Try not to do business outside of eBay

[somegamer]

Here is an good example of something I recieved today:

Dear *****,

"hi, i am newly registered with ebay and i am interested in the immediate purchase of your games,i have discovered a reduction in its price on ebay compared to other auction sites,i will be willing to pay $130 and i shall be making payment for the unit through western union auction payments and will also like to confirm with you if you will be able to ship out the games as soon as payment is being confirmed and approved by western union auction payments, i mean upon recieval of approval notification of payment from western union. my reason for wanting a quick shipment is due to the fact that the demand for this particular brand is high in our store in africa and as a result of this,there is need to negotiate with you on its sales. you will not need to worry about shipping outside the states as i will handle shipping with my UPS account which means i will not include shipping fees to payment made.if this will be possible,kindly get back to me with your final asking price, contact name, a"

- Things to note
* Western Union is wire transfer, which I never listed as a payment option on my auction. Read about Western Union and Fraud Click (http://www.auctionguild.com/generic65.html)
* New bidder willing to pay more then the average price makes me worry
* I haven't noticed any change in the selling price of this auction, nor do they mention the other auction sites they are comparing to.
* Member just recently signed up on Jul 10!
* When you do a search on his ID he isn't bidding on anything (probably sending only emails)
* "you will not need to worry about shipping outside the states as i will handle shipping with my UPS account which means i will not include shipping fees to payment made" - wth, can anyone explain how this?

[scuba]

spelled some words wrong also ;)

[scsg75]

s-c-a-m

[scsg75]

Also, we need Admiral Ackbar in here, because "It's a trap!"

[Admiral Ackbar]

It's a trap!

[PsyClerk]

Does he want you to ship them to Nigeria?

[Thunderscope]

HOLY CRAP I got one of those emails regarding a Xbox System I posted! I ignored him and blocked him.

[somegamer]

Does he want you to ship them to Nigeria?

I guess he wants it free shipping there too ><

[nogard]

This reminds me of the scamer who got scamed someting ago. hahaha

[PsyClerk]

I guess since they busted a bunch of those guys running the Nigerian emails ("give me your bank info so I can transfer $22 million dollars to you and get this money out of the country") they're starting up eBay scams.

[Graystone]

I had something like that happen to me on ebay dude wanted baseball gloves for a whole team 25-35 and he also wanted to pay me directly with credit card and wanted me to ship to indonesia.

[thesilentshadow30]

Just an FYI...
Western Union Auction Payments is an online service that allows you to buy Money Orders for auctions on ebay and other sites. It used to be called Bidpay. I have used it a few times to pay for auctions where the seller would not take paypal. You buy the Money Order and they mail it out for you.

[defender]

If he wires YOU the money and then go get the cash...how do you lose? I would demand that he also pay for shipping though.

Once you get cash in hand from WU then you are fine. Most likely this is a scam where the guy will try to pay you another way that's NOT legit.

WU is great to collect money..the problem is sending it this way. I only accept payment from countries like this via Bidpay/WU. Once I cash the check at a WU then it's all good.

[evilmregg]

Western Union is often used by people using stolen credit cards or other illicitly-gained money because it's much harder to trace than other methods. That email was definitely a scam in the making.

[thatstoobad]

someone wanted to purchase a cd i was selling on ebay directly. i was perfectly fine with it, and i offered to sell it to him for $40 shipped. i told him that if he paid me the $40 through paypal that i would take the auction down, but he never got back to me. i imagine that he though my price was too high, but guess what, the auction ended today and i got $41 not including shipping.

anyways, my point is that if someone pays you outside of ebay, you don't really have anything to worry about. it's the person who is paying you that does. as a seller, all you need is the money, and if you get the money then you can't get screwed.

you just have to make sure you cover all your bases.

[jebus179]

Never do business with anyone from Africa. I read somewhere a couple of no-nos for ebay. And don't deal with people from Africa. Credit Card fraud is really bad there.

[bignick]

I think he was gonna spoof an email from western union.

[toocool17]

Don't do a deal like that ever, i did a deal like this a while ago. I got western union money from him they said the payment cleared, so then i ship him the item, then western union contacts me a day later and says the money is fraud, and i couldn't even get my ps2 back that s.o.b. Whats his ebay user name, maybe its the same guy i delt with?

[defender]

This is why you dont deposit WU money into an account...you go to WU and get the cash.