On Ebay: How to Prevent a Scammer From Bidding On My Auction?

 
This is really sad to hear. Am proud to be a Nigerian and am not happy at all hearing all these

Let's face it we Nigerians have soiled our name completely when it comes to buying and selling online.

Even on EBay now, you will see items listed specifically warning Nigerians to stay away; also if you do a search for “Nigeria auction” on Google, you will only come up with results "fraud alert." and so on

This is a pity I must say, because Nigeria is entrepreneur driven,  buying and selling is in the blood. As a result, because of many, not just a few bad eggs, this opportunity of online buying and selling has been blocked in many ways. Not all Nigerians are scammers, haba This is too much

But Can't we stop this fraudulent act???

This is a problem we all need to find a solution to. What is Nigeria future going to be like if we can't fight and stop this fraudulent act now.?

We can do it, only if we want to. I respected edward Hadome for what he he's done. He has lay the foundation, we all need to build on it if we really want to revive the opportunity  to allow Nigerians use the internet for trade. You might be wandering who Edward hadome is???.  He's also a Nigerian based the  in UK. I think he's also been scammed before.

Here's a few about him:

Edward Hadome Ltd
   
SUITE 10

196 ROSE STREET, EDINBURGH, EH2 4AT, United Kingdom

WWW.BUYANDSELL.yahoo.com

If you study the above site very well, It's 100% secured.

I would like you to join me in reviving this opportunity to allow Nigerians use the Internet for trade with a new auction platform dedicated to Nigerian Buyers and Sellers(BIDNIGERIA). The Launch date is June 15th 2007. Register now.

We Can do it together.

Cheers.

There are certain items that attract scammers on ebay. Items like mobile phones, ipods and the like. There is nothing you can do to stop them as they have accomplices over the world. Even if you restrict the countries you can ship to, block those without paypal etc etc. They can always get around it. The only thing you can do is to stop selling items that attract them or you will keep losing money by way of listing and FVFees.

Do not send to Nigeria because there is no genuine Nigerian buyer on Ebay. They are all scammers. Just read the community boards and you will see the extent of the fraud carried out by Nigerians on ebay/paypal. Don't hink you will get any help from Ebay or Paypal, as long as they get their money they couldn't give a hoot about you. If you do contact them all they send back is generic, automated nonsense that does not offer any help.

Paypal payments, even from verified and confirmed addresses is not safe despite what people think. I once sold items totaling about 350 pounds to a buyer with a confirmed and verified paypal account and they paid instantly. I always transfer payments immediately to my bank account. Which I did on this ocassion. The next day I sent the buyer an email confirming that I had posted items by special delivery including the postal reference. 2 hours later, I got an email from paypal stating that they are holding the payment pending inquiries. The buyer had filed a chargeback!!.  As I had transfered the money my paypal account was in negative. As expected paypal found for the buyer and demanded I restore my account to credit. This was despite the fact that I had forwarded all the emails I exchanged with this buyer and also posted by online trackable means.

I told Paypal to get lost and that I will never restore my account. I told them that I will not be needing an account anymore. I was a very sucessfull powerseller with over 9000 positive feedbacks and a 99.8% rataing. I closed my shop and stopped selling. They bombarded me with phone calls and emails threatening to transfer the debt to collectors. I said, 'be my guest'. I dared them to take me to court and that I will be able to expose their complicity with scammers and get compensation for their harrassment.

The long and short of it is that ebay/paypal do not care about sellers, once a buys complains you see them jumping over hoops to listen. The level of scams going on in these 2 places is astronomical. It is a good place to make money as you are selling to the whole world and you can make extremely good money but in the end I counld not deal with the hassle anymore.

@all
if u get a suspicious email from "paypal or ebay" u can always forward it to: spoof@paypal.com.

The real Paypal will then begin to help you track that site, they will also advice you on how to protect ur self in the future

Another idea is to change ur email address and password every so often. If u suddenly receive email from paypay on an email ur no longer using for ur paypal account, then u know it's not from paypal!

Yet another way to differentiate real paypal mail is that all good paypal mails begin with Dear Okoro, Dear Femi, or Dear Musa, ie always with ur first name. The scammers don't.

There other ways of identifying real emails from fake emails here in the US, I hope u have same in UK