New Nigerian Scams ?

[skippybangkok]

Mrs posted something for sale on a Thai website, and within a few hours have 2 emails from the "UK" which more or less want to buy the item outright, both for their "kids" ( on for a kid studying in Nigeria ! ) and both asking for paypal / bank xfer details for which of course they will add extra money for shipping costs.....

..... seems we possibly have scammers now trying to trawl C2C sales...

Anyone have experience.

[GreenSnapper]

Yep, heard a similar story from Thais.

Just ask them to send the money by Western Union - they will never reply again.

[vtjforyou]

Nothing new.

[saakura]

Yes same thing happened when we put our old samsung tab for sale on a local thai language website. Got a reply within hours offering more than what we wanted. And asked for shipping cost to an orphanage in Lagos and if we could source another 50pcs as the price was very good. The reply was in english.

Edited December 24, 2013 by saakura

[wooloomooloo]

What happened to cleared funds prior to shipping?

I don't care who I deal with. If buyer settles upfront, then I'll ship and no scam involved.

Try eBay.

[redwood13]

Same experience yesterday from a "buyer" in response to a CL ad I placed.

-redwood

[jaideeguy]

I was advertising my house for sale on Craigslist and got a contact from a Syrian [same same as Nigerian] that wanted to buy my house sight unseen at a price higher than i was asking and when she asked some personal details, I simply said that if you give me your personal details, then I'll give you mine and that shut her up.

[jacko45k]

So how does the scam work?

If they ask for Paypal details, isn't it just your email address?

And if they ask for bank account details, an account name and number and sorting code/SWIFT is as much as should be supplied.

None of the above details should permit anyone to get at your money?

I need to stay informed.... the missus is gullible.....

[MILT]

Anything and all things from Nigeria when involving any type of currency transfers is a scam!

I used to work as a merchant marine in the 70's and early 80's.

1975 I was in Lagos. Had a great time! The only thing the locals were wanting was guns at that time for

the pending civil wars. It is not just Nigeria one could include all of west Africa.

[brucegoniners]

Mrs posted something for sale on a Thai website, and within a few hours have 2 emails from the "UK" which more or less want to buy the item outright, both for their "kids" ( on for a kid studying in Nigeria ! ) and both asking for paypal / bank xfer details for which of course they will add extra money for shipping costs.....

..... seems we possibly have scammers now trying to trawl C2C sales...

Anyone have experience.

It happens every time I post something on Craigslist. They promise to pay via Western Union or Paypal. Total scam. Old one too.

[alfalfa19]

If I understand correctly, this is the scam where they send you a very nice and official looking cashier's check for double or triple the amount of the item's price. They ask you to deposit it into your bank, and send them half or whatever proportion of the check which is in excess of the actual price. So, the sucker deposits the nice looking check into his bank, the bank accepts it, and the sucker's balance rises accordingly. Then the sucker sends the excess funds to the scammer in nigeria or ghana or wherever he is, although typically the victim sends the money via western union so he does not know where the money is actually going. Then, a couple of days later, the victim's bank notifies the victim that the check is no good, and he is out the money he sent to the scammer. I have had a bit of fun in the past with these guys, I play along very nicely, and the scammer sends a nice check via federal express or some other expensive method. What's the point? The scammer has not only wasted one of his nice bogus checks, he has also paid to have it delivered in the US, typically this will cost him 8 to 12 dollars. To a scammer in a poor african country , this is a significant amount.

[Bluetiger]

I'm particulary fond of the Nigerian scam where they pose as a rep from Fed Ex or UPS. You recieve an email stating your pkg was undeliverable. A response is requested and whatever info they need to rip you off. Cant see how this could possibly fly as 1)... How in the he!! did you get my email if ur a rep from Fed Ex or UPS. It sure as he!! would not be on the airbill. 2) The airbill numbers can be referenced on the shipper websites. Cant see how anyone could fall for this. I've never played along but just might next time around.

[barrybankruad]

With all the bad publicity that Nigeria gets from this sort of thing, I wonder how legitimate organisations there get any foreign transactions done at all!

[jomcondo]

They are very active on eBay too......telephones are their preferred target.

They send a rough copy of pay pals email too stating "eBay payment sent by" so a few will be tricked into thinking the payment is in their paypal account already.

[bonobo]

I was in Lagos and went to the Sheraton. I was told in no uncertain terms not to pay with a credit card. The company I was visiting brought a plastic garbage bag full of cash to pay for the room.

As you drive around, buildings have signs saying "This building is not for sale. Beware 419." 419 refers to the regulation concerning scams. Evidently, people supposedly sell a property, take the money and run. When the buyer tries to move in, the real owner shows up and tells them they are trespassing.

One of the things they are doing now is targeting middle-aged Thai women, promising them love and marriage. They send packages, supposedly with a laptop, jewelry, etc, that gets held up in "customs." There is a number to call, and a Thai person answers, confirming that the package is indeed waiting, all the woman has to do is transfer money to a bank account to pay the duty. If she pays, suddenly more duty is owed, or the woman is accused of smuggling because something is in the box wasn't declared. This has been documented on THai television, but still women fall for it.

[glasswort]

There is also the job offer scam. My experience is in respect of an employment offer from Shell, Nigeria. It all seemed above board until I received the "official" offer letter.The salary and terms being offered were far more than I had indicated I would accept and at this point I came to the conclusion this was a scam. I wish now that I had continued longer because having accepted the terms I would have been contacted by the immigration lawyer, who no doubt would have requested payment for visas and the like. At least I could have had a bit more fun!!!

[falangadang]

Yes,... they target anyone selling anything.

We had a scammer contact my wife about 18 months ago when we advertised our house for sale in CM online.

An "English" man made contact with my wife and agreed to the asking price without a word of haggle.

She was hopeful but then when alerting me to the fact that the guy had asked to use a private courier company to handle all documents and deposits I immediately smelt an RAT (actually I was suspicious from the start).

I insisted that she get him on the phone to assure her in person that this was all Kosher. Prior to that she had never spoken to him.

So she gets this UK guy "Matt" from North London (a handsome Caucasian engineer) on the phone and starts talking to him on speakerphone whilst I listened in. He had the thickest Nigerian accent you had ever heard! I was born and bred in UK and can pick accents from any part of the UK with quite some accuracy.

When I prompted her to ask him was he actually English and from where?,... he said "yes" and that he was born in London (know wot I mean guv?..NOT!!) She then asked him was he in UK now (as the number on the screen indicated Malaysia),.. he said "yes and its very cold",... and yet this was in August the day after London had recorded one of the hottest days of the year for some time).

Needless to say that she cut contact immediately and also cut all contacts with anyone who had come via his list etc. We had other women contact my wife to claim that they'd also been scammed by this guy and tried to befriend my wife but I concluded a HIGH probability that they also were cohort scammers and so she cut all contact with them.

It was like removing an aggressive cancer but we succeeded and now since that time my wife has become very wise as to how these guys operate!

[GreenSnapper]

Google 419eater forum and get a lot of help and fun on those kind of scams

[chingching]

I used to think the scammers were stupid because they would make such outrageous claims (like I just inherited 800 Million USD from someone I didn't know) that no one would believe it. Then I realized that is exactly what they want. They do not want "normal" people responding to their ads. They make their claims so outrageous so only the most gullible of all people will respond. Automatically they have filtered out all the people that would be suspicious of a scam and only get responses from the super gullible ones

[ozyjon]

So how does the scam work?

If they ask for Paypal details, isn't it just your email address?

And if they ask for bank account details, an account name and number and sorting code/SWIFT is as much as should be supplied.

None of the above details should permit anyone to get at your money?

I need to stay informed.... the missus is gullible.....

It's happened to me a few times,, eg:

"I want to buy your product and i will give you more than you are asking BUT you have to pay me $550 to deposit into UPS couriers so they can ship the product"

Except the money goes straight into their account and you never hear from them again,, unless you are gullible and keep sending them money.

CASH UP FRONT or Bye Bye

[h90]

Yep, heard a similar story from Thais.

Just ask them to send the money by Western Union - they will never reply again.

Well out of hundreds or thousands I had 2 real customer. But they offered Western Union by themself in the first email.....

[sniffdog]

I once sold my home theater on Craigslist. Immediately got reply from a UK resident who wanted to have it desperately and was willing to play more than asked for.

After toying with him for a week he asked me to sent it through the Thai shipper after receiving a conformation of Western Union. That confirmation came the next day on a 'hotmail' email and complete with spelling errors.

Then I closed the net on him.

[BlueSkyCowboy]

Yep, heard a similar story from Thais.

Just ask them to send the money by Western Union - they will never reply again.

I have been robbed by Western Union before too. So......?

[MegaRanter]

Yep, heard a similar story from Thais.

Just ask them to send the money by Western Union - they will never reply again.

I have been robbed by Western Union before too. So......?

Those big financial institutions on wall street never robbed anyone or sold dubious secured high yield stock that was crap.

[movsrus]

If I understand correctly, this is the scam where they send you a very nice and official looking cashier's check for double or triple the amount of the item's price. They ask you to deposit it into your bank, and send them half or whatever proportion of the check which is in excess of the actual price. So, the sucker deposits the nice looking check into his bank, the bank accepts it, and the sucker's balance rises accordingly. Then the sucker sends the excess funds to the scammer in nigeria or ghana or wherever he is, although typically the victim sends the money via western union so he does not know where the money is actually going. Then, a couple of days later, the victim's bank notifies the victim that the check is no good, and he is out the money he sent to the scammer. I have had a bit of fun in the past with these guys, I play along very nicely, and the scammer sends a nice check via federal express or some other expensive method. What's the point? The scammer has not only wasted one of his nice bogus checks, he has also paid to have it delivered in the US, typically this will cost him 8 to 12 dollars. To a scammer in a poor african country , this is a significant amount.

I've done a similar thing. I had someone contact me with a scam like this saying he felt I was a good person and would send along more money than we agreed upon if I would send him half of the extra. I said sure and he Fed Ex a package to me with a genuine looking check. I waited a couple days and he contacted me again asking if I got the check. I wrote back saying I got the check, cashed it and felt lucky so went to the casino and gambled it all away.

Last time I ever heard from him.

[khaowong1]

They are very active on eBay too......telephones are their preferred target.

They send a rough copy of pay pals email too stating "eBay payment sent by" so a few will be tricked into thinking the payment is in their paypal account already.

And the problem with eBay is, after they push the "Buy" button, your merchandise is on hold, nobody else can buy it until you clear up all the problems for these scammers.. Happened to me once selling an iPhone.

[bonobo]

Recently I responded to two ads on Craigs List back in the US. I wanted to know some info on some weight sets that I would buy when I am there next month. I got no responses, which I thought was odd. But going through this thread, i wondered if maybe because I said I was currently in Thailand the sellers thought it could be a scam.

[skippybangkok]

They are very active on eBay too......telephones are their preferred target.

They send a rough copy of pay pals email too stating "eBay payment sent by" so a few will be tricked into thinking the payment is in their paypal account already.

And the problem with eBay is, after they push the "Buy" button, your merchandise is on hold, nobody else can buy it until you clear up all the problems for these scammers.. Happened to me once selling an iPhone. width=19 alt=bah.gif pagespeed_url_hash=4274630315>

Thanks... that explains why they want Paypal.

[alfalfa19]

There is a guy who specializes in tormenting these scammers, he has quite an extensive website, have a look: http://ebolamonkeyman.com/ . He advises viewers to not give any personal details to these characters, as they can be quite dangerous.

[koo]

These are cases of check fraud, where you might lose both the money and the goods you are selling. It all rolls back on the cheque being forged, or bounced for lack of funds by the banks, and the crooks are playing with the time in between.

These scams have declined dramatically in Finland atleast, when all banks together (via the Banker's Association) announced that they will not cash any cheques outright any more, they all have to be cleared and the funds arrived before they pay out. This normally takes a week or two...

The new form of this scam involves Paypal, whereby after you receive the payment and ship the goods, the scammer calls Paypal reporting shipment fraud from your side and tries to get the payment cancelled. So, please document your shipments carefully so you can fight the cancellation claim if it ever arrives.