your points to cash, or you can convert your cash to points.  It is up to you how you want to be paid.  I would personally keep earning as much money as I can until I need it, then withdraw it and get a lump sum.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is not the same thing as everything else I listed above this one.  You choose tasks called “HIT” and do whatever it is they want you to do.  Like for example, my first task was to write down everything in a store receipt along with their price, including coupons and voids.  You know how a receipt shows initials instead of long names because there really isn’t much room for a long name?  Well, you have to type in the long name I guess.  Anyway, that one particular task gave me 2 hours to do the task, well, that’s perhaps a 10 minute task if you ask me, but they kept saying I didn’t do something right and to keep checking.  I forgot to add 1 yogurt and 1 dozen eggs, but everything else was right.  I checked it, double checked it, triple checked it, quadruple checked it… I basically checked it about 20 times and it was correct.  I finally just submitted it whether it was right or not because it was right in my mind.  If I don’t get paid then that’s okay, it was only .06 cents anyway.

You aren’t going to make very much money with this which is why I don’t completely recommend it.  It is Amazon, so when you get paid, they will pay you money, or you can choose Amazon credit.  I personally would rather have Amazon credit because I’m always buying things on Amazon anyway, so I might as well just have some money in my account.  But I can’t say that I will be doing this enough to make much of a difference.  It takes way too long for only 6 cents for that one task.

Watching TV

Viggle

Viggle isn’t a website, it’s an app for your Android or iPhone.  You earn points for watching tv and doing trivia while watching your show.  They have some good rewards, although they come and go so if you want a specific reward, you may have to wait for it to come back.

In 2013 I earned $50 in rewards for Barnes & Noble.  It cost me 50,000 points for $25 which I redeemed twice (months apart).  I don’t see it on their website now, but I will continue earning more points to redeem more for the same reward.

RewardTV

RewardTV is a website I used many, many years ago.  I didn’t even know they were still around, but you can make a lot of points just buy doing trivia on shows that you watch.  Like say you watched Once Upon A Time last night, today you can do trivia on what you saw.  I completed the trivia and got 2 questions wrong, but they weren’t questions for the show, they were for the commercials during the show.  Look, I’m not paying attention to the commercials LOL.  Those are pee breaks people!  At any rate, for this specific show, I earned 10,500 points.

I can’t tell you how to spend your points.  They don’t have a rewards page for redeeming your points like the other websites I suggested.  They do have sweepstakes, pay for my stuff which I assume is basically sweepstakes, auctions, and shopping spree, which I have no clue how that works.

So even though I have no clue how you can make money from this, I am still suggesting it because points are very easy to make if you remember what happened in the show that you watched the day before.  I am sure you will figure out how to spend your points.

Those are all I can think of for right now.  I wrote a post about making money from your cell phone, but I didn’t keep those apps because I didn’t use them as often as I would have liked, but I stand by them because they are a good way to earn money if you are willing to do what they ask.

Shopping for an eBook Reader

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gadgets, Kindle, Nook, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

Someone I follow on tweeted this link today. Engadget’s back to school guide: E-readers. Naturally I had to look because I too want to buy an e-book reader. I have wanted one ever since they first came out but never could afford one because they were in the $400 – $600 range (around 2006).

In November 2009 I started blogging for pay (via PayPerPost and Blogsvertise) with the intention of saving money for buying an e-book reader, Kindle or Nook. Preferably a Nook because of the color screen at the bottom but it didn’t really make any difference. They were both around $265 or so back then.

I had a lot of trouble saving the money for one because my monthly income is so low that when I run out of grocery money I ended up taking the blogging money from PayPal to buy food. Since I have a PayPal debit card it makes it so much easier to spend the money.

9 months has gone by since I made the commitment to save the money and I still don’t have an e-book reader. However, the thing that I wanted the most out of an e-book reader was a lower price to justify my purchase.

eBook readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony Reader have all gone dramatically down in price, down to a price that I can finally afford.

Unfortunately, they still don’t fit my needs. What I want is an e-book reader that will accept a lot of formats like .lit, .prc, .pdf, .mobi and .epub. What I want is for an e-book reader that would allow me to read those formats and still be able to use their dictionary. I don’t know if they all let you to use the dictionary with just a .pdf file which is what makes my decision so difficult.

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6″ Display, Graphite – Latest Generation:

Pros: The new Amazon Kindle is stylish. I love the graphite color. I like the keypad on the bottom, it’s small enough that I’m ok with it considering I would probably be typing on it occasionally when searching for keywords, making notes and searching for books in the Kindle store. They have games on it, which I don’t really care about, I just want it to read but it is good to know. The price dropped down to $139 and has free 2-day free shipping which is awesome. The battery works for a full month without charging with the wi-fi turned off which is great.

Cons: It does allow me to view my .pdf books but that’s it and I can’t use the dictionary for definitions which is a big negative for me. I mean sure I can’t do that with a paper book but this is electronic and I want that ability. Also, it does not have an SD card for adding more books.

NOOK Wi-Fi, eReader, eBook Reader – Barnes & Noble:

Pros: The B&N Nook is also very stylish with its cool color touchscreen at the bottom which also has a keyboard. The screen goes black while you are reading to keep you from being distracted. It does allow me to add a .pdf, .epub and .pdb file and has a MicroSD slot. The cool thing about the Nook is that you can lend books to your friends and if I had any that had a Nook then we could lend each other books. If you are in the B&N store you can browse through a book for free for 1 hour per day. The price dropped down to $149 and although it’s $10 more than Amazon it is still a good price.

Cons: The Nooks battery is only 10 days unlike the Kindle which is 30 days. The color touchscreen on the bottom is too slow for impatient people like me. Although as I said it allows .pdf, .epub and .pdb files it doesn’t allow the others. All my ebooks are in all the other formats I mentioned above.

Sony Digital Reader Pocket Edition – Dark Blue:

The price of this is different at the Sony site as opposed to the Amazon site. Amazon charges $136.99 with free shipping but according to the Sony site it’s $149.99. I would buy it from Amazon.

Pros: Although it is a little bit stylish in the dark blue color, it isn’t as stylish as the Kindle or Nook. The Sony Pocket Edition does allow multiple formats such as .pdf, .epub, MS Word, BBeB Book (?) and other text file formats. It doesn’t say the others. The ebook store Sony uses is the Reader store which I assume is from Sony, check out books from public libraries and access over one million free public domain titles from Google Books, sharing sites and other online stores and publishers websites.

I don’t know if that means I can access the Rainbow eBooks website or not, I hope it does because that is what I want.

Cons: One of the things I don’t like about this is that it doesn’t have a keyboard for typing and I don’t know how you type anything when looking up a book to buy.

I don’t know if this should go in pro or con, it’s charge only lasts 2 weeks but I mean seriously, I can charge it every 2 weeks.

This is a tough and huge decision, one that I can think about until the first week of September when I will finally have the money saved up to buy one. I’m leaning more toward the Sony reader though but I would like it if people would leave a comment telling me what they think of each of these readers to give me more to think about. Keeping in mind that I buy a lot of books from Rainbow eBooks and ebooks.com.

Holy Cow Delivery

On By Michel McDonaldIn FoodLeave a comment

Well Ron from Holy Cow Milk just came about 30 minutes ago with our yoplait, string cheese and bread.  I liked paying with PayPal because then I don’t have to use any checks but because of that person who responded in my first post for this company, I decided to pay by check from here on out.  At least if I pay by check I don’t have anything to lose because they don’t get their money until they deliver the goods.

I really love having milk delivered to my house instead of having to get it from the store.  Actually their milk is more expensive than the store by $1 per gallon because you can buy 2 gallons for $5 which is $2.50 each, Holy Cow charges $3.50 which if you go to the store and look that is still a very good price.  If you just buy 1 gallon of milk you are going to pay $5 for 1 gallon of the Albertson’s brand or the name brands like Foster Farms.  It just makes more sense to buy the Special Value milk for $5 for 2.

The thing I buy from Holy Cow is their bread for $1.50 a loaf, bread is expensive if you buy at the store.  They are outrageously expensive and with today’s economy you can’t get bread for less than $2.  The Albertson’s brand bread at the store is $1.79.

I also buy String Cheese which is like .35 cents.  I’ve never bought string cheese so I don’t know what that regular price is.  Yoplait is another thing I buy from them.  If you have gone to the store you will know that Yoplait is the most expensive yogurt on the shelves.  That stuff is over $1 each.  Holy Cow only charges .65 cents each.  That is the main reason I buy from them.  I can only get Yoplait when they are 20 for $10 at Albertson’s which makes them .50 cents each.  So .65 is a very good price and I’d rather give the money to Holy Cow than the big corporations.

I asked Ron to give us some business cards so we can pass them out in the neighborhood, I suggested magnet business cards that people can put on their fridge.  That is a very good idea.  I’m sure they are more expensive but you have to spend money to make money.