Does this sound like a scammer to you? [Archive]

View Full Version : Does this sound like a scammer to you?

crazyjackcsa

12-07-2006, 01:13 PM

Alright, So I ebayed a ps3, BIN 800 dollars somebody BINed it and I got this email:

Compliment of the season to you I am Mr Catherin Gomez From Uk London i saw your item advert at ebay on my way traveling to Au for a business purpose. so i will like to purcshase this item has a chrismax present for my daughter who is in the University Of Nigerian Study.i will like to make this Nice present to her as a Chrismax Gift . Shipping to Lagos Nigeria i will have to handle the shipping what ever.Ship to Lagos Nigerian will not be Less then 100 or 112dollars Via Royal Mail 1st class,Airmail Express,Parcel Force Express,EMX Express 1st Class,Uspostal Service Express 1st Mail. so i will be responsible for the shipping details.so i will like the item shipped to Lagos Nigerian as a Chrismax present to her.i will be making out my payment via Pay PaL. So kindly get me your Pay PaL Email Address as to immediately make out payment for the item.Once Payment is made Out you will be receiving a Confirmation of payment that Payment has been made. so you can go ahead in shipping the package immediately. Okay Thanks
Here is the shipping Details
Name:Mary H, Ishadare
Address:No 10 Oba Akinjobi Road G.R.A
City:Ikeja
State:Lagos
Country:Nigeria
zipcode:23401
Phone:234-8052553101

Sounds scammy to me, what do you think. What can I do to get my fees back?

jajaja

12-07-2006, 01:16 PM

Before i even read the post i post i noticed 1 word, Nigera, so yes its a scam.

EDIT: Read it now and as i said, its a scam hehe :\ Its the typical standard story that its a gift for the daughter or wife that works there or go to school there. Also notice that he/she mentions Royal Mail as shipping, but you live in USA. Royal Mail is in England. First time i've seen a scammer that wants to pay with Paypal tho.

Snapple

12-07-2006, 01:19 PM

What jajaja said. Anything that involves shipping to Nigeria or a country bordering Nigeria should send off large warning sirens.

crazyjackcsa

12-07-2006, 01:26 PM

so what can I do to recoup my fees?

Darth Sensei

12-07-2006, 01:39 PM

I believe Ebay will keep the fees. Merry Christmas.

Ponyone

12-07-2006, 01:50 PM

I believe Ebay will keep the fees. Merry Christmas.

You mean Chrismax

jajaja

12-07-2006, 02:10 PM

so what can I do to recoup my fees?

Hopefully the buyer will be deleted from Ebay real soon. I doubt he/she used real contact info.

jsiucho

12-07-2006, 04:10 PM

Mayhem

12-07-2006, 06:06 PM

so what can I do to recoup my fees?

File a non-paying bidder complaint to eBay and they should refund the final price fees (but you won't get the listing fees back).

XYXZYZ

12-07-2006, 06:28 PM

I've heard alot about any email having to do with Nigeria being a scam of some sort.

How does this scam work? Stolen credit cards?

ProgrammingAce

12-07-2006, 09:57 PM

They use a fake money order, when you deposit it, it takes a few days to clear. You ship the item thinking everything is fine, then find out from your bank the MO was fake.

In this case, i'd tell the guy you're going along with it, then ship him a box full of rocks. He's paying the shipping, he'll have to pay the costs for an international shippment of heavy rocks. Mery Christmax.

Darth Sensei

12-08-2006, 08:12 AM

File a non-paying bidder complaint to eBay and they should refund the final price fees (but you won't get the listing fees back).

Sorry, I wasn't more specific. This is what I meant. They get to keep your listing fees regardless, which is absolute BS.

Vroomfunkel

12-08-2006, 08:39 AM

I've heard alot about any email having to do with Nigeria being a scam of some sort.

How does this scam work? Stolen credit cards?

Possibly - but more likely he will just send a spurious email purporting to be a confirmation of payment, and will try to persuade you to send out the goods on the basis of that.

A popular ploy is to insist that the money has been paid and will only "clear" when you give them the tracking number.

Vroomfunkel

12-08-2006, 08:47 AM

Exactly, when you see Nigeria its fake,, I mean come on they dont even wear shoes in Nigeria,,

JS

Nice of you to pop in with the high-minded sarcasm, but perhaps you shouldn't butt in when you obviously aren't aware of the dynamics of the situation. Selling high value goods on eBay (or Yahoo, or craigslist, or anywhere online) frequently leads to fake offers such as this where scammers attempt to get free goods shipped overseas - almost always to Nigeria.

I have had several such offers myself, and they are pretty easily identifiable by their characteristic style and the nature of the story they spin to back up their bid or offer.

I have never once received a genuine bid or offer from Nigeria - nor has any of the other sellers that I know. But between us we have received hundreds of fake or scam offers such as this. As such, there are actually very good grounds for assuming, when you see a shipping address of Nigeria, that it is a scam.

jsiucho

12-08-2006, 10:46 AM

Nice of you to pop in with the high-minded sarcasm, but perhaps you shouldn't butt in when you obviously aren't aware of the dynamics of the situation.

You should have just said you didnt like the joke cause your boyfriend is from Nigeria.

JS

crazyjackcsa

12-08-2006, 10:35 PM

ProgrammingAce

12-08-2006, 10:55 PM

Subtotal: $900
+
Shipping: $100
+
Insurance: $100
=
$900?

devils advocate

12-09-2006, 12:46 AM

I hope you didn't try to log in to your paypal via the link from that email. If you did, they probably know your password now. Go change it, to be safe.

crazyjackcsa

12-09-2006, 09:11 AM

Of course not, I logged in with a new browser window after I closed the email I got. I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night.

jajaja

12-09-2006, 09:17 AM

Well I figured out how the scam works at least. I got an mail purporting to be from "Pay Pal" It looks somewhat legit, and then when you actually log into your paypal, there is nothing there. Some of the links go to legit sites, Like the paypal security link, others of course, don't.

I thought they might send a fake mail, but i didnt know they were that stupid.. With Paypal you can also just login and check if you have recived the money. Also funny that they did the misscalculation as mentioned above, $900 + $100 = $900 haha LOL

jsiucho

12-09-2006, 09:54 AM

Well I figured out how the scam works at least. I got an mail purporting to be from "Pay Pal" It looks somewhat legit, and then when you actually log into your paypal, there is nothing there. Some of the links go to legit sites, Like the paypal security link, others of course, don't.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/buick1971riviera/pay.jpg

You should pack a turd and send it over,,

JS

FantasiaWHT

12-09-2006, 03:02 PM

Actually I think if you relist it and it sells, you get your initial listing fee returned to you. Check tho, their live help is pretty good (can be accessed from ebay home page)

This is why it's always a good idea to require BIN bidders to pay immediately with paypal on big-ticket items.

Mattiekrome

12-09-2006, 04:14 PM

Subtotal: $900
+
Shipping: $100
+
Insurance: $100
=
$900?

LOL Brilliant!

theshizzle3000

12-09-2006, 04:43 PM

20/20 just did a special on this last night. It is a huge Nigerian scam to get peoples money. I also saw the experience first hand when they tried to do it to my roommate. They even went so far as to send him the money orders and even got his phone number and called him. It is a scam and you probably wont be able to give your money back. Sorry to hear about it man.

Predatorxs

12-09-2006, 07:43 PM

You have to love those scammers, the broken Engrish, the whole story about sending it to a family friend or saying its for a present, i'm sure they don't do it to scam people they do it for a joke.. just to make us laugh. :P

I'v had all this happen to me before (except the email saying you'll get the money once there is a tracking number), but it was when i was selling some phones on ebay they kept using the bin, then sending me a msg to ask if i could send the phone to nigeria, and this was after they had BIN'd the auction.

I Neg'd them feedback, all they did was use another user name and do it again.. at the time it was a pain in the ass but when i look back i can laugh.

Unless the cash is in your bank or in your hand, it's always a scam! :)

Email the scammer back and say its been sent and you also gave them an extra game as well since they paid you straight away!. LOL

$900 + $100 = $900 amazing!!! ;)

stargate

12-09-2006, 07:58 PM

It actually sounds completely legit to me. You guys are just being paranoid...

FantasiaWHT

12-09-2006, 10:07 PM

Actually, about the 900+100+100 thing... that is what paypal does. I've had a couple double-takes too, for my ebay auctions- it'll show my $2 optional insurance on the invoice (without saying that it's optional) but not add it to the total (assuming the buyer didn't choose insurance)

It is odd that the shipping wasn't added though.

shadowkn55

12-09-2006, 10:14 PM

It might be fun to play the game.

http://www.p-p-p-powerbook.com/

Ed Oscuro

12-10-2006, 03:22 AM

Okay, here's what's up

The SALE is okay (almost without a doubt). Send it to the buyer as normal.

The EMAIL is not. Somebody knows your email and the fact that you just sold an item, and put them together. That's all.

Report the email as fraud...there's a way to report it to eBay as well; you really should take the time to do that. You'll need a real email program like Outlook or Thunderbird, though, to get the header info.