So I'm trying to sell my digital camera, and through CL and eBay I've been almost scammed!

1st time was through CL. Someone emailed me asking if the "item" was still available. Somehow I overlooked the "item" word (a sure-fire way to spot a scam!) and I responded by saying that it was still for sale. They then emailed me back saying:

I ignored that one.

I listed the item on eBay and while I was at work someone bought it via the Buy Now option. When I got home I got the email from eBay saying it had been purchased. However, by the time I got that one, I also got an email from eBay saying that an account was being used to make purchases without the owner's permission (I guess either a child buying stuff, or someone's account was hacked).

I relist the item. Doesn't sell.

I list it a third time, and once again someone does the Buy Now option. The member was registered in the UK, and I said I'd ship only within the US. I send them a message that says I only ship to the US. Without getting a response from that they send me a "yay I won!" message that was oddly the same as the first scam, but this time mentioned Nigeria as well (haven't the scammers learned yet? or are people still sending stuff to Nigeria???)

They also sent me an email from Paypal.com. Now, they did this very cleverly. The email address the message was sent from is actually clearification@mail.com but the "name" (you know how email programs now display the senders name, rather than the address?) is "Paypal.com" so you see "Paypal.com" in your inbox rather than clearification@mail.com.

The formatting of the email was poorly done though, so it looked pretty plain compared to the usual HTML rich PayPal emails. I logged on to PayPal by typing PayPal.com into the browser, rather than using the link in the email, and what do ya know... The $405 that the email said was deposited into my account.... wasn't there! As if the UK bidder bidding on a US auction, and then wanting to shipped to Nigeria wasn't a dead giveaway that this was a scam. I reported it to eBay immediately.

Perhaps I just haven't been dealing with CL and eBay as much as I used to, but it seems like there is a denser population of scammers out there now! Are other people seeing this increase as well? Are they preying on people trying to desperately sell unwanted items in this economic crisis period?

Also, anyone have a camera shaped bomb I can send to Nigeria? TIA.

 

always ends with "regards"

cant an educated person go to Nigeria and give them a effing template or some tips? lol seriously they havent improved in quality over the past 5 years...they sound the same year after year...youd think they would keep an edge on us non scammers.

and WTF is valentine season? they probably watched simpsons and noticed Hokmer calling Bart "boy" so they used that for us dumb Americans

 

Good money made there. It's very nice of the government of Nigeria to look the other way and don't even bother trying to arrest people involved.

 

Hmm, if that Home Depot thing doesn't work out, we should go to Nigeria as educators

 

Seriously...

I'm pretty sure Alex/Mike Azubike can be found at:
ADDRESS:- ................................#14 RAILWAY LINE
CITY:- .........................................IKEJA
STATE:- ......................................LAGOS STATE
COUNTRY:-.................................NIGERIA
ZIP-CODE:-..................................23401

 

lol railway line, they live in a stranded boxcar?

 

Haha, does anyone remember the TV special they did on this? The one where they showed these inbred dumb**** Americans who thought some "beautiful man/woman" was in love with them on the internet and got them to receive and send packages?

The best was that middle aged fat *** white guy who got duped with a picture of some exotic looking girl (pulled from a photobucket somewhere and sent by a guy in Nigeria).

 

hey now!

Middle aged fat *** white guys have feelings too!

 

ahh yes, hosted by the infamous Chris Hansen.

 

yeah, The Boxcar Boys emigrated. Though you knew.

 

bad economy = more scammers =[

 

I posted a link to this earlier if you want a good time eater that is entertaining go to www.419eater.com it is a website of this guy who reverse scams these idiots. I this the best is bookworm. They actually get this guy to record himself reading the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Its pretty funny.

 

good job catching them


i posted one in the poli forum

 

Nigeria, Half of it is parties on someone elses dime. Other half is poor because no one sends stuff there anymore.

You will always catch someone not watching for scammers.. Thats why they do it. I think we should have gone there instead of iraq. Least then we get our stuff back we bought or that 5 million dollar check you cashed for joe's friend of the next door neighbor boyfriends sister that died last week and randomly named you in their last will.


Good catch... I never ever respond back to any emails from ebay/paypal or my bank.

I also always type the url in and watch for the HTTPS:// "S" to come up. There have been even some times I have stopped logging into my BofA account as things looked fishy...

 

I was scammed way back in high school through paypal. Scammers used to send emails out pretending they were paypal and asking you to sign in for whatever reason. I am sure they still do. I fell for it and then they got my account and password. Then I get an email with the invoice of a purchase of a computer. I quickly called paypal and get them to stop payment. I get an email from the women they bought the computer from. What they did was bought the computer through paypal via my account and had someone meet at a coffee shop and pick the item up. She starts yelling at me for giving my password away and feel crappy that it even happened. I don't know what happened with her and paypal, but she didn't get the money from me. I learned from my mistakes and never go through email links to get to pages.

A couple years ago on fourth of July I was surfing at Ocean beach and all my stuff was in my buddies car. We get back from surfing, only to find his car is not there. There were some police right there and we were able to file a report quickly. We were stuck in our wetsuits and waiting for a friend to give us a ride because one of the police was dick. One cop was cool and said hey let's give these guys a ride home and the other one just flat out said no. I call my CC company and alert them and tell them to not accept any charges, but they ask me if I made a purchase about 15 mintues ago in Chinatown at some jewelry store for $1000. They stop payment....

It sucks that this stuff happens, but there will always be ways to screw people out of their hard earned money.