eBay Scam?

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g_warreng_warren
Posted:
in AppleOutsider edited January 2014
I have just sold my old mobile on eBay and it has been won by an American woman asking me to post to Nigeria as a present. She is offering to pay via paypal, and pay appropriately for the postage.



Is this possibly a scam? I can't see how, but perhaps I am missing something. Anything I should watch out for? If the payment is successfully received by paypal, nothing can go wrong can it?



Thanks for the thoughts folks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Of course it's a scam. She's going to introduce some sort of complication with her PayPal account and ask you to wire it.



    But go ahead, and send it only when and if her PayPal transfer clears.
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  • Reply 2 of 7
    guybrush threepwoodguybrush threepwood Posts: 1,109member
    LOL...yeah she tried that to me about 4 months ago.



    It's for her son/daughter whose studying down there, right?



    I told her too bad, find someone else. Apparently that might be you...
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  • Reply 3 of 7
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Placebo


    Of course it's a scam. She's going to introduce some sort of complication with her PayPal account and ask you to wire it.



    Either that, or you'll receive an official-looking e-mail with PayPal graphics saying that you've received payment -- but it will be a fake. Go ahead, check your PayPal account directly when this happens. There of course won't actually be any new money there.



    I've been trying to sell an old unlocked cell phone, and I have NEVER had so much trouble with eBay before as I've had these past few weeks. THREE, count 'em, three times in a row the winning bidders were scammers, two from Nigeria and one from Moldova. The second Nigerian scammer had apparently hijacked a legit users account too (probably a separate phishing operation had scammed the account password out of some poor honest guy).



    I smelled these scams from a mile away, and while I could easily defend myself against falling for the scams insofar as shipping to someone who's never going to pay, they still f*ck me over with needing to relist my item (or just give up on eBay), report the problems, fight with eBay to get my auction fees refunded, etc.



    I'm completely gunshy now about trying to sell anything on eBay again, unless I give up on auctions entirely and try to sell things at fixed prices (where I'm not likely to get as good a price as in an auction) where the sale doesn't officially close until payment is actually made.



    Finally today I'll be able to mark off the third scammer as "not paid" -- eBay makes you wait 7 days before you can even report non-payment, the only action you can take then is to issue a payment reminder, and then it's another 8 days before you can finally close out the sale and try to get your listing fees and the cut eBay takes on the sale price refunded.



    In the first two auctions, the Nigerian scammers posted unrealistically high bids during the last few minutes of the auction, making it impossible for me to even have time to reject those bids before the auction closed.
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  • Reply 4 of 7
    g_warreng_warren Posts: 713member
    Thanks for the comments. I googled their email address and name before posting to this forum but didn't find anything. I subsequently googled their postal address and it seems that they have tried this with other people - they ask you to post before making payment. Thankfully I never post without payment anyway so they still wouldn't have caught me out. Now I have the hassle of trying to sell it to a second buyer though. Grrr. This seems all too common now. Thankfully I only sell on old phones once a year!
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  • Reply 5 of 7
    mrtotesmrtotes Posts: 760member
    Scams on eBay - surely not? I thought the world was full of good and honest people... \



    Nigerian woman wanted my to post my unlocked Nokia 6230 to her son for his birthday (coincidentally the same as mine ;-) ) and she would pay be £210 for my phone. Obviously too good to be true I advised her for far far less she could purchase a brand new phone for a lot less (although I was bundling loads of extras). I eventually sold the phone 7 days later for £80 which I considered the going rate. On eBay if it's too good to be true....
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  • Reply 6 of 7
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    What's good to be true isn't always false, I got an NEC 20WMGX2 (which lists for $700+shipping) for $500, sealed in box, from a local buyer so I didn't even need to pay shipping.
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  • Reply 7 of 7
    mrtotesmrtotes Posts: 760member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Placebo


    What's good to be true isn't always false, I got an NEC 20WMGX2 (which lists for $700+shipping) for $500, sealed in box, from a local buyer so I didn't even need to pay shipping.



    No but when you see it for $100...
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