Can I get scammed through PayPal on Craiglist?

I'm selling my PS Vita + 7 games for $300.
A person sent me an E-mail wanting to buy it, I had no problem until he told me that he will be paying with PayPal.

Here is the E-mail I received…
"What is the working condition like? What is your rock bottom price?
you can text me on 404 692***

Sent from my iPhone 4"

My reply…
"It runs great, barely used the wi-fi feature to surf the web on it since I have a laptop and all.
I reset the whole device, so whoever gets it can put their name to it and so on.
Well, it depends on your best offer really. I don't see me selling it lower than $200 though.
Let me know if you are interested"

The E-mail that I got that weirded me out…
"I'm very grateful to hear back from you. I need it as a surprise gift for a ministry friend's child that I had the privilege of meeting last time I ministered in Africa. The price is fine with me since it works great. I will pay you using PayPal because it pays and secures both parties in the transaction. Kindly provide me with your Pay Pal email account. I will be adding a shipping fee.

Reply As soon as possible,

Remain Blessed.

Pastor Michelle Adams
Visit our website www.mtcalvaryvaldosta.org"

I honestly don't know how PayPal works, nor do I have an account…
I know that PayPal has like nothing to do with Craigslist.
Any words of advice will do!

Pay pal is pretty secure i've used it with like ebay and amazon you can use it for a lot of things if you want to make the deal it wouldnt hurt to set up an account its nice to have for online purchasing

Be very careful. I believe it is a scam.

Notice how he did not refer to the item by its name, he uses the word "it" all the time? That's, because this is a generic e-mail he sends to many people hoping to catch a victim.

They use titles like pastor to make you think they are honest and upright folks.

They will send you a fake e-mail purporting to be from Paypal that says you have received money but it will be on hold until you ship the product. They hope that you will foolishly believe the e-mail and ship the product.

Later, you find out there was never any payment because the e-mail was fake.

Google for "Paypal scam " to find out more. Many folks have been taken in by this, do not be another victim.

If you want to verify, ask him to describe the item that he wrote to you about. He will probably not be able to describe it, and you have just busted the scam.

This is a SCAM, this article explains how the scam works
http://consumerist.com/2008/10/how-a-nigerian-steals-your-laptop.html

Paypal offers NO protection if you ship to Africa. They won't pay you anyway - they send you a fake Paypal email

I got the same exact email about a posting this week. Every word was identical. It is a scam.

Its a scam! I got the same email

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