Beware of buyers from "NIGERIA"

[rgupta3]

Folks, there is a real scam out there on eBay India. Any item, especially high value electronics like laptops, are bought by buyers with email addresses listed in UK, US or even Singapore.

Then they send you a fake email, possibly from Western Union, with details saying that the buyer has sent the payment using Western Union money order, which will be released only when the seller, that is you, ship the items and provide the tracking number to Western Union.

PLEASE DO NOT ENTERTAIN ANY REQUESTS TO SHIP THE ITEMS BEFORE GETTING THE MONEY IN YOUR HAND.

Some of the ways you can verify if the buyer is fake and criminal -

(1) Buyer buys the item using 'Buy-it now' feature.

(2) Buyer agrees to pay more money than listed in your item, including exhorbitant amount for shipping.

(3) Buyer communicates to pay using Western Union - THIS IS THE LAST NAIL.

(4) Buyer's shipping address is some where in Nigeria or any other African country.

(5) Buyer is no more a registered member of eBay.

Please be careful else you risk losing your item, without getting paid even a single paise. And eBay would not help you in any way.

I am writing all this as I experienced it all first hand, but saved myself from the agony.

Take it easy and happy selling.

[ajitkumarspatil_in1]

I just had a real great escape, I was about to send an item to a buyer who claimed to be an Indian but at the moment is outside country for some business trip, and was requesting me to send the item to his friend in Nigeria as birthday gift.


After couple of days the person contacted me through e-mail advising me to accept payment through Western Union and to send the item through FedEx courier service.
I agreed for the same and quoted him the courier charges as told by FedEx.

After about a day or two I got two mails from "Western Union Bidpay" with the e-mail address as "bidpay@western-unionbidpayonline.com"(one with pending approval and second Order approved)I had a gut feeling that the grammar in those two mails were very similar to the one sent by the buyer from his mail address.

And one very funny thing happened, you guys can't digest this fact that this fool person(buyer) sent me two Order approved mails from western union account, one of course was supposed to be sent to me and another one was supposed to be sent to another person(which by mistake he sent to me)

Those two mails had the Money Order attached in it.
Please visit the below link to see. Check the RED circles, two different MO's have got same serial nos.

http://k.domaindlx.com/mybaazee/MoneyOrder.jpg

[sandeepshivaraj]

This type of Details are really useful for all of us in EBAY.
Thanks a lot ajitkumarspatil_in1 and rgupta3 !:-D

[diverwhiting]

Hello from Australia , good to see you guys are spreading the word about the Nigerian scammers , there are also many Australian sellers who will not sell to Indonesia because of so many payments from stolen credit cards. When the card is reported stolen , the funds are "charged back" from out of your account so you end up with no item and no money. Thought I'd let you know so you are forewarned.

A question , on our site ebay.au when listing items for sale we get an option to "block bidders from countries to which I don't post" , do you have that option here ? In some cases it helps prevent unwelcome bids.

[near_the_pits]

The problem seems to be very big in the UK too as well as other ebay sites.

In the US, they offer to pay a lot more than what the seller is asking. Then tell the seller to wire them Western Union the amount that is over the asking price. Of course their payment to the seller is fake but the seller doesn't find out until after the item is sent.

They also make offers claiming to be some Nigerian official or buying on the behalf of an official. One seller was contacted by the "Princess of Nigeria" wanting to purchase jewelry indicating that money was no object. If they were the princess, why are they buying on ebay?

Good for rgupta3 for posting this warning.

[lifestyle_mall]

Yes We had also been contacted by a Nigerian Customer who told me to pay Rs 15,000 for Nokia 6600 inspite being market price only Rs 10,000. I was amazed I also received a mail from Western Union that seller had paid us Rs 15,000 and that will be sent into your account once you deliever goods. Since I know what was going on I reported to ebay and it resulted in his account termination as ebay received 45 complaints for this man.

Beware of Nigerian (African) Customers

and You African Customers beware of Us!! 🙂

[nishantshekhar_02]

Thank you rgupta for saving me. I recvd a mail as follows
Mail recvd
Hello,

How are you doing today? i recieved your mail about the goods i bought from your store,i just want to send the goods to my friend in nigeria as a gift because i am not in india for now . so what i need from you, is that i want you to send the goods to my friend house and calculate all the money you use i will pay you througth western union money order.

waiting for your mail

thanks
I rplyd,without knowin all this of nigerian frauds,

Hello,

Hope you are fine? where ever you are. Thank you for buying from me and trusting. I would like to tell that it won't be possible for me to send your gift to nigeria.I'll ship your item to the place you have specified in your id. Please make the payment as soon as possible for your and my conviniance. and where as the money transfer is concerned, I should tell you that goods you have bought from me will b shipped to you, after the money is recieved. I would like to tell you one more thing for your conviniance Please make the payment as soon as possible. Your Item would be sent by bluedart courier service. and dispatched imidiately after the realisation of the payment. I would like to give you an advice, avoid paying using the western union money transfer for it's unsafe for you. You can use your credit card,and paying by paisa pay

Thank You,Once again
But now i knw and thank you for,saving me rgupta

[rgupta3]

Thank you guys......It is very heartening to see that few of my fellow sellers were able to save themselves, just in time, from the Nigerian scams.

eBay is great way to sell and buy items in fairest possible way. But, unfortunately, some tricksters out there are bringing lot of problems and shame to it.

My request to the eBay team would be quickly find out ways to stem this rot, else honest and genuine sellers might be forced to not use ebay for any transactions.

I have had particularly bad experience in the last few weeks. I wanted to sell my laptop using ebay. On all 4 occasions, buyers from Nigeria outbidded genuine buyers and then later when I get to know that the item needs to be shipped to Nigeria, I would cancel the transaction - in the process losing the opportunity to sell my item to some real buyer in India.

I am quite dissapointed and frankly dont know how to sell my still unsold item 😞

[sastaitshop]

I working to find out some FBI site which would be interested in the contact details this Nigerian frauds provide. This would help the Investigating agencies to locate and terminate these frauds.

Regards

As for these bidders Avnish Bajaj had assured some action to curb these bidders. Hope its active soon.. !! Sunny 🙂
()()()()())()



Age and knowledge don't always come together. Sometimes you just get the age...

[manuustad]

hi
Thank you all for this forum about frauds from Nigeria.
I guess this forum just saved me time and money.

I did like to contribute after going through the UK eBay as well. There are plenty of Niger’s trying to offer money more than the listed price. I guess this is the time to be cautious.
Here is a mail I got selling my mobile phone from one of them.
________________________________________________________________________
Dear Seller,
How are you and your business?I have interest to purchase this item from you and i will want you to get back to me with your full name and address so that i can continue with the payment of this item immediately as i am prepared to pay you the sum of Rs.30,000.00 including the shipping via dhl express delivery to Nigeria.......get back to me asap.......best regards.
N.B.
i am prepared for the immediate payment via international bidpay auction payments which is known as money order and it is approved by BidPay.and this is the shipping informations below:
olayemi Ezekiel
block 108 flat 3 ijaye low-cost Housing Estate
ifako ijaye
pen-cinema
lagos state
nigeria
234001.............get back asap.
Thanks you and God bles

PLEASE BE CAREFULL AND CAUTIOUS OF SUCH FRAUDS - FROM NIGERIA SPECIALLY

Can I just Report them to Ebay. Or just send a plain reply – NO THANKS U As…le.
.
Keep posting… will help us reaching the right buyer always