Is This Another Ebay Scam?

bigman8424 · Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 1

I got three offers to buy a mobile phone off me before the auction sells, I need advice on what to do:

1st Email:
Hello Seller, Compliments of the season.I am interested in the imeediate purchase of your item(s) with a money order via western union now bidpay.But before i proceed with the making of payment,i will like to ask as the following questions: 1)Do you ship to Africa? 2)Do you accept a money order via bidpay? 3)How many of this item do you have? 4)what is the final price of your item(s)? If you are ready to accept the means of payment and ready to ship the item(s) to africa today upon approval confirmation notice, do send in your NAME and ADDRESS so that i can go ahead and make the payment to have the item ship out to my company in africa today this is bcos the need of the item is paramount.I await the information asap. Regards,

2nd Email:
Hello Seller,

I will want you to send in your full name and address so that i can go ahead and send you the money order via bidpay and to have the item ship out to my company in africa upon you receiving the approval confirmation from western union auction payments now bidpay.

Do send in the number of item you having at hand as well as the price you are willing to accept.I will however be responsible for the shipment of the item from your base in US to my store in africa via my FEDEX account,if you are willing to help in this regards do reply me asap.

Regards,

3rd Email:
Hello,i am really interested in buying this phone from you at the reserve amount you are willing to sell it.I am buying it as a birthday gift for my Uncle coming up on Friday December 31.I will make payment via bidpay,i dont use paypal anymore.I will use my DHL account to make the Shippment to my Computer Institute in Sumas,Washington.That means i will just pay you for the item and the shippment to WA will be billed to my DHL account.I will pay you through western union bidpay and your money order would be sent to you. You will be notified about this payment.After secured verification and approval of my order by BidPay,you will be sent confirmation mails from (BidPay). I am imploring you to ship this item upon the approval of the order. Please, kindly get back to me with your full name and address to make payment.Thank you

4th Email:
Hello seller, Good day, Am interested in immediate purchase of the units for my company in africa and i will need the item in a large quantity in which i will be solemnly be responsible for the shipping and handling of the item from your base in US down to my company in AFRICA and i will like you to answer the following questions before i proceed on with the payment. *Do you accept MONEYORDER via Bidpay? *Will you be able to release the item for shippment upon recieving both Pending and Approval notification of payments from BidPay ??? *What is the working condition of those units? *Can we take you for our words? The need for this items is quite urgent. If you agree with this capacity and you are willing to help,please get back with the items you have,PRICE send your contact name and address so that I can make the payment online with immediate effect. Regards,""""

The 3rd Email looks legitimate, what should I do. I'm a newbie seller to eBay. . .

RichNRockville · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:35 am Post subject:

It almost looks like the same person in all cases.

slnolt · Joined: Jan 02, 2003 Posts: 66

I am not sure I completely understand the situation, but according to Ebay's rules... It is against the Ebay community rules to remove an item from listing and make a sale outside of someone winning the bidding. After the item ends, if this person from Africa is the highest bidder or if your item doesn't sell, then it is okay (from Ebay's standpoint) to make the sale outside of Ebay. However, making the sale outside of Ebay's auction removes any protection that Ebay can give you in the case that you are somehow taken by a fraudulent buyer.
I am not familiar with Bidpay to say if it is a safe or "protected" way of receiving money. Make sure you have the money either in hand or verified in your bank before you consider shipping the item. This person or persons make me suspicious if only for the fact that they are all from Africa (why so much interest in this item from a far away country) and so persistent.
Good luck to you, and make slow and deliberate decisions.
Casual Ebay seller of about 2+ years.
slnolt

ssteve60 · Joined: Aug 19, 2004 Posts: 92

Sounds "Scammish" to me. I think i'd ignore the requests and sell safely. Would YOU buy this way?

The "419 scam" is notorious and these requests look to be the start of one.

Check out this page on the 419 scam http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

This may or may not be a scam but when you deal with the African continent, for the most part, there is no recourse if things go wrong.

wenbo · Joined: Sep 15, 2003 Posts: 367 Location: Ontario, Canada

Number 3 could possibly be legitimate but the rest are scams. You should report them to eBay ASAP. Even the legitimate one.

Ebay does not approve of such requests and they do break the rules.

The scam emails are getting more frequent now. You would not receive the money, the Money Orders are fake and usually they send much more than is required and ask for a refund for the difference. That way they get your phone for free and you actually pay them too!!!

I have been selling on eBay now for several years. Since you're a newbie feel free to private message me if you need any help. I'll then give you my email address and you can email me directly with any questions you need answers to.

Always willing to help an eBay newbie!! Very Happy

Jut · Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 8

they all sound like scams to me.....he's asking you to send the item as soon as you recieve CONFIRMATION from bidpay that he has sent them the money.
I'm betting the confirmation e-mail will be a fake from 'bidpay'.
tell him you'll ship the item once the money is nestled in your bank account and see if he does an about turn.

Vaden2u · Joined: Feb 08, 2005 Posts: 1

BEWARE!!! I have just gone through weeks and weeks of this stuff. They even sent me a check for 600.00 (400.00 of which was to pay for fedex shipping to Nigeria). Bill Gunnin was on the check. The check was issued by QCHECKS and they said that they had it listed as a fraud.

Hope you didn't receive their money and cash it!

Morningfeather · Joined: Mar 24, 2005 Posts: 1

Here is a notice from another on-line shop like E-Bay (but not E-Bay)

"We want to let shops know that we are seeing an increase in reports of visitors posing as buyers in order to scam our shops. The trend shows that scammers are getting more creative and are looking far beyond the Nigerian angle. We want to reiterate to shops never to give out bank information to a buyer you do not know well, and not to accept payment for an amount that is more than the cost of the item they want to buy. If you're not sure, ask more questions. And if it seems too good to be true, it may very well be.
No need to take this personally. Our research indicates that scammers are scouring every corner of the Internet marketplace looking for potential victims."

My opinion would be to take the following courses of action (understand that I live in the USA, adjust the advice for your country).;

1. Deal only within the North American continent, or
2. Ship items only after funds have FULLY cleared the bank (I would say 21 business days on a bank money order drawn in U.S. Dollars
3. Deal only with a paypal verified account or postal money order
4. DO NOT give out any bank information, period!

If you are really curious, do a word search on "Nigerian Scam".

User: inactive Posts:

I got a guy trying to buy my phone on ebay. I fell foul to exactly the same person last year, who ended up getting a £100 phone for free (yes, I know I was stupid).

His name and is

Emmanuel Olakunle - SURULERE, LAGOS, NIGERIA.

and he will send you an email supposedly from bidpay or in this case ikobo.com.

Watch out for him if you are selling on ebay as despite me putting will post to uk only and accept paypal only he still bought the item!

Rons · Joined: Dec 07, 2002 Posts: 5667

Just tell the person you don't ship internationally. End of story.

bubblesqueaker - welcome to the forum.

User: inactive Posts:

Hi Ron,

I knew as soon as I seen it was to be sent to non-uk it was a fraudster so I sent an email to him saying I wanted paid and I wanted an additional £15 to cover postage costs. I then got one of those really shoddy 'Your Postal Order is ready' emails.

I did consider posting him an empty box with a letter in it, but couldnt be bothered wasting the money.

At least it worked out in the end as he is barred from ebay (for the 1000th time) and I still have my phone

Smile

Rons · Joined: Dec 07, 2002 Posts: 5667