General Music Chat

I'm sure many of you know, but at least in America, there are no group of scammers more busy than Nigerians. Usually their scams involve supposedly being in charge of alot of money that they can't get to for some reason, but they will give you half their fortune for helping them out.

Well, I got one that was new for me the other day.

Someone wanting to book our band for a gig in Texas. They would be more than happy to send us a deposit, etc...

Why do they want to send a deposit? Because they will send a fake money order, that nevertheless, when you try and deposit it, it will give them your banking info, and they will drain your account. I simply googled this guy's name, and found it on a message board about scammers. But luckily I had known about the money order scam already, which is why I was suspicious, when this guy wanted to book us, instead of a Texas band (we're in Atlanta). I figured if I didn't find anything bad on this guy, I would accept the deposit, but I thought, only through PayPal or something. You guys can chime in, but I figured there is not much of a way to scam through PayPal, since they would be the ones receiving (or not receiving) the money for us.

But beware guys!

Forgot to mention....

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS...

Get a signed contract too!!!!

Actually ... on the PayPal scamming thing ..... OMFG ... I could tell you stories of very easy PayPal Scams.

PayPal Sending Money Scam:
When you send someone money via PayPal you think you have PayPal security features on your side. NOT. Here's the scam. lets say Jack sends Jill $50 to her PayPal account for a product. Jill being a scammer .... downloads the money to her bank account immediately upon receiving it. Being that it only takes a few seconds for the money transfer from one paypal account to another .... and a few days to complete the download of the money to the bank account.... Jill has the money safely in her bank account in just 3-4 days .... then .... closes her PayPal account. Jack ... 3 weeks later ... frustrated about not yet receiving his product he paid for .... and not being able to locate Jill ... contacts PayPal. PayPal replies ... no active account to credit the refund to. Without Jill's account that received the money from Jack .. PayPal can't do anything. If Jill closes the account before Jack makes the complaint ... she's home free.

PayPal Receiving Money Scam:
Jill ... being great a scamming ... signs up for another paypal account .... offers to buy a product from Syd. She sends $50 to Syd's PayPal account from her own PayPal Account. 3 weeks later Jill recieves the product. Jill then decides she wants her money as well and complains to PayPal that she didn't receive the product paid for. PayPal's security features automatically refunds the victom of such circumstances and asks questions later. Syd ... upon seeing that Jill was given back her money ... after receiving the product the money paid for .... complains to PayPal ... submitting proof of his claim (UPS Records). This takes a few days to be investigated by PayPal. During which time Jill ... once again... downloads the money to her PayPal account and then closes the PayPal account again.

PayPal Income Scam:
1) When Jack uploads money from his personal bank account to his PayPal Account ... what is happening is.... he is making a bank to bank transfer.... from his bank account to PayPal's Bank account. Now consider this. If Jack were to send Syd $20... PayPal will take about $1.50 in service charge fee. If Syd sends $15 of the remaining $20 (that was sent to him from Jack) ... to a friend ... PayPal again ... takes about 1.20 for service charge fee. So far .... off of that $20 PayPal has earned about $2.50-$3.00. The more that particular $20 is sent from PayPal Account to PayPal Account ... it will eventually end up .... completely owned by PayPal. Now thats interesting.

When Jack sent Syd that $20.... the money didn't move. It is still in the same place .. in PayPal's Bank Account where he put it when he "uploaded" it from his personal account. The Javascript program that the PayPal features is made from is the only thing affected by this transaction by Jack. No manual work is necessary. Just like posting this message ... Bandmix staff doesn't need to do any work to have this message posted that I am typing right now. The forum script that this forum is build from will post the message. The money listings in each person's PayPal account is just a javascript counter. PayPal staff doesn't need to do any labor work at all for such transactions. So why the service fee?

2) Being that all money in everyone's PayPal account (as we speak) is technically in PayPal's Bank Account .... they are earning a revenue from Interest earned on periodic closing balances. So even if they didn't take that $20 in full yet ... they are going to earn a revenue from it till they do manage to take it in completion.

3) Deciding to download money from Paypal is of expense as well. Ok.... only 50 cents lol... but .... thats still an income off of money that they have been scamming income from since it was uploaded in the first place from automatic script transfers (Paypal account to Paypal account) and Interest Fees earned.

Don't even get me started on PayPal's Currency Exchange scam.... which of course helps them take that 20 bucks.

The exact reasoning why I canceled my eBay account.

PS: My buddy got screwed for 900$ through paypal in a very similar manner.

Don't let yourself be taken alive. lol

Thanks for the PayPal warnings. The ones you mentioned involving scamming, seemed to be from people "paying" for products and getting ripped off, not the other way around. All I was suggesting was that if someone sent a deposit, it would be PayPal receiving the "money" not you, and so I would think this gives a scammer no direct access to your own bank account.

This scam is well known around here, look for threads about Jude Michael. You'll find several.

I got an email not long ago with another name, can't remember the name, but it's the same scam, probably the same guy. FIrst, I already knew the score, second, I'm a musician looking for a band, not a band ready to gig, third, I wouldn't drive 6 or 8 hours to Longview Texas to play for a birthday party unless they were willing to pay enough to make it worthwhile, and last, why would the guy want me to play this birthday party if he's never heard me? And if he actually did read my profile, as the email claims, he would know I'm not a band.