Sounds fishy to me... help!

I

iivit

n00b
Joined
Jun 11, 2005
Messages
26
Warning: this is a bit long... but interesting...

Earlier this week, i listed my m6810 for sale on this (and some other sites)

link: Here

This morning, i receive an e-mail from a man claiming to be in Nigeria... of course I roll my eyes.. heres the e-mail:

Nigerian Buyer

Hello,
I saw your advert on the web,i am interested in
buying your(Widescreen Notebook Computer ) am based in west africa.
My shipping broker will be coming for the pickup
after payment as been made.
i am willing to pay $800
Get back to me if my offer is ok by you.
Have a nice day.
Regards​
​
​

Okay... sounds like a scam to me.. but I decide to play along a bit... just to see what he says..

Me
If I have this correctly..
So, you plan on having your shipping broker come by and pick up the laptop in person? It is located in Alabama. Is he also going to be paying for it in person as well? If not, what method of payment are you planning to use?
Thanks-much​
​
​


Okay... heres the fun part... he replies...

Nigerian Buyer

Thanks for getting back to me,
Like i said earlier i am based in the Western africa
.there won't be any probs about the shipment,after payment ,the pick
up will be made at your
place. i have made arrangements with the prepaid
shipping company.
As regards payment,this is what i am going to do.I
have a client in the US
who is owing me $3,000 i would instruct him to
makeout a certified check to you in that amount and as soon as it
clears
your bank. you can now
deduct your money from it and send me my balance,i
will be using part of the money to pay for the shipping and other
expenses
.you will then send my
balance by via western union money
transfer.Although
the value of the check
is more than the asking price but i think i should
be able to trust you
with my balance.
So i would like you to
deduct the western union
charges from my balance.So if my terms are
acceptable to you,i would like you to give me your
full
name,address and phone number so that i can
instruct
my client to make out the check to you.
Pls get back to me as soon as you get this mail so
that we can round things up in a timely fashion..i
will be trusting in this business transaction. get
back to me.
Thanks in this regard​
​
​

Okay... what do you say to that?? lol I mean... Part of me says NO... but then again... i dont exactly see the immediate harm in trying... if the check doesnt clear.. he doesn't get it... Let me know what you think...

Also, does anybody know what U.S. Customs Law is concerning Nigeria?

Thanks,
Lt. Daily
 
I get that all the time when I sell my cellphones on ebay... dont do it. It will be a hassle and is always a scam.
 
Yeah wont clear and if it does it still can be denied along the way and then you'd be screwed and ended up giving him the product and an extra couple grand on top of that :rolleyes:
 
Two words: STAY AWAY!! This is an actual scam and is the same setup. This guy attempted to buy a LCD Monitor I was selling on eBay outside of eBay regulations and have said the exact same thing. Do not listen to him, report him to authorities. He is illegit and does not comply with regulations that are set out for everyone to follow. This is for your protection and the reason I say so was because another person was scammed by this similar person out of $1450 USD for a 42" Plasma TV.

The shipping part is definitely illegit so do not follow through. There is no such system in place in the US because it is you that has to set that up. It is an attempt to scam you of losing the laptop so he can sell it for his own greedy needs. I have done massive research recently on this since I received a message stating exactly what you have quoted. I found out it is completely unsafe and is heavily recommended that you step out of the transaction.

I only say this solely from my heart and for your protection. Believe me, I know what's out there and it can hurt a lot if you are not careful.

RVV-AE
 
Alarms

1) Anybody who says they're from anywhere in Africa
2) Western Union. Scammer's Choice.
3) How many Nigerians know colloquial English that well?
 
This is what I'd say.

Okay, have your shipper have $800 cash, currency, and then we have a deal when we exchange products by hand.
 
buying your(Widescreen Notebook Computer ) am based in west africa.

Can you say 'copy and paste Ebay item of choice between the brackets'? Somewhere out there there's got to be a scammer's website with fill-in-the-blanks forms for people like this, because I've gotten over 10 of these but they were all slightly different schemes.

BTW, i'd give the guy that picked it up a brick in a laptop box...
 
a general rule for selling stuff on any interenet based site [H], Ebay, Anand, wherever... DO NOT SHIP ANYTHING TO NIGERA!!!!
i had a 3 day scam running with this guy wanting to pay me $400 for a 10gb ipod... till he finally made a couple mistakes and discovered the notorious nigerian scam.
 
It's an old scam- 'I buy this from you with 3000.00 cashier's check- you deposit and send me the balance.'

The cashier's check typically doesn't clear, but it takes about 2 weeks for the bank to know this. In the meanwhile, you've got your 3k, sent the guy the diff, and got paid for your stuff. TILL the bank realizes the cashier's check is bogus, and you get stuck owing 3000.00.

Cert.org, symantec, and others had articles about this scam.....
 
Would you be willing to take trades?? I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I can let go in exchange for the laptop.

:p
 
That is a scam. If you do decide to play along, do NOT ship the laptop until after you have the money in your bank account.
 
HOCP4ME said:
That is a scam. If you do decide to play along, do NOT ship the laptop until after you have the money in your bank account.
Click to expand...
No, that is what fucks people over. You'll find out like 2 weeks later that the cashiers check or whatever is fake and then owe the bank the balence :eek:
 
[true]First_Strike said:
This is what I'd say.

Okay, have your shipper have $800 cash, currency, and then we have a deal when we exchange products by hand.
Click to expand...

Nah, the guy will give you some counterfiet bills. Just stay away from this.
 
A guy that I work with had a gentleman call him about his car that he had on autotrader and offered to pay $5000 over what he was asking for the car and to pay the "shipper" when they came to pick up the car. They sent him the check and he took it to the bank and they verified it to be counterfit. He still has his car and has filed a report with the state police.

This is the same type of deal, just stay away.
 
Thankyou all for your response...

you confirmed what i was thinking... Its a scam... :eek:

I also looked this up at some other forums... it seems to be a popular thing over in Nigeria... whats with all the @yahoo.com email addresses anyways? you'd think they'd mix it up a bit...
 
iivit said:
you'd think they'd mix it up a bit...
Click to expand...

Why mix it up? If it's even 2-5% successful on high-dollar items (there's never a shortage of people in the world to fall for this) on a crime that's extremely hard to trace, why not stick with it? Scott Adams (Dilbert author) once commented that if your marketing is great, you can make money on useless crap because of the people you market to, 1% will buy anything, and 1% are crazy, and 2% of several million people is quite a lot.

These scammers have made tens of thousands of dollars this way by doing this in volume. Western Union is a freaking joke as fraud protection/prevention goes, which helps them further, and for some reason, a number of people don't have alarm bells go through their head when offered far more than an item is worth, or offered payment above the price where they have to make change.

Solution:

a) NEVER get greedy with what you're selling. Get what it's worth within 2-10%, depending on demand. Avoid suspicious offers, no matter how tempting.
b) NEVER accept a payment that requires you to make change. It's not your job to be someone's currency exchange department or their bank, and if you're selling fairly, someone who is willing to pay exact amount will certainly come along.
c) NEVER accept Western Union...unless your buyer is willing to accept waiting three weeks for the money order to officially clear, and has a good documented HeatWare or other source and a confirmable address/phone number, not a cell, or from a foreign country. Serious buyers are far more likely to use USPS money order, PayPal, or similar. And by "officially clear" I mean more than 48-72 hours and the bank telling you the money has cleared. The definition of "cleared" has changed radically due to some dumb banking laws. Your WU money order could "clear" and then 2 weeks later, the bank will tell you it wants its money back, and deny any wrongdoing.
d) If you're selling on an online auction site, don't take outside-offers. It violates the TOS, and there's zero protection for you if you're scammed. If a buyer was serious, they'd place a bid. Pretty simple.
 
I think the moral of the story is Common Sense.


Anyone with common sense can tell this is fishy. Unfortunately, Common Sense can not be taught.


WHich is a sad thing for about 90% of the population.
 
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