Foo - Nigerian scam or legit?

Hi all - I sold a camera on ebay recently, but was dismayed to discover the winning bidder was from Nigeria and had zero feedback. Immediately I think great, some scam artist won my auction.

However, a couple of days pass and the guy emails me through ebay, asking to make the payment and for me to ship it to an address in Illinois. He said he has family there and one of them is making a trip back to Nigeria and he wants them to bring the camera to him. That was the first thing that was a little different - usually the scams involve Nigerian addresses. He also gave me their phone number to verify it. Then the surprising bit - he pays me. I get a notice that I have the full amount including shipping in my PayPal account. So I log into my account to verify it and sure enough, it shows a payment from him. So I even call paypal and get a customer service agent on the line. He looks at it and says the funds are legitimate and that it is ok to ship the item.

I'm still very very leery of shipping the item. What do you guys think - is this still somehow a scam? If I ship the item is there still somehow a way for the money to disappear? I'm transferring it to my regular bank account right now.

So, did you call the relatives in Illinois?

No, I can though. However I actually have the money - that's the other thing that's different. All the scams I've read about the deals are in some kind of fake money such as a fake cashier's check, or even counterfeit cash. Paypal independently verified the funds are there. I've been researching a little and haven't found a scam that behaves this way yet.

Would take it to be a scam, where the buyer will claim the item has not been recieved, and then use the Paypal / eBay not recieved process to claim the money back. (doesn't matter that you have moved the money out of your Paypal account)

Unless you can veryify the US address & are using a fully signed for / tracked shipping services, would just refund the buyer, and cancel the transaction, all you will loose is the listing fee, and you may be able to claim back the final value fee as well though the cancal transaction process.

236468

I would not send the camera. Paypal and ebay always side with the buyer. If it's a scam they will claim they did not receive the camera or it was an empty box.

hmmm - it'd be really stupid of ebay to side with a buyer with zero feedback from nigeria vs a verified member in long standing with plenty of 100% positive feedback.

hmmm - it'd be really stupid of ebay to side with a buyer with zero feedback from nigeria vs a verified member in long standing with plenty of 100% positive feedback.


https://www.google.com/search?q=why+does+ebay+always+side+with+the+buyer&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

It must be tough to be an honest Nigerian these days! What you've described sounds like a normal eBay transaction through PayPal. You've received the money, confirmed with PayPal that it's legitimate and have a U.S. address to ship it to. I've done a lot of PayPal/eBay transactions over the years, both buying and selling but nothing too high dollar.

Is it possible that the scenario plays out like this? After talking to the PayPal, moving the money and then sending the camera, you get notification that the receiver in Illinois files a claim saying they never rec'd the camera or it was damaged? Can they actually get a refund from PayPal that you're stuck with? I don't understand how you could be left holding the bag on this.

Have any of you been scammed this way or heard of scams working this way? Is this a new angle? Educate me...I might just be naive.

***edit*** hmmmm...I've read through some of the links from the above post. Now I'm even more confused.

Not Nigeria but I sold a softball bat to someone in Korea and they asked me to ship it to Texas. I was leery but it went down with no problem.

btw - another curious thing I noticed is that the account, even though it has no feedback, is 3 years old. It wasn't recently created.

Maybe a call to eBay to ask about the suspicious-ness of that account?

btw - another curious thing I noticed is that the account, even though it has no feedback, is 3 years old. It wasn't recently created.Could just mean they rarely use the account or just now got around to using it. I signed up for ebay, paypal, and amazon last year and haven't used any of them yet.

If it's so easy to just claim you never got the item and get your money back it would be done like every .5 seconds by now I'm sure. You got the dough... send the camera certified.

Have you called the phone number, or checked that it matches the address.

In the case that the situation isn't actually what it appears to be at face value, it could be that the Nigerian is simply running arbitrage on auction sites. He duplicates your posting somewhere else, possibly craigslist even, and then takes the difference in price and simply puts the new buyers address in place of his address. It's like flipping a bike without ever having it in your possession. If things go bad, he can always just burn the ebay account.

Look at your PayPal transaction. If the ship to address is not "Confirmed" and the seller protection is labeled anything other than "Eligible", you could get burned. If you decide to ship make sure you use shipping that requires a signature, take pictures of the item as you package it. I always exclude bidders with no feedback and do not ship to foreign countries just to avoid this kind of situation.

Probably a scam. What kind of camera, and how much was the winning bid?

only ship it if you get a confirmed address, otherwise the buyer/scammer can use charge back fraud at the end of the month.

Which part of Illinois? If they're close to me I can take a look at their place.

Camera is a Panasonic G2HK which I bought for $700 and sold for $800. i'm on the fence about keeping it anyway to be honest. Nice camera and I've been looking at sample images - it delivers a quality image.

According to paypal the address is confirmed and is eligible for seller protection.

Which part of Illinois? If they're close to me I can take a look at their place.

West Dundee, IL

West Dundee, IL

That's 18 miles from me according to mapquest, pm the address and I'll see if I can drive by there tomorrow.

That's a really nice offer no motor?. If you ever need someone to check out an address in Austin, I'm sure ravenmore would reciprocate.

If you took it to a UPS Store or a Kinkos/FedEx store and had them pack and ship the item for you maybe they would be able verify it? ?

Hey, it's the best I could come up with...

Lets keep this **** real, how many transactions have you done with Nigerians that have turned out OK? Don't ****in' do it, to much to loose.

It turns out I have friends, or at least a friend in Nigeria, as I just gave the son of the former Director of the Nigerian Finance Ministry my banking info, and he owes me 1.8 million. I could have him check the guy out from his end if no motor strikes out on this end.

No, I can though. However I actually have the money - that's the other thing that's different. All the scams I've read about the deals are in some kind of fake money such as a fake cashier's check, or even counterfeit cash. Paypal independently verified the funds are there. I've been researching a little and haven't found a scam that behaves this way yet.

I think that by eBay rules, since he has sent you the money, you are obligated to send the camera. However he may be agreeable to your sending it to his American relatives, or using some kind of secured FedEx so that he has to sign for it before he gets it. I would think that the greatest danger would be that the camera could disappear enroute. Be sure to ensure the shipment for more than the value of the object.

Ok - I'm starting to think more and more this is on the up and up. I looked up the address on google maps and it appears to be a fairly nice apartment complex in suburban Chicago. Also, I noticed the buyer now has 1 positive feedback that wasn't me. He bought a 32GB memory card that would fit this camera. I need to see if I can edit the label - screwed up and didn't put insurance or signature required on it - doh.

Ok - I'm starting to think more and more this is on the up and up. I looked up the address on google maps and it appears to be a fairly nice apartment complex in suburban Chicago. Also, I noticed the buyer now has 1 positive feedback that wasn't me. He bought a 32GB memory card that would fit this camera. I need to see if I can edit the label - screwed up and didn't put insurance or signature required on it - doh.

Hahaha! :lol: They GOT you good! :lol:
but no, really, they got you bro. =0(

Hahaha! :lol: They GOT you good! :lol:
but no, really, they got you bro. =0(

how?

Honestly I don't know, but we'll see.

Yup - we'll see. I confirmed everything out the wazoo though and sent it meeting all the ebay seller protection requirements. Hopefully it's a done deal - literally. :)

I'm sure everything will be fine. :)

There are good and honest people in Nigeria too. Just sayin.

There are good and honest people in Nigeria too. Just sayin.

I was going to elaborate on that but given this is not P&R I will leave Nigerian Born Politicians alone... *runs*

Yeah, Man. Profilin'

That's a really nice offer no motor?. If you ever need someone to check out an address in Austin, I'm sure ravenmore would reciprocate.

Well it turns out today is my day off and I've wanted to go out that way to check out one of the trails out that way but haven't done so yet. So I made the 30 minute drive, and the address looked like a somewhat upscale row house development for what that's worth.

I've got a lot out of this group, and it was my turn to give something back today. I know foo will step up to the challenge next time I need to know how to install a handrail in a tile wall using plastic explosives or a bulldozer.

Make sure the package has signature confirmation. PP seller protection requires it for all items over $250

Yes - did that.

And again - thanks to no motor? for going over and checking it out.

My offer to help still stands as well, but I will let you know it may take a while, as the guy quit responding to my emails after I gave him the banking information he asked for.

Yes this sounds like the empty shipping box approach to me. Ebay will side with the buyer and you are out the price of the item plus shipping costs. Im surprised anybody would use Ebay to buy or sell.

My offer to help still stands as well, but I will let you know it may take a while, as the guy quit responding to my emails after I gave him the banking information he asked for.

See what happens when I don't check things out for you?

Yes this sounds like the empty shipping box approach to me. Ebay will side with the buyer and you are out the price of the item plus shipping costs. Im surprised anybody would use Ebay to buy or sell.

Thats why.

Let us know what happens. I had someone (actually on here on bikeforums but with less than 10 posts) who tried the empty box (well torn open and empty box) trick on me. I ended up calling the post office local to him and talking to the letter carrier who verified that the box was intact when he delivered it. In that case, I told the guy to call the cops because someone had stolen it from his mailbox and if he came back with a police report I'd split the loss with him. Never heard back. Sometimes you just have to do a little extra work to get it to turn out.

Time for an update! Any news?

Time for an update! Any news?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJSgZYUnQn0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJSgZYUnQn0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Not any more.

http://www.jcpmediaroom.com/posts/18/JCPENNEY'S-TRANSFORMATION-PLANS-REVEALED-AT-LAUNCH-EVENT-IN-NEW-YORK-CITY

Gee!we can shop where Ellen D. shops.

Gee!we can shop where Ellen D. shops.

Wait, is that supposed to be a selling point?

so what happened ravenmore? Seeing this made me wonder how you made out?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/australian-woman-turns-tables-nigerian-scammers-175755518.html

I have been scamed by someone who fooled the feedback plan. He aslo fooled buyer protection from ebay. The checks went to a mail box on an outside wall of an empty building. The address and phone numbers were real, but stolen. The guy I called got tons of calls from other scammed ebay buyers. He was a cop too! I's easy to get a lot of good ratings on feedbackand then do the scam after you sold lots of verycheap things. This guy sold the recipe for a mixed drink for like a dollar, to get feed back.
This guy had a complicated scam. He put up hundreds of auctions for cameras. Made his money and then bailed out. They suspect he made a million bucks.

I got nothing from ebay.