Do you think Im getting scammed? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

InSutterWeTrust · 03-18-2007, 01:21 PM

Ok so I decided to sell my Xbox and 17 games on Ebay the other day, starting off at $125.00, thinking Im lucky if I get even $200 for it. So I get a message from someone saying if I end the bidding early they will over me $250 for it, but they will only pay through a Western Union Money order. So I ponder the idea for a bit, and decide to accept it.

So the consumer says they will get western union to email me a copy of the invoice when the payment goes through. So they do, but they email says I need to reply with my fedex shipping tracking number before they will release the money to me. In the email it gives me a western union order number. I checked on the western union website, no order comes up. I called western union and they dont even have the tracking number.

Also in the email it says it was bought my someone in Missouri, but they wanted me to ship it to Nigeria. Which seemed a little odd, I thought.

So I just emailed the person back saying cancel their money order and I was relisting the product. So Im pretty sure it was a scam, just wanted your guys opinion. Is there someone I can contact about this beside ebay?

Reggie Dunlop · 03-18-2007, 01:23 PM

It's a scam.

iggypop · 03-18-2007, 01:25 PM

scam

metallicat · 03-18-2007, 01:25 PM

That is a very well known scam. Google Nigeria and eBay.

JimmytheT · 03-18-2007, 01:28 PM

Big time scam; good on you for being a little extra diligent on this one.

CaptainCrunch · 03-18-2007, 01:29 PM

huge scam

Ayrahb · 03-18-2007, 01:34 PM

ANYTHING that mentions Nigeria is a scam unless you are working with people in that country and know they have a reason to contact you. One of my clients got a written job offer to work there for $23,000 a month and he almost fell for it.

I think you should report this to the CPS' Commercial Crimes Unit (or whatever they call it) if you are in Calgary and maybe call the consumer reporters on local TV so that others don't get scammed.

EDIT: I just went back and saw that you reported NS as your location, but I would call the local police/RCMP nevertheless.

metallicat · 03-18-2007, 01:35 PM

CPS isn't going to investigate. If you are going to sell on eBay, you need to add restrictions to your auctions, and stick to your guns.

Ayrahb · 03-18-2007, 01:42 PM

^ You are right about CPS not investigating as the police often don't/can't/won't do much about certain types of crimes (see downtown drug deals in plain view). I was thinking more along the lines of informing them of this particular scam, at least for statistical purposes.

BlackArcher101 · 03-18-2007, 02:57 PM

I would have thought scam as soon as they wanted me to deal outside of the e-bay auction. Nevermind the fact that Western Union and Nigeria were also involved.

stang · 03-18-2007, 03:01 PM

www.419eater.com

Dion · 03-18-2007, 03:23 PM

Yeah it's a scam alright. Good on you for trusting your instincts and cancelling the sale.

InSutterWeTrust · 03-18-2007, 03:33 PM

Thanks for all the feedback, as soon as Nigeria was mentioned in one of the emails I thought scam it was a scam.

ericschand · 03-19-2007, 08:35 AM

There are actually 3 tip-offs within your post.

The first is to end the auction early, giving a high(er) price.
The second is the Western Union money order/method.
The third is changing the shipping address.

Never end your auction early to a higher price. They are taking
advantage of your greed. It is also against Ebay policy, this alone
may make the cops tell you to take a hike, and will definitely get
Ebay and PayPal to tell you to stuff it.

Don't ship using the "give us the goods first", followed by the money
is in the mail. Always always always wait X weeks for the money
order or cheque to clear (can be confirmed for the total wait time by
your bank). If the bank says 8 weeks, tell them, it's 8 weeks. It's not
your problem that they cannot pay via PayPal.

And finally, never ship to anywhere but where the actual address is.
PayPal has their address verification stuff, use it.
Otherwise you are probably shipping it to a stolen address (yes, you
can steal those too, just for the 20 minutes you need it, takes some
major cajones, but it can be done). In this case it was obvious, Nigeria.
But you can find the same in USA or Canada too. Avoid PO boxes
altogether.

ers

Top Shelf · 03-19-2007, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stang

www.419eater.com

+1 for this site.

I've seen it before, and it is actually quite funny what some of the scambaiters can get the scammers to do.

Good stuff, check it out.

Rhettzky · 03-19-2007, 09:31 AM

Man, would it ever suck to live in Nigeria and really want to buy an X-Box off of e-bay.

mykalberta · 03-19-2007, 11:18 AM

Western Union = Scam.

That is typical crap, I got the same thing pulled on me when I tried to sell my PDA, they overbid quite a bit then give me this so story how they wanna buy the PDA for their uncle the doctor.

Report their account to Ebay - its your duty.

Or string them along, I sent them a fake tracking number along with a screenshot (modified) of Fedex, really funny the way they try to sting you along. Also if you do string them post it on the various 411 scammer sites.

I also +1 for 419 eater - they are one of the best sites, not used for Ebay stories but more get rich quick stuff.

MYK