flair

I put up an auction for an xbox 360 and some games. A zero feedback bidder just bought my item. He just registered on ebay TODAY. Here is the email he sent me after he won the auction:

Hello,
My name is George ******, I saw your product item (300015218856) below on ebay and i am really intrested in buying your Item for my Daugther in WA,becaue she can't find it in her Location.So am will to buy your item and ship to her in WA.Am not in -USA, but presently in South-West England for Public Financial Programme..
I will be handling the shipment expenses, via my FeDeX account. You don't need to pay for the shipment. I will be sending your payment via PayPal,so kindly send me your Paypal email address so as to immedaitely make out your payment. and make sure you get the package ready for shipment,you can ship the item as soon as you recieve the paypal confirmation form paypal.Expecting your reply soon.

Sounds really really fishy to me. Is this a new scam? Old scam? I searched and found nothing on it...

Colleen

I've never heard of such a scam, but there is definite fishiness here. A lack of English skills from someone whose family is in the US and is working in England? It's hard to claim it's a ripoff since they're actually sending you money, but there certainly are things that could go wrong after receiving Paypal funds. They could do a chargeback, and it could very well be in Paypal's rules that you void protection by sending to an address different from that on the account. It could also be a stolen credit card, which eventually could become a chargeback as well.

What's the deal with him using a FedEx account for you to ship something? How on earth would that work? At the very least, try refusing that and using your own shipping method. Something seems so oddly calculated in that story. Perhaps throwing a wrench into it will reveal whether its a scam or genuine?

flair

I emailed him back stating I will using usps with delivery confirmation/signature required. I also told him I would only ship to a confirmed paypal adress. I just can't see this being a good thing, and I don't have the time to deal with this mess if something goes wrong.

flair

well I just got a "payment notification" from "paypal" stating this:

Dear Cliff ****,

This email confirms That Mr George Williams, have paid flam******@hotmail.com $1129.00 USD using PayPal.

Make sure you never provide your password to fraudulent websites
You should never give your PayPal password to anyone, including PayPal employees.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Payment Details: Cliff ****.

Item # Item Title Quantity Price Subtotal


150020354238 1500 20354238, Sony® VAIO® 1.73GHz Laptop Computer 1 $1,029.00
USD $1,029.00
USD


Shipping & Handling via Standard Delivery to :
$100.00
Shipping Insurance(included): $00.00

Total :$1129.00


Note:This PayPal®payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED" but will not be credited to your account until the shipment tracking number is sent to our customers service for shipment verification so as to secure both the seller and the buyer.
([email protected]) and for the payment verification or further enquiry please contact our representative at ( [email protected] )

Shipping Information
Shipping Info: Verified.

Address Status: Confirmed.


Hahaha, this is just, lame. He couldnt even send the right email to the right adress. email came from:

paypal customer care ([email protected])

nonametofame

These scammers are getting more desperate and pathetic by the day.

marty888

Definitely a bad-news transaction!

StealthStratos

Given that he admits he's outside the US - and his poor English skills seem to support that - this is most likely international reshipping fraud.

You either receive a bogus payment confirmation, or the paypal transaction is funded on a stolen credit card.

You ship to the "friend" in the US, who most likely has no idea that she is receiving stolen merchandise. The person in the US got involved in one of two ways:
1) She signed up for a work-at-home opportunity from a legit looking website, where all she needs to do is forward a few packages she receives to locations outside the US.
2) She is middle-aged, probably recently divorced, and just put up a personals ad. She has just met the love of her life on the internet, and he happens to be out of the US at the moment. He asks if she'll do him a favor and just receive a few packages for him and forward them on. Since she's lonely and in love, she leaves her better judgement behind and agrees to do it.

Bottom line is that since he's outside the US (usually Ghana, Nigeria, or Russia), no law enforcement agency is going to go after him. Since the female didn't know the merchandise was stolen, she can't be prosecuted either.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation. I do fraud prevention for a living. I'm a nerd.

Brian Shannon

Never ship until the money has cleared your paypal account, maybe as long as a week.

I had a paypal chargeback for an item three days after it was paid due to stolen funds being used. Luckily I was suspicious and had not shipped the item.

Colleen

Yep, definitely a fake. Paypal doesn't do an escrowed type of transaction anyway, but the emails listed for contact are just silly.

Email the guy saying you've gotten the payment and need the address in Washington to ship the item, then hand the address over to the authorities there!

flair

well, I relisted the item and it sold again, to another 0 feedback ebayer. He sent me this email:

I agreed to pay the amount you want as buy it now any aditional money for the shipping.but i am using this opportunity to inform you that the amount that will be on the moneyorder will more than ur item fees.i don"t realy know the exact amount it will be.bcos it will be issue by my client.and the reason of the over payment is that.the amount on the moneyorder has been signed,and it is more than ur item fees.so once you receive it.you must deduct ur item fees and westernunion the balance money to my client manager in africa.and the item is going to africa.

there will be no problem about the shipment.i want you to responsible for it.also make sure you deduct ur item fees and westernunion any aditional money on the m/o once you receive it.Here will go.i wolud have end the auction but i don"t know how to do it.so i want you to go and end the auction for me asap.to asure you that i am realy intrested in ur item.i will add extra $5.00 in ur payment if you end the auction for me asap.and email me ur phone# asap today.
Below are the questions i have for you.

1)is the item in good condition?

2)is any westernunion location where you to send the balance money money arround you?

3)can you make sure you get the m/o cash at ur bank the sameday you receive it?

4)can you allow me to send DHL for the pick up and complet the transaction the day you receive the moneyorder?

If yes too all my questions.kindly email me back asap today so that the moneyorder can be send asap,


Seriously now, twice in less than 24 hours? Man this is getting frustrating...

Brian Shannon

Yes. Precisely the reason I have stopped buying and selling on EBAY!

Colleen

Wow, that really is bad. I'd hate to exclude honest new ebayers, but maybe you need to change your seller settings to not allow zero feedback bidders. It may just be the particular item that you're selling attracts the con artists, and you won't have to use that setting in the future.

OwlAtHome

This happened to me once with a digtal camera I sold. I hope you reported this to ebay as they'll remove the selling fees accociated with this auction. I suggest that if you relist you require the buyer to pay immediately. The auction will not close until a paypal payment has been submitted

resinrats

So how is this a scam?? He is paying with a money order. I'd hold onto the item for a week or two after recieving the money order to be sure it doesn't bounce if you are worried about it.

GreenMonkey

The ebay fraud does seem to be getting worse. My ebay account was hijacked this morning and someone listed 60 Gucci handbags. Thankfully the automated ebay fraud protection stuff caught it and reset my password.

I've had the account for probably 7-8 years plus, with a good alphanumeric password. Was surprised to see it cracked into. I'm doing extra virus scans at home to make sure one of the PCs didn't pick up a keylogger or something.

I've gotten an awful lot of fake buyer scams like this, and spoof emails, this past year - more so than in previous years.

Just Lurking

The scam is that they are using a private carrier (DHL. FedEx or UPS) to pickup the item. They steal a credit card number to open a new account at the carrier and to buy your item. They have it delivered overnight to them at commercial postal counter which was paided for by the stolen credit. All of this can be done in less than 24 hours.

I see his type of scam atleast once a month on my UPS route.

fitlissa76

consultant.com ? I have an e-mail at consultant.com aka MAIL.com ! Its one of the many personalized things you can get there. I also have catlover.com & usa.com in addition to consultant.com

Also, ebay has a rule somewhere on their site about shipping to the billing address only, and if somebody says to ship elsewhere than what's registered with ebay that its not allowed. Something to that affect.

fitlissa76

That's a known scam. Scam artists routinely use this to send fake money orders for something like $1000 or higher above the amount of the item. The person takes the money order to their bank, and the bank initially accepts it. The money order, however, in the end will not clear. Unfortunately, a person who doesn't wait for it to clear (hopefully they won't be stupid enough to even try depositing it anyway) sends the item & the ... ahem... "extra" $1000 or so back to the addy they're given or they western union the extra money, as is requested in that e-mail above. When the money order later does not clear, they are out their item, $1000 or so, and the bank fees that result from the bounced money order.

resinrats

What if you take the 'money order' to one of those inner-city check cashing places? How do those work. Do they have any way of getting a hold of you if the check bounces?

Xbox69

It's not a check. I don't know of any place besides a bank that will cash this for you. I once made a money order which I ended up not using (left it blank) and the only way I was able to redeem it was to make myself the payee and deposit it to my own bank account.

CaptDS9E

Both of those are scams. I have sold a few game systems on ebay, and people have tried to do that "my own fed ex account" , and sending "to a family member somewhere else" scam. Report those to ebay

Boot

Holy crap! This same exact thing just happened to me. I mean same exact item and everything. Apparently, though, I didn't respond quickjly enough and now I've been suspended for a year for something I didn't od. I am in the process of TRYING to get it cleared up, but customer service is taking its sweet time getting back to me.

Get this, though. The very first thing I did was send the listing email and the Ebay email about my account being compromised to the spoof department. I received a response concerning the compromised account and was told that it was indeed from Ebay. Then, I received a response concerning the listing of Gucci handbags and was told it was a fake. So why then have I been suspended for "trademark misuse"? Ugh! I am really irritated with ebay right now.

GreenMonkey

I got lucky, ebay noticed it themselves. Good luck. The scamming is getting worse and worse, be it buyers, sellers, hijacked account, or whatever. I've been preferring any other routes for selling stuff.

LordofWar

This happend to me I fell for it the first time( I know im a dumbass) then it happend 3 more times and then I reported them to ebay. They make new names over and over and over in a matter of a day. They only do it for electronics. It happend on my 360, and twice on my ipod video. People are such assholes.

Colleen

Check out these threads. MANY of us have had this happen in the last few weeks.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=472365
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=473073