A possible scam ?

A

alexz

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I'm trying to sell my M3 on Ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120510237608&ssPageName=ADME:L:EOISSA:US:1123
Without much of bids, it has been sold at the lowest possible bid and I received the following weird message from the buyer:
[FONT=arial,sans-serif]Hello
I am the winner of your item and am sending the item to my fiance

working with British America Tobacco company in Africa Nigeria to

be precise as a gift. I have contacted USPS concerning the cost of

postage and its about $100 USD. Please I want the item shipped via

USPS registered mail(first class mail international). I shall make

payment via paypal so please get back to me with your paypal email

address for direct payment and save yourself the stress of making

up another invoice of additional $100 USD. Thanks for the

transaction. This is my fiance shipping address below:

Name: Owen Blossom
Address: 50 Ibrahim taiwo road
City: Offa
State: Kwara state
Country: Nigeria
Postal code: 23431[/FONT]

In my shipment terms I clearly noted that no shipment to Africa and also in the item's description I asked first time ebayers (or those with neg. feedbacks) to contact me first prior to bidding.
Besides of that I mentioned in the payment terms that will ship only to the address tied to a verified Paypal account if paid by Paypal.
The guy apparently violated all these rules, so it appears I'm eligible to deny the deal as it looks like a classic scam.

What do you think ?
 
If you wrote that you wouldnt ship to africa and accept only verified addresses,
I would tell the buyer to respect the term or you'll deny the sell and re-enlist
your beautiful M3.

I admit I have never been in this situation so that's what I would do.

Let us know how it goes.
 
Scam or not, though bidders have to read listings from and through. You aren't responsible for those uneducated or in hurry.

As far as I realize, serious buyers search for items anyway, though listing it in "35mm Rangefinder" category wouldn't hurt, either.
 
Your listing excludes Africa. Tell him no, you won't ship or sell. Let eBay deal with him.
 
scam. the language used is pretty common amongst the boys that sit in the cyber cafes fishing away.

for a giggle attach some/any photos to your replies as the internet there is VERY slow and downloading a message with an attachment can take half an hour!
 
Wow, ..... smells very fishy.

Do not ship camera or send info regarding your PayPal account.

I would be attempting to contact eBay and PayPal regarding this attempt to gain access to confidential information from you. I doubt whether our 'friend' will be complaining to eBay, but you must cover your own 'end', just to be on the safe side.

Sadly, anything labelled 'Nigeria' these days, is a warning to not become involved.
 
memphis said:
if you do sell to him, you'll find yourself short one camera, and then your paypal will be deducted the amount he paid you -- everybody loses except some ahole 419 scammer
Click to expand...

i can assure you the ahole 419 scammer is losing more than you or i can imagine.
 
It is HIGHLY POSSIBLE that the account the bidder used was stolen. Stolen ebay and paypal account. To be safe, only ship to a verified paypal address. Report this incident to Paypal and ebay.

Also, for international shipment wait a few days for payment to clear. Typically in a couple of days the victims will realize something is wrong with their bank account and you will get a note from paypal saying the payment you received has been retracted. By that time, the scammer is hoping you already shipped the product and there's no turning back.

It's happened to me before and I returned payment realizing that the account was stolen.
 
I had a similar message before, send to Nigeria as a gift, claiming he paid via paypal by sending me a fake paypal email (the payment never reflected on the paypal site)... I complained to ebay, and the seller's account was pulled out. Though I still had to pay fees to ebay though...

(never paid the fees, never using ebay again!) :)
 
Yeah... as soon as you see any email with "Nigeria" in it... it's a scam. I've had quite a few before christmas through local classifieds (Craigslist, Kijiji etc) along the lines of:

"I would like to buy your XXXX and can paypal you the money.. it's a present for my son who's currently working in a Mission in Nigeria... if you can post it to him so he'll get it before Xmas I'm willing to add $100 to your asking price"

yeah.. unfortunately I'm pretty much not dealing with anyone mentioning Africa at all for the foreseeable future... sorry to any legit buyers from the continent but it's just not worth the risk.
 
You didn't want to send to Africa, but he request it. So you can change the terms too, can't you? Ask him to send the money via Western Union. That would be absolutely safe for you. But of course the guy wouldn't answer your request.
 
not only do you not have to and should not to sell to this bidder, you are probably entitled to get back all of your eBay fees because he failed to comply with your terms. you are well within their rules and your rights.
 
Thank you all guys.
Just reported him to Ebay (also asking not to charge me the fees for this "sale"). Meanwhile answered this dummy with the following:
[FONT=arial,sans-serif]Hello.
Well, is appears you're first time Ebayer (no deals accomplished yet, no feedbacks), asking shipping to Africa and also not to the address that is registered with Paypal account (which must be verified) - all these are violating my rules of the auction that are clearly outlined in auction description and shipment terms:
1. No shipment to Africa
2. First time Ebayers (or those with neg. feedbacks) must have to get in touch with me prior to bidding
3. If payed by Paypal (and must be verified account) the shipment can only be conducted to the address registered with that Paypal account.

An his latest response was:
[/FONT]Hello mate I appreciate your reply but the problem is am not currently in the state to receive the item I had love to ship the item myself even see the item before shipping it out but am not currently in the state that is why am asking you to ship out the item to my fiance address I have declare $100 as the shipping fee so please send me your paypal email address for direct payment urgently to save you the stress of creating another invoice with additional $100 shipping fee. Thanks

...
 
emraphoto said:
scam. the language used is pretty common amongst the boys that sit in the cyber cafes fishing away.

for a giggle attach some/any photos to your replies as the internet there is VERY slow and downloading a message with an attachment can take half an hour!
Click to expand...

That is a good tip, that will get them to give up soon enough.

We had a similar african scam gang running scams on a Dutch internet sales site (owned by eBay.nl) for a while. Stopped when they busted some 25 guys in Amsterdam that had been running it from internet cafés.

They don't care as much about the item as about your data.
 
CLE-RF said:
That is a good tip, that will get them to give up soon enough.

We had a similar african scam gang running scams on a Dutch internet sales site (owned by eBay.nl) for a while. Stopped when they busted some 25 guys in Amsterdam that had been running it from internet cafés.

They don't care as much about the item as about your data.
Click to expand...

Who is they?....eBay?
 
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