How to beat the scammers?

motorguy

For expensive items i always put clearly in the ad along the lines of 'ebayers with 0 feedback or significant negative feedback must contact me prior to bidding otherwise their bid will be removed'. I do follow that through and add people who do not comply to my blocked bidders list.

Also as i only sell maybe one or two expensive items per month i take the time to watch the last 20 mins or so of the auction and have the ebay bid cancellation page open - not very feasible if you are selling lots of expensive items though...

jaxxy00

Hi! Please dont think im thick or anything (although you probably will) but can someone explain what the scam is with posting items to Nigeria? I placed a mobile on ebay last night with a ' buy it now' and this morning it sold for the buy price. My first thought when seeing they had no feedback was that they were out to just annoy and not pay up. THey have though sent an email saying they would like to pay with postal orders and they are based in London but at the moment they are in Nigeria with their family and would like the phone posting there if i would. THey have given me the address and ive told them thats fine and i would send it. Ive found out the postage costs online and so im waiting for them to send payment. THey have asked for my address though to send payment and ive told them to do the checkout process on ebay and then they will automatically be given my address details. So where is the catch with doing this?
Ive heard the ones about people offering you more than you want for your items and them asking if you would do the favour of sending on money etc but they are not asking that.
PLease can someone explain so i know what to do?
Thanks
Ive also put in the i.d. and see they registered today and have already won 5 mobile phones. This does make me think its domehow dodgy but i dont see how.

masonic

jaxxy00 wrote:

Hi! Please dont think im thick or anything (although you probably will) but can someone explain what the scam is with posting items to Nigeria?

With postal orders, the scam is that the postal order the buyer sends is a forgery. Perhaps any seller that trusts them might find some amusement in the fact that since this buyer only registered today, they are amongst the very few people to have registered since the seller was born.

soolin

masonic wrote:

With postal orders, the scam is that the postal order the buyer sends is a forgery. Perhaps any seller that trusts them might find some amusement in the fact that since this buyer only registered today, they are amongst the very few people to have registered since the seller was born.

Tsk tsk masonic, how wicked you are today......... :A

To the OP, just as masonic says the Postal orders will almost certainly be forgeries but you will get a sob story about how they need the phone sending immediately so you might be tempted to send the phone before the postal orders clear properly.

For more details of the scam do a Google search on the words Nigeria, scam and postal orders, or go here for a quick briefing:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/26/business/scam.php

One tip is to never list a mobile phone with a BIN option, you are guaranteed problems. Always use a normal auction where you can vet the bidders as you go along.

Soo

jaxxy00

Well i still dont get it! If i receive a postal order for that amount of money im obviously going to change it up before sending the item. So how do they gain anything? If i take it to the post office im assuming they know its a fake and will not cash it? And no, i wasnt born yesterday i was born today!! lol!! Seriously how do they expect to gain, and i didnt know you could get duff postal orders?

jaxxy00

After reading soolin's reply i can see perhaps now that if they cross the postal order then i have to wait for it to clear. They would have no chance of me sending it though without clearing. The other option i gave to them (which they will not want to do then) is to send cash by 'Special Delivery' which would guarantee next day delivery and would probably be cheaper than postal orders, but then if they are duff then obviously not.

masonic

What you also have to worry about is that some of these forgeries invariably do not get spotted straight away. The situation is quite similar to someone standing outside a shop asking people to go in and get something for them using a dodgy £10 note. I don't think I would want the hassle of potentially having to convince someone I wasn't party to the fraud.

jaxxy00

Good point masonic. ive just sent them an email explaining to send cash if they want it. If i hear nothing from them then i will assume that they were trying it on. Saying that thugh i suppose theres nothing to say they could send cash and that could be fake. I have seen some fake notes before and some good ones at that, but ive yet to see one that has a raised 'Bank of England' wording. They can get the watermark and silver strip etc but ive not seen the raised wording. When working in shops etc that was always my first check. Ive seen some of the shop workers use the pens etc but they can get round that. I will just wait and see.

soolin

Personally jaxxy00 I wouldn't even bother waiting for their response, the words Nigeria and mobile phone would have got me moving on from this already.

Just report them to ebay and start a NPB as soon as you can on the basis that seller wants you to ship outside the UK which is not allowed on your auction (assuming your options are set correctly) and relist.

Soo

bargain-ayde

Normally the Nigerian Scam works by them winning the item, then a few days later an email (with poor english and gramma) appears in your inbox with pretty logos from Western Union saying they have funds for you and when you send proof of posting of the item then they will release the funds - I'll leave you to work out the rest...

The items are normally of high value, and for someone that has forgotten a birthday, passed an exam etc etc. I've had them on eBay and Amazon market place to name but a few.

The option of eBay to allow only UK registered buyers to bid also didn't work for me, as one of the Nigerian Scammers was UK registered!!!

Keep your wits about you everyone :-)