Mark Stone, SLJ, Derek Simmons Craigslist Paypal Scam, Do Not Send Them Any of Your Products You will not get any money from them Columbia South Carolina

Looks like this guy is still at it trying to scam Craigslist sellers with the PayPal scam that I found was reported earlier. Do not fall for this tactic. Use Craigslist for what it was designed for, selling to local buyers.

Here the story.

I was contacted by SLJ (later to be known as Mark Stone) on Craigslist for and expensive item that I was trying to sell.  He responded to the ad 'Will buy it now' and gave a price greater than asking price to include overnight shipping, wanted it ASAP.  I asked how they wanted to complete the transaction and where they were located.   Responded with 'Have funds in Paypal account ready to send, send me your paypal email so I can make payment. Need it FedEx to South Carolina, ASAP.'

All other potential buyers, asked some questions about the condition or details about the product. Mark Stone did not. 

I'm not that exprienced with Paypay via Criagslist transaction, but this seemed legit until I got a Craigslist email reply: 

Payment made, since its over $5k the paypal representative sent you a confirmation email with instructions and my shipping info, check your paypal email..package everything well to avoid damage, if you can get it out today that would be great, if not, first thing in the morning will do..please be SURE to ship SPECIFICALLY by Fed Ex PRIORITY Overnght..send me the tracking # once done..thanks again :)

Checked my Paypal email and sure enough there was a spoof email that was branded to look like Paypal but actually came from a gmail account, sample below.

Subject: **PayPal Pending Payment - Response Required** 

Dear Customer,

                                  We would like to use this medium to let you know that you have a payment of $X,X00.00 USD pending that has been VERIFIED and CLEARED from Mark Stone. You have to ship and reply to this message with the VALID shipment tracking number as soon as possible before we can activate this fund to your account. Please ship by Fed Ex Priority Overnight Shipping to thisVERIFIED address:

Giveaway is that any correspondance from PayPay will be addressed to you (first and last name, or businsess name) not Customer.   Also PayPal will NEVER - Ask you to ship an item, pay a shipping fee, send a Western Union 
Money Transfer, or provide a tracking number before the payment received is available in your transaction history. 

Did a quick Google Search on Mark Stone and a Ripoff Report was the number one result.   Stop these criminals from trying to rip us off.  Be an informed internet consumer.   Guys like this are scum and need to be stopped.