EBAY FRAUD - PLEASE HELP ME!

[hardwo0d]

Sorry aobut the the Subject it might seem that I am in dire strait, well actually I am. here 's the deal. I recently put up two of my computers for sale, becuase I wanted to purchase a newer Powermac G5 or a Powerbook G4. My first computer was a Powermac G4 500, which I already received the money for. The second computer was my Dell 3.06 P4 Notebook. I was kinda happy to see 7 people were watching the item , and since I dont want too much for it I figured it would sell quickly - well it did but check this out. The purchaser sent this email after using "buy it now" on Ebay.


$$ "Compliment of the season to you over there, i am Sunmi Sola from Holland. I saw you item below and i will like to buy it for my daughter that will be doing her birthday in Nigeria next week. Dont worry about the shippment ok? i will ask the fedex or UPS to pick it up at your place after the payment ok? I will be paying you through western union postal money order. So kindly send me your address so that i can send you the payment now because its urgently."



I smelled fraud right away. Now, what I need is for someone to help me retrieve the expensive listing costs that I incurred with it. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[hardwo0d]

Oh BTW this dude bid on 10 laptops in 2 hours - and won them all!

[Moxio]

Smells fishy. It seems like the person was trying too hard to sound unAmerican.

[chosen1s]

Most of the people I have been unsure about have turned out to be legit. He's probably re-selling at a profit over there. What you need to do is tell him he will have to wait until the Western Union check clears. If it doesn't clear, then you go get your listing fees back. If it does clear, tell him thanks a lot and let FedEx have at it.

[SneakyPenguin]

Sorry man, I can't help, but it definately sounds like a scam:

http://img68.exs.cx/img68/6267/20030328l.gif

[thatstoobad]

if you end up receiving payment, then who cares what his story is?

if you don't get paid, check this out: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unpaid-item-process.html

[MightySlacker]

MAKE SURE IT CLEARS FIRST.

Dave Olson

[jbroush99]

You should check out this site:
http://www.p-p-p-powerbook.com/

See if any of it sounds familiar.
If it doesn't, at least the story is pretty funny!

[jimbodan]

Did you specify in the listing that you ship to the USA only? Or did you say you ship internationally? If you said U.S.A only then you file a claim with ebay and get your listing fee's back asap, dig around for the link, or if you want PM and I'll find it for you.

[hardwo0d]

Thanks Jimbodan I would appreciate that.


The reason why i think that it is fraud is becuase no one buys 10 "random" laptops in 2 hours with Buy it now.


I searched on google and found something similar to my situation. Unfortunately I lost the URL

Here is what they do:

1. They send the money via MO from Western Union - not a wire.
2. The MO can be cashed, but the buyer typically sends more than the requested, then ask for the difference back.
3. A week later the bank contacts you that there are no funds there and you are our some good money depending on the amount sent and you lost your item.

I fucking hate Ebay. Does anyone know of a more reliable way to sell my notebook?

[hardwo0d]

BTW JB - Nice picture of The Cheat

[dafoomie]

Why do you even need to ask? Of course its a scam. Western Union is commonly used for these kinds of scams. If you let this guy scam you, you deserve what you get. Its about as obvious as a guy on the street offering to sell you some magic beans.

If you do end up selling your laptop to him I've got a bridge that I'll trade you for the other one.

And don't worry, I'm the King of Dafoomia, so its all legit.

[jimbodan]

I believe this is the link:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CreateDispute

Fill in the item # and there should be an option for buyer lives in a country I will not ship to, or something similar.

let me know if it's the wrong link.

Thanks for the compliment on my avatar, a user here named Catacassa, or something similar, made it for me.

[defender]

DON'T DO IT. FAKE Money Orders are the latest thing. Your bank will cash it...then a week or even months later you will find out it was fraudulant and fake.

Just tell him no. Always post in your auctions that anyone outside USA has to contact you BEFORE bidding.

[hardwo0d]

dafoomie - i knew it was a scam, I was trying to get some help on recovering the fees - that's all.

[tdphillips]

It's a version of what's called the "Nigerian scam". Google it and you should get lots of info on it. It's exactly what you said, they "pay" you more and you send the difference. You then get hit with tons of charges, lost money, lost item, etc. I got tons of these when I was selling my car on autotrader. It seems to be common on big ticket items. Fortunately, you can pretty easily tell these from legit customers. But they do get some people, as it seems this is the 2nd or 3rd largest business in Nigeria (!).

In other words, stay away.

[wubb]

DON'T DO IT. FAKE Money Orders are the latest thing. Your bank will cash it...then a week or even months later you will find out it was fraudulant and fake.

Just tell him no. Always post in your auctions that anyone outside USA has to contact you BEFORE bidding.

Would you recommend not accepting money orders or cashier's checks at all, or just not accepting them from foreign buyers? I currently say I'll accept MO or Cashier's checks, but don't want to set myself up to be scammed.

[Indiana]

Make sure the check clears. I have heard about scams where they send checks like this and they were stollen. The seller ends up with nothing!

[Reality's Fringe]

Egh, I just had s buyer pay with a Western Union MO. What makes them so easy to counterfeit?

[bignick]

If someone wants to pay witha money order, I only accecpt the green US postal service money orders. You can buy and cash them at the post office.