Help, Is This A Scam?

mistressg

Hi,

I'm selling a pair of shoes on Gumtree, and have received a good offer from a woman who wants me to send it to West Africa for her. She has offered me £50 postage to do this, and is offering to do it through PayPal. Is this a scam? PayPal always seems fairly safe to me, so I'm struggling to see how she could get past PayPal's security even if it was.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

soolin

Yes of course it is

Google 419 or Nigerian scam

cyberbob

It's a scam run away. You'd get a fake email telling you you had funds when you don't. Anything that ever suggests sending something to africa and offers a large amount for postage is a scam

mistressg

I thought it was a scam, but seeing as she isn't actually asking for any money, and is asking for it through PayPal rather than Western Union, which I believe is the norm, I couldn't see how the scam was going to work.

Giggles_Fairy

Sounds like the oldest scam in the book to me. I would run a mile but its totally up to you I suppose!

What shoes are they? Are they difficult to find designer shoes? Or just standard high street ones?

soolin

Of course it is a scam..the most common one there is.

There won't be any paypal money, you'll get an email from 'paypal' saying the funds will be released to your account as soon as you've provided tracking details.

PLEASE google this scam. The only way to stop these scum bags is to use common sense and don't let them get away with this.

Sorry If this sounds harsh but this scam has been around for years, it's been on Watchdog, it's been covered by every single newspaper every consumer website and is warned about on Gumtree if you read the small print. I am appalled that anyone still is not aware of this. These people are scum and need stopping.

mistressg

They're nice burlesquey heels that were bought online. I'm only asking £39 for them, so they're hardly crazy designer shoes.

mistressg

soolin wrote: »

Of course it is a scam..the most common one there is.

There won't be any paypal money, you'll get an email from 'paypal' saying the funds will be released to your account as soon as you've provided tracking details.

PLEASE google this scam. The only way to stop these scum bags is to use common sense and don't let them get away with this.

OK, thank you Soolin. This is a variation of the advance-fee I had not encountered before, but as soon as I saw the words 'West Africa' I felt cautious (which seems terribly xenophobic of me, but there you go).

MadelinesMum

Hi, I'm glad I read this thread because I've just been sent an ebay message from Barbados asking if I would post there and how she would pay by paypal. The item is also a pair of shoes. I think I'll give it a miss.

Enfieldian

Yes, although Shoes are rare commodities in West Africa and Barbados, apparently.

Alias_Omega

A bit of a crazy one. People expect these to be a scam, but they could be genuine.


If they pay through Paypal, i would ensure that you log in into paypal yourself (ie paypal.com) and check that you have the funds available in your account, and that you are covered under seller protection.

Just remember that you will need to send the shoes via a tracked method all the way there, otherwise they could charge you back.



If they use a stolen credit card etc, and your eligible for seller protection, i cant see how they can charge back, but the usual scam is that you receive a Paypal email into your email account, you click on the link in the email, you see the fake paypal site with funds present and you send the item off.

Alias