{"id":430,"date":"2007-09-04T18:50:04","date_gmt":"2007-09-04T10:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whoisandrewwee.com\/ebay-auctions\/ebay-nigeria-scam-exposed\/"},"modified":"2009-11-02T19:00:10","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T11:00:10","slug":"ebay-nigeria-scam-exposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/ebay-auctions\/ebay-nigeria-scam-exposed\/","title":{"rendered":"eBay Nigeria Scam Exposed"},"content":{"rendered":"
It’s easy to focus on the $6 billion money train that is the eBay “digital marketplace” (or auction site in everyday language – “Internet Marketers, Are you on the eBay Money Train Yet?<\/a>” But if you’re not careful, you could fall prey to scam artists.<\/p>\n With a worldwide audience, that set of Pez dispensers could evoke a fierce bidding war between collectors in Belgium and Thailand, and the tussle could boost your sale price quite substantially. But again, beware the sharks out there.<\/p>\n Last week, I put up a cell phone for auction on eBay and within 4 hours, a buyer took up the “Buy It Now” option, purchasing the phone at the price I specified. This certainly was a bright prospect for my eBay plans. What’s more I got a PayPal payment notification from the UK buyer, along with an email that read:<\/p>\n Hello, Atolagbe Agbede Thanks and I hope to read from you as soon as possible —<\/p>\n A UK buyer asking for a cell phone to be sent to Nigeria?<\/p>\n Plus the PayPal “payment notification” looked dubious. The payment amounts were all wrong and it came from “Services@Paypal.com” instead of the regular “service@paypal.com” (a hallmark of scam artists = poor spelling).<\/p>\n Even better, the email was sent from: “pp.notification.status@post.com” and “pp.notification1@gmail.com” – pretty poor email spoofing if you ask me.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n As if these weren’t bad enough, the “bidder” had the audacity to send more fake email:<\/p>\n Dear andrew wee<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n We hereby notify you of the transaction that was effected by Slong Girl <\/span>for the <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n payment <\/span><\/span>of the item(s) purchased from you on eBayand provide guidelines on how your funds <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n would be <\/span>released.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>A notification of this transaction on PayPal as been sent to you immediately <\/span> <\/span><\/span> <\/span>the payment <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n was <\/span><\/span>effected, and we are yet to read from you. Please be informed <\/span> that the money has <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n been <\/span><\/span>deducted from <\/span> Slong Girl <\/span><\/span>account and is pending <\/span>on PayPal database. <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n This money will be released into your account as soon as the tracking number for <\/span>the <\/span><\/span> shipment <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n has been sent to us at pp.notification.status@mail.com<\/a><\/span><\/span> <\/span> for verification. You <\/span><\/span> are <\/span>adviced <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n to ship <\/span>this item and send the tracking number you recieve <\/span>from the post office to <\/span> <\/span>us at <\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n above <\/span>email address. <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n We will send you an email as soon as the funds has been released into your account, until then <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n we wait for the tracking number for the shipment. Ship the Item to the address included in the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n email <\/span><\/span>used to you notify you of the payment <\/span> for your item(s) ONLY! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Thank you using PayPal.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Chris Campbell<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n PP Email ID 936<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n This was sent from the same mail.com and gmail.com emails.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n So the scam works in this way:<\/p>\n If you’re unsure, mail eBay’s customer service and get assistance.<\/p>\n Other telltale scam artist signs:<\/p>\n Checking the eBay site a day later, I found the person’s account had been suspended.<\/p>\n They are persistant though, here’s a followup email I received:<\/p>\n Hello, Atolagbe Agbede Thanks and I hope to read from you as soon as possible —<\/p>\n If you’re newer to eBay, do realize that the protocol is to receive payments BEFORE you ship items to the buyer.<\/p>\n PayPal provides some level of consumer protection for buyers, but you need to be savvy if you’re a seller.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Update: <\/strong>A buddy who is an eBay powerseller recommends <\/strong>listing <\/strong>items at the Bidz marketplace (which has some similarities to eBay – take note, it’s primarily focused on jewellery auctions).<\/p>\n If you’re interested in checking it out:<\/p>\n It’s easy to focus on the $6 billion money train that is the eBay “digital marketplace” (or auction site in everyday language – “Internet Marketers, Are you on the eBay Money Train Yet?” But if you’re not careful, you could fall prey to scam artists. With a worldwide audience, that set of Pez dispensers could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50],"tags":[904,905,1786,900,903,902,899,901],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":912,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI just sent the payment for the item. I also included
\nan estimated cost of shipping to Nigeria for my son
\ncompany. Please let me know when you get a
\nnotification from ebay that Slong Girl sent you a
\npayment. Send me the tracking number via auspost as
\nsoon as you ship the item. I am having difficulties
\ngetting across to my son that manage her father
\ncompany over there. I gave his address to paypal for
\nverification and it has been confirmed so it should be
\nin the payment notification.
\nHis correct mailing address again is:<\/em><\/p>\n
\n03 Ijaiye Road
\nOpp Mobil Filling Station
\nOgba, Ikeja, Lagos
\nNigeria 23401<\/em><\/p>\n
\ncos I want this to get to him at the shortest period
\nof time.
\nSlong,
\ngirl<\/em><\/p>\n\n
\n
\nI just sent the payment for the item. I also included
\nan estimated cost of shipping to Nigeria for my son
\ncompany. Please let me know when you get a
\nnotification from ebay that Slong Girl sent you a
\npayment. Send me the tracking number via auspost as
\nsoon as you ship the item. I am having difficulties
\ngetting across to my son that manage her father
\ncompany over there. I gave his address to paypal for
\nverification and it has been confirmed so it should be
\nin the payment notification.
\nHis correct mailing address again is:<\/em><\/p>\n
\n03 Ijaiye Road
\nOpp Mobil Filling Station
\nOgba, Ikeja, Lagos
\nNigeria 23401<\/em><\/p>\n
\ncos I want this to get to him at the shortest period
\nof time.
\nSlong,
\ngirl<\/em><\/p>\n\n