Help with Ebay Scammer

Ok now, I'm frustrated!!! I listed an item for sale on ebay and this guy contacted me that he would like to buy the item as a birthday gift for his father and wants me to post it to Nigeria. I replied that I will not post to Nigeria.

This person went to create another ebay account with a Singapore address and bought the item. Then he sent me a mail that he would like me to ship the item to Nigeria for his sister who is having her birthday and he would send me Postal orders. This made me realise that it's the same person that contacted me yesterday. I replied that I am not sending to Nigeria that he should please leave me alone!!!

So I went to relist the item. He created yet another account this time with a Netherlands address and bought the item again!!!! I sent him a mail that he should pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee stop doing this that I'm also a Nigerian, that he should look for other people to scam. At least I'm not the only one there. I cancelled it and relisted it again, Now this guy has bought it again with another account!!!

He is just wasting my listing fees because ebay charges everytime I relist the item. Please what can I do? Does anybody know how to block people with no feedback rating from buying one's items? I've emailed ebay and they've not replied. HELP!

First of all, just out of curiousity, why have you decided not to post to Nigeria? What kind of item is it?

That aside, there's really no way to prevent someone from bidding on your item. When you list an item, you should let it go for as long as possible, and don't provide a "Buy It Now" option. This way, it's possible for someone else to place a bid on the item while the auction is still open. The downside to this is that the so-called "scammer" could place the highest bid at the last minute...

hmmm well there is honestly nothing wrong with having a Nigerian from another country or even Nigeria buying stuff from you from ebay. As long as the shipping cost and product cost is paid for, and verified, before shipment. I honestly do not see any problem with it.

Why cant you accept a Nigerian bidder? Just curious? As long as the buyer does not pay with westernbidpay, you cant really be frauded?

You can accept credit cards, and ship only to billing address, although I wouldnt encourage that without verification, but nobody would use someone else's credit card for fun. So you wouldnt worry about the issue of possible charge backs if the product was rejected.

You can also accept paypal. This you can restrict by stating it clearly in the product discription under the acceptable payments, and you would do just fine. Besides you can also state that the product, is only for bidders with atleast 5 postive feedbacks, that would give you added security over joy bidders. Paypal for example, would never chargeback after shipment, especially an ebay bidded product. And if they do, you could always provide them with the scan proof of shipment.

I honestly do not see any reason, for your discrimination against Nigerians, as in the case of the Nigerian address. Nigerian addresses wouldnt fraud you, would it ?

"...he would send me Postal orders"

The above send alarm bell ringing; why is he/she offering to pay by Postal order?; I sell on ebay and will ship to Nigeria any day however when you have a bidder wanting to pay by postal order or western Union you need to be careful - 80% of the time it result in fraudulent transaction.

Ebay allows you to cancel any bidding on your item, if you identify a bidder as a person you wouldn't want to sell to, you can cancel his/her bid in ebay control panel (My ebay)

Why set up three ebay account just to buy an item if you are legit? Is IAH the only person selling the same item on ebay?

@ IAH, just adopt my policy. If you dont have feedback of upto 20, then you need to contact me before you bid. If you bid without my permission I will cancel your bid and report you to ebay.

Shipping to Nigeria is out of it cos of 419. For crying out loud am a Nigerian and if any idiot thinks I will be mugun(stupid) enough to fall for an online scam, he has another think coming.

Most bids on ebay nowadays dont take anything less than paypal or postal orders. Better safe than sorry. Western union, your grandfather's sister's uncle, abeg forget any such story

Paying by western union money transfer is ok, as long as its now westernbidpay. Paying by postal order?? Nigerian post offices stopped issuing international postal orders for a long time now, which leaves the guy with cheques? Nigerian cheques, RUN RUN.

Why did I say paying by western union money transfer is ok? You cannot send money by western union money transfer if you are in Nigeria, which means the guy has to be located abroad or has a counterpart located abroad.

Which means the guy needs your information to send the money, which is cool either way. Now he sends the money and gives you the code, and now all you need to is just need to walk to the nearest western union agent with all the identifications, the code, and your passport. And Well the money is yours. Now was that hard? Western Union would never ask money back after money is claimed.

The rule is quite simple, get your money first before shipping.

@jogego , 20 feedbacks for christ sake? Common isnt that too strict

shockreaction:

First of all, just out of curiousity, why have you decided not to post to Nigeria? What kind of item is it?

I don't trust Nigerians because most of them are scammers. Posting to Nigeria would be a great risk because there is 99.99% possibility that you won't get your money. And I always specify in my item descriptions that I will not post outside UK. The item is a PDA phone.

Propre:

Why set up three ebay account just to buy an item if you are legit? Is IAH the only person selling the same item on ebay?

I wonder o! See me see trouble o!!!

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have finally put them item on auction instead of the fixed price I put before, though it is against my wish because I don't like the auction method. That way, I would be able to cancel all his bids. But I wish there would be a way of blocking people with 0 feedback rating from buying.

IAH:


Posting to Nigeria would be a great risk because there is 99.99% possibility that you won't get your money.

You normally post the product bidded for, before receiving your money on ebay? han

No. You know what I'm saying now. The payment might be fake. i.e. fake Paypal or fake postal order, etc.
Kazey, you know better. I expect you to get what I mean.

Better be safe than sorry analogy. hmm I sorta feel you ,. And by the way, its your product you sell it to who ever you want, by whatever way you want, on your terms,

IAH:

...fake Paypal...

Well... that's new...

Heh, I can't complain about you not trusting Nigerians. It's expected.
As a Nigerian residing in Nigeria, I have to deal with it, when I place orders online, every freaking time! Oh well.

lolz well never heared of fake paypal too, but who knows

@Kazey, that is a rule of thumb, didnt you read the part about if u have less feedback contact me for permission to bid? I dont think paypal can be faked. In any case, when I say postal orders, I mean British postal orders oh.....that is as good as cash. Me I dont have wahala in my life. If you are bidding from outside the UK, pay using paypal. If not, commot for road let serious people talk.

hahhaha you guys are still discrimating against Nigerians in Nigeria

Hello guys, paypal can be faked. This guy actually sent me a fake paypal payment few hours ago. This whole thing is getting more interesting. I will post everything here. I'm coming...

If he's offering...
[list]
[li]Bidpay[/li]
[li]Western Union Money Transfer[/li]
[li]MoneyGram International[/li]
[li]United States Postal Order[/li]
[li]Cashier's check/Traveller's check[/li]
[li]Paypal[/li]
[/list]

...DO NOT ACCEPT IT! If you all must know, there's fake paypal but it's just that most Nigerian scammers are too stupid to know how to use it. They ask for your home address, phone number, and even your weight just to make a paypal payment!
Any online transaction you want to involve in that demands you releasing your goods before u get your money is pure scam!

[center]B E W A R E ! ! ! [/center]

When you use western union money transfer, how do you release you good first before cashing your money?

They send u a fake mtcn, so when u track it, u'll think ur money is on it's way..meanwhile, they'll tell u to release the item as soon as possible as it is needed urgently.

hmm you guys dont fail to amaze me. You cant get frauded, if you are patient seller.

Western union money transfer is very safe. Westernbidpay is not.

Paypal fake sites only steal your password, there is nothing like paypal fake payments. You can always log into your paypal account to check your transactions and account summary.



@goodguy an online scenario on paypal fake payments would be really appreciated. Because I do know what I am saying.

The basic rule is get your money in your hand, and surely you have no problem, dont be a haste seller. This law applies to selling to everybody in general online , not necessarily Nigerians.

kazey:

hmm you guys don't fail to amaze me. You can't get frauded, if you are patient seller.
@goodguy an online scenario on paypal fake payments would be really appreciated. Because I do know what I am saying.

If you are talking about the format they use, here is a copy below.


[img]http://





From: paypal postorder

Date: 05/03/05 15:22:22

To: mark_crabtree@hotmail.com

Subject: PAYPAL PAYMENT APPROVED










£
Paying through PayPal £















Printer-Friendly Version Order Status:

Auction Payments Order Available
AVAILABLE

Order Placed
3/5/2005

Order Status
Paypal order Available

Paypal Order Approved
Paypal Order Confirmed

Billing Information:

Status:
Processed successfully

Card Type
MasterCard

Card Number
5***********5643

Exp. Date
9/2005

Name on Card
john paul

Street Address
4,wild court

City, State, Zip
osceola, PA, 16942

Country
USA

Services Purchased:

ItemAmount
£100.00

Shipping Fee
£15.00

Total Amount posted to card
£150.00

Item Unit
1 Unit
Purchased Item Information:

Auction site
EBAY /eBay Inc.
2145 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125
US.


Item ID
#6392618996

Item description
NEC E606 3G COLOUR CAMERA MOBILE PHONE

Using Paypal for eBay Auction Purchases.



Seller Information:
Use to pay for on-line purchases, the companies / individuals you buy from never see your credit card number. This is an important security feature and certainly is better than having your credit card number transmitted all over the Internet. PayPal is secure, and they screen their merchant accounts very closely.


Name
mark

Email Address of the seller
mark_crabtree@hotmail.com













****NOTE**** : BELOW IS THE BUYER SHIPPING INFORMATION :
BUYER SHIPPING INFORMATION:

Name : Daniel John

Address : 5 moyo agoro street
ifako ijaiye ogba
State : Lagos
Zipcode : 23401
Country : Nigeria

BUYER SHIPPING OPTIONS :



YOU CAN USE ANY OF THIS COURRIER COMPANY'S FOR THE SHIPPING.


===================================================================================


***ATTENTION***
The order has been APPROVED, you CAN NOW ship the merchandise to the buyer's shipping address. You are expected to make the shipment with 48 hours of recieving this Pay ment Approval Notification and get back to our Costumer/Technical Dept. with the tracking number for Shippment Verification.

***PLEASE NOTE***
The Money OrderSM will NOT be dispatched or get to your resident until the shipment has been verified. This measure is taken in order to protect both seller and buyer interests and to reduce the occurrence of fraudulent activities.

****PLEASE NOTE***
Due to the fact that PAYPAL processes thousands of orders daily, paypal RECOMMENDS contacting the Customer Support Representative that has been assigned to this particular Order directly. This ensures speedy verification of shipment as well as prompt dispatch the Money OrderSM. Send shippment tracking details to : (paypalpostorder@post.com)

You can give the buyer of your auction item the TRACKING NUMBER of the shipment and once he/she verifies the shipment, he/she will also notify us immediately.

*CUSTOMER SUPPORT*
If you have any questions, Please feel free to contact the Customer Support Representative that has been assigned to this particular Order at: (paypalpostorder@post.com)

The "official" PayPal corporate offices are at:

303 Bryant Street
Mountain View,
California 94041

Thank you for using PAYPAL® We look forward to serving your online auction payment needs better in the future.



Thank you for using paypal® . We look forward serving your online auction payment needs in the future.
Sincerely,



















[/img]

where is the copy?

From what I understand about paypal, payments are made thru paypal into ur bank account or ur credit card using ur email. Now, how can the guy make a fake paypal payment? He doenst know your bank or card details. Sides, am sure u can log into ur paypal account to know if the guy has paid.? @ IAH, still waiting for the scenario cos this is really interesting.

Its quite easy not to release my goods until payments are made. Thats why I wouldnt post outside Europe or the US.

jogego:

From what I understand about paypal, payments are made through paypal into your bank account or your credit card using your email. Now, how can the guy make a fake paypal payment? He doenst know your bank or card details. Sides, am sure u can log into your paypal account to know if the guy has paid.? @ IAH, still waiting for the scenario because this is really interesting.

Its quite easy not to release my goods until payments are made. Thats why I wouldnt post outside Europe or the US.

That is it! He sent me a paypal payment which did not reflect in my account, that's why I classified it as "fake".
Note: You don't need someone bank or card details efore you can pay. It is only the customer's bank/card deatils that is needed and not the seller's.

@IAH, if a buyer is the one notifying u of a paypal payment there is something fishy. Paypal is the one that should notify you of a payment into ur account.

Nigerian scammers, though might be stupid, they are also creative. They create an account mostly at sites offering mutiple domains. They use names associated with paypal, bidpay, moneygram, etc. So they'll mail you through that account, making you think the message is from paypal and alike. In most cases, they will tell you this:

YOUR BUYER JUST MADE OF PAYMENT OF $$$.$$ FOR YOUR ITEM.  YOUR MONEY WILL NOT GET TO YOU UNTIL YOU SEND US THE SHIPMENT TRACKING NUMBER FOR VERIFICATION.

IAH sorry ooh. I've bn a victim of Nigerian scammers thru ebay several times. U'll have emails 4m them telling u of their daughter who is an SS and asked them to buy a phone for them or they are on a business trip to Nigeria and want u to post the item there etc.
I have learnt my lessons though. When next u are listing an item on ebay, there's a place where u'll be asked for "buyer's preferences", click on that and choose the options that best suit u. My options though are buyer's with less than 5 feedbacks cannot bid on my item, if they try, ebay will block their bid. there are so many options for u to choose from.
Try it and goodluck to u.

Hi, this exact same thing happened to my best friend a few months ago.

This was the first time she had sold something on e-bay and she would have sent the phone out if I'd not known that the e-mail they had sent was not actually from paypal!

She was selling a new mobile phone for £250 and she ended up paying out so much in fee's.

She even put in huge print on the item description "I will not post anywhere outside of the UK" and he did it again!

ebay was of no help, she e-mailed them over 15 times and they just replied with these mandatory e-mails which were in no way related to her problem.

Always look at the feedback record of your bidder, collect your money before you ship item, report any fraudulent bidder to ebay.
Also its a bit difficult to open ebay account without having debit or credit card, so for the boy in Nigeria I don't think he is base in Nigeria. Probably he has accomplice in Nigeria
Be wise

Actually, there's no longer cause for alarm. I've blocked anyone who doesn't have Paypal from bidding on my auctions. That's the best way to prevent scammers and I think y'all should do the same.

Just want to share my eBay experience with fellow Nairalanders. A silly mistake that almost proved fatal.

About four days ago, I got this e-mail apparently from eBay stating that my Listings had been confirmed. I generally deal in Software products.
But the Listing(s) was for a SuzuKi PowerBike (all the way from Somewhere in the US) and another from somewhere here in England. Both going for $6,795 each.

Immediately I got the notification, I decided to log into my eBay account (using the links included in the e-mail) to :
1. find out how the heck I was able to List two PowerBikes for Sale without lifting a finger;
2. Delete the listings.
I logged on successfully, but Lo and behold, I could not Delete the listings. I contacted eBay and was told to change all my passwords. I did that but five minutes later, I couldn't even log on with my password (both old and New).

Long and short of the story is: By opening the mail I received and clicking on the Link inside it, I had unknowingly installed an invisible keylogger on my system and someone, somewhere got easy access to my account. Luckily for me, Spybot S& was able to detect it and got it off my system for good.

By the Time I was able to gain control of my account a few hours later, I had incurred Listing fees of over $150 dollars. Thankfully, eBay cancelled those fees and I'm back in business, but those few hours were the most scary for me.

Be warned. Don't Click on links included in Mails from eBay/PAYPAL. The safest way is to open a New Window and log into your account from there.

You guys should help us oh! I have an ebay account, i have been buying from ebay but only softwares. I can not buy shippable items because no body will ship to Nigeria. What do i do? How do i get to convince them to ship to me?? I have paypal and all my purchases so far has been with paypal. Could they allow me to buy with this?

I dont see any reason not to ship to Nigeria, once the guy pays u upfront through PayPal or Western Union, you would have gotten the money.
Can any PayPal user let me know if there is anyway of cashing my Paypal funds here in Nigeria?