Please Help !!!!

crazymum_2

I sold a mobile phone on Ebay today - the final price was £142, p+p for the UK was £6.95. The final bidder emailed me to say she had increased the postage to £20 and could I send the phone to her mum in Nigeria, her address was in Amsterdam. Paypal emailed me to say she had paid cash and when I had sent them the postal tracking number they would release the cash. (It would seem that for items over £150 this is legit)
This was a high price for the phone and it all smells of a total scam. Could anyone please advise. I have sent the paypal emails to spoof@paypal, as when I enter my paypal account it says nothing of this transaction.
Thanks for any help.

elisebutt65

Nooooooo

Not Nigeria!!!!

SCAM

Do a google for Nigeria Ebay Phone scam - or look around the site here - you'll never see the money or get a chargeback etc etc.

monkeyspanner

I think mobiles and Nigeria must be a problem at the moment as a lot of sellers are saying absolutely no sales to Nigeria accepted. I'd say if you cannot find the transaction pending in your paypal account it does not exist. Even if you receive a paypal payment people are having prroblems with paypal refunding payments because of claimed non-receipt of goods. What is the buyers feedback rating? At the very least I would expect cleared funds of some sort in my paypal or bank account before I ship.
My inclination would be to e-mail the buyer and say you require cleared funds within say 72 hours and if you don't get them offer it on a second chance to another bidder.

Russ66

There is loads of this going on at the moment, nearly always with phones.

If you look the bidder will have 0 feedback and will have joined today.

If you listed the phone as "will post to UK only" then you can get your listing fees back from eBay or otherwise give a legitimate bidder a "Second Chance" option.

Either way it's a pain in the rear!!

slowen

Avoid like the plague

The website below tells you about loads of scams that people try to pull including ebay and some tips on getting your own back on the scammers

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/

crazymum_2

Thanks for all your help - the winning bidder did have 0 feedback and someone emailed me this morning to say they had a similar experience and to avoid them. For everyones information the person was from Amsterdam but wanted the phone sent to Nigeria, sent a spoof email (a very good one) from paypal saying payment had been made and money would be released once I posted a postal tracking number.
Hey ho (it had to be me didn't it).
Thanks again for help.

westy_3

It wasn't bad luck, thousands of phones on Ebay are sold to people with 0 feedback unless the sellers puts in specific restrictions. I used to sell phones and my first 11 sales were all scams, many from Nigeria. Unfortunately some sellers are duped but people are getting wise to it now.

I saw a phone listing the other day reading NO NIGERIAN SCAMMERS - DONT EVEN TRY IT!!! Not very proffessional but it gets the point accross :rotfl: . You are better only shipping to the UK and people with a registered and verified paypal account.

craigo_2

For everyones information the person was from Amsterdam but wanted the phone sent to Nigeria

Nah.... I'd put money on them being from Nigeria, they were just trying to confuse you.

Theres almost always a sob story about a relative too. The scammer I had wanted the phone for his sick nephew's birthday, asap, and was willing to "pay" extra for postage.

Heh, tell him your broke and need £20 cash to post it. If they are daft enough to send it, donate it to charity!

Youve told ebay, now just relist asap.

Hey ho (it had to be me didn't it)

Dont take it personally, happens to us all! Have a look on ebay for completed phones, all of them that sold at a really high price will be to a zero feedback new scamm... i mean user. :rolleyes: