Ebay - Nigeria Scam And What To Look Out For!
So the other week I decided it was time to upgrade my camera. But first I needed to sell my old one. As most people do, Ebay, Gumtree and Facebook were the first places I posted it to. I had heard about scams and lots of problems on Ebay before so since this was the first time I had personally used it, I knew I needed to be careful. Here is what happened in my case and some pointers on how to spot a scam weather it be email Ebay or any other internet based selling.
After only a few hours of posting the Advert, I got an email from Ebay saying that the camera had sold. Happy about this, I then went on to the next email which was through Ebay but from the buyer. He asked me to send an invoice over with the total amount to pay but also with his shipping address. This was an American/New Orleans address. This was my first problem. I had in fact put collection only in person on my advert. However, I wanted the camera gone soon so I emailed him back to ask if he could pay the delivery charge. On his next reply he continued to say that he was going to pay for the item soon but did ignore my question. Despite this, he replied through Ebay, therefore at this point I wasn't very suspicious of anything.
The next day, I got an email from Ebay again saying that the buyers account had been compromised due to "bidding was cancelled because they were made without the account owner's permission" and that he needs to ring Ebay before I can carry on with the sale. He then emailed me saying that he had done this and the problem was because he logged on using another device therefore eBay thought it was a third party logging on. Which is not what they said to me in the original email. This message also had a lot of spelling mistakes and grammar problems which made him sound like he wasn't the person I was originally talking to. He also asked for my PayPal email which I did not give him.
I then replied again asking for the delivery money which he then ignored again. He then never didn't until about 5 hours later which he said he had paid for the item through PayPal. I was very suspicious at this point as I never gave him the email address I wanted to use for my PayPal. However, I then logged on to PayPal and found out that there was no money there or pending.
My next email was the big one that gave him away. He stated that I should have got the PayPal confirmation email and that I need to send the item out as soon as possible so I can add the shipping reference number to the PayPal transaction. (which still isn't there) Since there wasn't anything to add the tracking number too I wasn't going to send out a parcel for free. I then looked at the top of the "Notification Of PayPal Payment Been Approved" There was an email address called 'aw-approved@insurer.com' which was not at all the same as the other Ebay emails I had received.
This is where I stopped. Sent one email back telling him he would be reported and banned from Ebay and nothing else will now happen. However, I know for sure this is not the only account that this scam is working from.
Points to look out for:
Fake email addresses that do not match up to the real ones. (Make sure to check every email Address when selling)
Make sure the payment has gone through to PayPal before sending anything.
Make sure the shipping address is the same all the way through the sale.
Never ship to this Nigeria Address.
Find out what is happening to a compromised account.
Talk to Ebay and ask what they suggest you do if you feel something is wrong.
Check and double check everything to do with the sale before continuing.
Report problems.
The account may not always tell the truth (100% rating might be fake)
To conclude. You always need to be very careful on Ebay or any other selling websites. They can't always be trusted and people find all sorts of loop holes to try and fish. This doesn't just happen on Ebay and emails from them, it could also happen from 'your bank' or even a mobile from company. Just be careful and always double check.
If you want anymore information contact us through the contact page, email or through Facebook and we will reply as soon as we can!
Thanks for reading
Mountain Peak Media.
