advice for probably ebay scam?

a2lette

please redirect if this is covered somewhere else, i went through the first few pages of posts and found stuff that is useful, but thought i'd get a quick opinion.

we're not ebay newbies, and are selling off stuff in advance of moving house. i sold my old sony phone, auction ended today. i expected to get anywhere from £20-50 for it-- it's locked, a couple years old, and nothing special.

so the winning bid was £183! my partner got the email and he said the address was in nigeria. which already raises alarm bells with me especially as the auction didn't say we'd ship internationally. he has one feedback that is negative.

the second bidder has better and more feedback, but is still £170.

as i've been reading horror stories about how people can scam you through paypal, i'm reluctant to even get involved with buyer 1. am i being over cautious?

i've never been in this situation, so what would you do? should i report him straightaway? offer it to the second guy for his price?

and why was buyer 2 prepared to pay so much over the odds for a crappy used phone? i guess that's what's especially making me suspicious.

anyway, any thoughts would be welcome. maybe i'm just too negative and i deserve to get almost £200 for my rubbish :j

Sugar_Coated_Owl

You're right to be suspicious. Never ship items to Nigeria.

Moglex

I think you are correct to be suspicious.

Mobile phones are a nightmare area on ebay.

If someone is offering you significantly more than the phone is worth then they are almost certainly a scammer.

ssparry

I think you have been had. My friend had this on Sunday, so you are not alone. Apparently it is a huge scam in Nigeria, and it is not illegal in their country. The person that bought Lauras phone has since been banned, google search ebay cons - and it is there in black and white! Can you a second chance offer?

frivolous_fay

Report them for false contact details. This considerably speeds up the process of getting them kicked off ebay, which will help you get your fees back faster.