PayPal help

Evening all, asking for advice on behalf of my wife regarding a potential sale that she is in the process of trying to sort.

She is is selling her wedding dress (jokes later!!) via a well respected wedding dress sales platform. She received a message the other day from a lady in Saudi.

The message was very broken English, but she basically said she can pay the money into PayPal immediately. Her shipping address however is in the UK and appears to be a shipping company.

I am wary given all the PayPal scams doing the rounds and told my wife to speak to PayPal. They have said she is covered if she ships to the registered PayPal address and has proof of purchase. We have a screenshot of the lady’s PayPal screen with this address in her address list.

What is odd is each message she sends seems to be better English and less broken as my wife is asking for more details to cover herself...


thoughts? Scam or possible scam? What say you?

All help appreciated.

Sounds like a potential hefty headache. I guess it depends on how much cash we're talking, but if it's not insignificant, then the risks would be outweighing the benefits for me.

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Originally Posted by hughtrimble

Sounds like a potential hefty headache. I guess it depends on how much cash we're talking, but if it's not insignificant, then the risks would be outweighing the benefits for me.

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It’s £1600 which we definitely can’t afford to lose. That is my overall gut feeling so far that the risks are too high...

As long as you post to the address that Paypal give you after you've received payment, the one registered with the buyers account, and send it by a registered/signed for method, you'll be ok.

If after making payment the buyer asks you to ship to a different address, don't.

You could also ask the buyer to make a bank transfer instead of paypal.

It sounds like a scam.

Like the one with cars. Buyer from overseas loves your 'steering wheel on the wrong side' standard VW Golf so much they'll get it shipped to Italy or wherever. They promise to pay immediately and arrange for a shipping company rep to conveniently collect the car from your home. You see the balance in your PAYPAL, the bloke arrives, you hand over the keys, sign the 'paperwork' and it's gone, as is your money when the chargeback comes from the stolen credit card. No car, no money.

Don't do it. UK sale only is the way surely for something like a wedding dress?

Is it Aramex by any chance?

We do significant amounts of business to Saudi via Aramex and in over eight figures of credit card and PayPal payments, we have never had so much as a single chargeback.

My brothers wife was conned by an oversea buyer for her wedding dress via ebay / paypal, can’t remember the exact details. Coincidence perhaps.


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I sold an item to someone who was in the US and they requested I post to a shipping company, forward2me, based in Preston. He arranged postage from the UK to the US via them. I was wary but comms with the buyer all seemed fine and the amount involved wasn't large. I never gave the address a thought from the perspective of PayPal protection but will do in future although I'm unlikely to knowingly ship abroad again. I wouldn't have done so for £1600 if that's of any help.

Could you ask for a BT instead of PayPal?

It has scam written all over it. PayPal. Saudi. Freight forwarding. It's like a checklist. She is probably marrying a Nigerian Prince (who also has an amazing opportunity for you). Hard pass from me.

Thanks for the replies so far guys. My wife has queried a few more things and she has sent all sorts of PayPal transactions through as if that proves anything! My wife asked why she would bother to go through all this trouble! My response is some people make a living from it!

Im going to tell her to politely decline the sale!

Its not Aramex but having done some digging it’s a freight forwarding company she wants it sending to!!

We shall await a response to say her Nigerian prince boyfriend will pay £1,000,000 for the dress!! :worked_till_5am:

Avoid this buyer its an obvious scam ..

I definitely would not be sending anything to that buyer

100% scam

Thanks for all the replies, my wife replied telling the buyer she wouldn’t be selling to her... she got a load of screenshots off her today of messages from another seller in Australia confirming payment for another dress! The message was along the lines of “I wanted to buy your dress but bought this one now...”!!!

Subtext... I tried to scam you but have scammed this poor Australian girl instead!!

Good news you avoided a massive headache . Sometimes its best to avoid some buyers no matter how tempting..