Scunthorpe thwarts Paypal scammer
Fiona Taylor, a 25 year old mother from Scunthorpe decided that she would auction her mobile phone online to help her pay the bills, but what she got instead was a failed scam attempt which the police quickly thwarted.
An American responded to her auction asking her to send the mobile phone valued at ?150 to his son in Nigeria. After the first email, an email that resembled PayPal emails was sent to her asking for a tracking number to be sent before the buyer would be allowed to send her funds for the mobile.
Taylor stated that although the request seemed odd, the email had the PayPal logos on it so she had no reason to think that there was anything wrong with the order.
In fact, since the ?American? told her that it was for a birthday present she even decorated the box.
However, when Taylor returned home she attempted to enter the requested tracing number into the email and realized that there was no way to enter an order tracking number which tipped her off to the fact that she had just been scammed.
Taylor called the post office first but was told that without a warrant they would be unable to give her back the package. However, a quick call to the Humberside police and the mobile was safely back in her possession.
