Ebay Nigerian Scam - Warning to all Sellers !

[Xena]

I had an ipod touch listed on ebay, and today I received confirmation that it sold for £150 (£5.99 for p&P)

fair enough, you might think....

but then I got an email from the 'buyer'

Hi Mate,
I was just browsing through eBay to see if i can get a very good and nice item for a very good friend and a colleague of mine who has just been posted to West Africa on a training course on Enviromental Polution while i am being posted to Asia on a training course on Population so we are into exchange of gifts with each other, and i came across your item.

I want to know if the item is in its top top condition and also if it is still available for sale, as i don't want to buy him a faulty item. I also want to ask if you can help me send the item down to west africa(Nigeria)on my behalf as i am due to leave for asia soon so won't be able to receive the item here in the state.

I have already added the postage to west africa through Pay Pal. I want you to get the item shiped to the address below via Standard delivery via (Royal Mail Signed for,)first thing tomorrow morning just because the the item is urgently needed.

Name:Ayoola Adewale
Address:5,Joel Dumade Close Itire
City/State:Surulere Lagos
Postal code/Country:23401 Nigeria

I will be looking forward to read from you ASAP.

Thanks and God bless you.
Regards.


John Bell

Sounds fishy right? I checked with my paypal account - no money had gone into my account.

Then I got an actual email from paypal

Dear xena_uk,

You have an Instant Payment of £230.00 from belljs ([email protected])


Payment Details

Purchased Fromena_uk
Transaction ID:5NS50308X5606661C


Item Number Item Title Quantity Price Subtotal

130226027474 ipod touch 16GB 1 £180.00 £180.00

Postage & Packing via Standard Delivery (ROYAL MAIL SIGNED FOR):
(includes any seller packing fees) £50.00
Postage Compensation (not offered): --

Total: £230.00
Payment Information:
The payment for eBay Item no.130226027474 has been verified and confirmed. But due to security reasons on both sides of the buyer and the seller the status of the payment is pending. Most sellers do not ship out the exact items as they have listed on eBay and we are keen on securing the eBay community. You will be required to post out the item and email us its shipment reference number. We will then verify the status and contents of the shipment within 5 minutes with the courier service its been shipped through. Once we have completed verification, your account will be credited instantly.

Quickly call the PayPal representative who is handling the transaction on: +44 702-401-1075 to provide the shipment reference number or for any questions contact us via: ([email protected]) immediately with the shipment reference number so we can credit your account immediately without any delay.

Note: Do not send the shipment reference number to the buyer until we have confirmed the status of the shipment and credited your Paypal Account.


Delivery Information

Address: Ayoola Adewale
5 Joel Dumade Close Itire
Surulere Lagos
23401 Nigeria.




Address Status: Confirmed





Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

So I'm thinking WTF? Since when do you have to send a tracking number before you get your money? It's always payment first, then the item gets sent.

So I go and look on ebay, and my listing has been completely removed.

I'm really confused at this point, and then I got an email from ebay:

Dear xena_uk ([email protected]),

Thank you for listing the following items on eBay. We have removed these listings and will credit all fees to your account because it has come to our attention that the items were bought without the account owner's authorisation. We are now restoring the account to its owner.

130226027474 - ipod touch 16GB
130226027474 - ipod touch 16GB


Please be assured that there is no negative mark on your account because of this. We only removed your listing so that we could credit all of your Insertion and Final Value Fees and prevent any further problems arising such as Unpaid Item disputes or negative feedback.

The items should be shown in the "Unsold" section of My eBay and you are free to relist them from there.

Note: We will credit all fees for these listings to your account, however it may take up to ten days for all the Insertion and Final Value Fee credits to be shown on your account status page.

Thank you for your understanding in this difficult matter. If you have any questions or require assistance, you can contact us from any eBay Help page.

Regards,

eBay Trust & Safety

I'm still kinda confused as to what happened...did somebody hack this buyer's account then for use as a Nigerian Scam?


Anyway, either way, I thought I'd let you all know just as a warning to any of you who might sell things on ebay.

 

[MagicMarkers]

God thats confusing im still not wure what happened either, someone got n touch with you about sending it elsewhere, payed but didnt pay then the item unsold itself ?!?!

 

[Xena]

God thats confusing im still not wure what happened either, someone got n touch with you about sending it elsewhere, payed but didnt pay then the item unsold itself ?!?!

something like that lol

I'm still trying to get my head around it

 

[Sophie1102]

Yeah they did, it happens alot especially with electronic items. My OH had that happen when he was selling a wii, but like you he didn't send it. But i do know someone who sent an item before they realised but luckily they got an e-mail from ebay and contacted the police who went to the post office and collected the item before it got sent they had to wait a while before they got it back though!!!

You've got to be really careful

 

[Fluffy Bunny]

mmm, sounds like someone has hacked into someone else's ebay account, bought themselves a nice ipod and tried to get you to send it to them before the poor bugger who had their account hacked noticed

Something like that anyway

 

[kellyannlyle]

It looks as though it isn't that someone has hacked into another account but i assume when you ceck the buyer they will be a new user or switched names within the last 30 days.

Once you give the package to the post office and it is sent you can NOT get it back!
So if you send it - send them the ref number and they don't pay then it is tough!

So ebay have picked up on it and probs deleted the account of the buyer.

Just make sure that you put in the description when relisting it that you will NOT post abroad - UK only.

Ebay are dead goo with these things but once you do something there is nothing they can do!

Well done though on waiting for the payment!!!!!!!!
So poor sods might have sent it

 

[Xena]

Well done though on waiting for the payment!!!!!!!!
So poor sods might have sent it

Well all this happened within the space of the past 3 hours! It was over before I could blink!

 

[nancy]

This scam has been going on for a couple of years. It's well documented in the ebay community boards. It happened to me last year when I was selling a mobile phone. Luckily I knew Ebay well enough by then to realise something fishy was going on and went to the community for help where I found confirmation that it's a scam and reported to ebay. Ebay are pretty good at detecting the scammers these days and have alerted me to scams a few times.
With the nigerian scam they need to look like they're from the U.K. to make it believable, that's why they hijack accounts to do it. Once the package is posted there's nothing you can do.

My ebay rules that I live by buying and selling are:

1) Never trust an email from Ebay or Paypal. Always log into your accounts from your shortcuts/bookmarks to confirm that what you are reading is true. If the email is real then that info should be able to be seen in your account. Links in Emails are never clicked on my computer.

2) Only post to the address that paypal give you when selling. I never post to any address other than the paypal one in case the account has been hijacked. I would rather refund than let someone get screwed.

3) Always bid late to help prevent shill bidding. (The seller pushing the price up when they know they've got a bidder)

4) If there is any doubt in your mind or something looks fishy, the guys in the community forums are very quick at giving advice and are really helpful.

 

[GBLiz]

i hate to say it, but never trust anything to do with nigeria!!!!

There are SO many nigerian scams

Ive been scammed for £1000 deposit and rent on a house by a nigerian scammer (long story and i had no idea i was dealing with someone in nigeria) and i would say im probably the most suspicious and cynical person i know.....if it rings ANY alarm bells, its most likely a scam.....

 

[skairdykat]

That happened to us a couple of yrs ago with a mobile phone. We just sent the email's straight to Paypal and the 'ebayer' was banned.



ETA: The emails we received from PayPal weren't from PayPal at all. They were sent from the scammers . We rang Paypal and they confirmed that they ahdn't sent them and asked us to forward them to them. So the email's you got from PayPal probably weren't even genuine hun.