Are scammers destroying Ebay.

Sputnik II · 1 Mar 2006 at 23:51

Sold a phone on Ebay the other day, Winning bidder has no feedback and bearing in mind I stated shipping to UK only. Have now got an email from this person (scammer) :-

Dear seller,
i am happy to be informed that i won your item. I am really committed in buying your item as a result of bidding and am sure today is going to be the happiest day in my life because i have made the proimse of getting this item for my sister, a lawyer as a profeesion who is doing her 60th Birthday and she is located in the Nothern part of Nigeria, Kwara state. But i did not believe i could get your item won, because i have searched every where to get this paticular product in which you have for sale on ebay. Am paying via paypal as means of my payment, and i have contacted the Royal mail to know how much they post and package to Nigeria and i got reply that it costs 15-20 pounds so am paying via paypal.
Please, i will like the first class mail for the posting of the item to Nigeria so as to meet the Birthdate of the Birthday, and i think Royalmail will be best for the posting.
Get back to me asap for the invoice to make the payment so that the payment is made asap, thanks very much i'm really greatful and God bless you. (amen)
The below address is where she stays in Nigeria.

Stringy · 1 Mar 2006 at 23:53

Haha, ebay should just ban all of Nigeria or something, it is ridiculous.

Fourstar · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:03

Tell him you'll only accept a money transfer via Western Union

PureAppleJuice · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:04

Should just scam the scammers back, accept the cash, don't send the item, dispute that the item was sent, hopefully you'll win, sorted

agw_01 · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:05

If this happened to me, I would without a doubt send an e-mail to the guy containing quite a few swear words.

Those idiots just don't get the message! This is why I no longer sell on eBay.

I'm pretty sure eBay will refund you if someone buys the item which doesn't comply with your shipping preferences.

Siliconslave · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:06

i think what really killed the bay for me was people running shops on it. Basically has become the same as every other hightstreet store, just with a 50/50 chance of getting ripped off. As a buyer your more likely to get a bargain on a mainstream item from a normal shop!

(although it is great for random / rare things sometimes)

agw_01 · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:06

jidh007 said:
Should just scam the scammers back, accept the cash, don't send the item, dispute that the item was sent, hopefully you'll win, sorted

They'll want a tracking number won't they?

Send a large envelope, ripped open and taped back up :cool:

Mark A · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:10

this happened to me abit ago, its really anoying. I sent an email to ebay about it sayin the buyer was trying to pay with stolen funds and then the buyer was "not a registered user" 3 days later

. Then i filed the dispute and because he was banned it was closed imediatly and my final value fee was returned. I was told by someone on here to send emails to the scammer so that ebay would side with me or something but its not needed at all.

Mark

cheets64 · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:12

My mate was scammed, he sent his nokia phone to nigeria, He has lost the phone and got no money, he only sent it becuase the emails where spoofing the paypal site.

PureAppleJuice · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:28

That sucks, did he try disputing it? If so what was the outcome of that?

Curio · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:34

One of my favourite sites of all time. You'll find plenty of ideas on how to deal with this guy here

http://www.419eater.com/

Unconditional · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:38

jidh007 said:
Should just scam the scammers back, accept the cash, don't send the item, dispute that the item was sent, hopefully you'll win, sorted

Surely if they had sent the money, then they are not scammers at all?

Mark A · 2 Mar 2006 at 00:41

Surely if they had sent the money, then they are not scammers at all?

they hijack someone elses accout and then a few days after youve sent the item the money is taken out of your account as its stolen, something like that anyway.

Joobs · 2 Mar 2006 at 01:00

I actually get annoyed with the amount of fake stuff being sold on ebay.

for example do a search on diesel jeans or sony memory cards. Very few are the real thing.

Treefrog · 2 Mar 2006 at 03:51

Fourstar said:
Tell him you'll only accept a money transfer via Western Union

Superb!

Mark A said:
they hijack someone elses accout and then a few days after youve sent the item the money is taken out of your account as its stolen, something like that anyway.

Or they tell paypal it wasn't sent or is damaged, paypal do their usual trick of agreeing with the buyer no matter what and hey presto! no phone (or whatever) and no cash.

Sputnik II · 2 Mar 2006 at 07:14

Joobs said:
I actually get annoyed with the amount of fake stuff being sold on ebay.

for example do a search on diesel jeans or sony memory cards. Very few are the real thing.

There was someone the other day with an ad for Microsoft Office 2003 but, when you read the ad carefully what they where actually trying to sell was Open office. Dodgy ad's like that should not be allowed as its very misleading and some people tend to fall for these traps. He was charging a high price for it to.

dirtydog · 2 Mar 2006 at 07:40

Sputnik II said:
There was someone the other day with an ad for Microsoft Office 2003 but, when you read the ad carefully what they where actually trying to sell was Open office. Dodgy ad's like that should not be allowed as its very misleading and some people tend to fall for these traps. He was charging a high price for it to.

They aren't allowed - report it to ebay and they'll remove it.

Richdog · 2 Mar 2006 at 07:43

Sputnik II said:
Sold a phone on Ebay the other day, Winning bidder has no feedback and bearing in mind I stated shipping to UK only. Have now got an email from this person (scammer) :-

Did you state shipping to UK or actually tick the option to auto-block all non-UK bidders?

dirtydog · 2 Mar 2006 at 07:58

Richdog said:
Did you state shipping to UK or actually tick the option to auto-block all non-UK bidders?

Indeed. I also auto-block all non-paypal account holders - according to ebay, doing that cuts problem bidders by 80%.

alexakasloth · 2 Mar 2006 at 08:11

Haven't had one yet but I think I would be pretty ****** off if I did, tell him where to shove it, say he hasn't paid and relist, leave him neg feedback.