Red Alert!! If you are an eBay seller, you really need to know this.
A week ago I receive an email from a buyer named Stellah Oliseh(frexy_lady@yahoo.com) expressing her interest to buy my posted laptop in eBay.ph, yup folks I'm selling my 11 months old Gateway T-1616 laptop, interested buyer, please visit Ebay.ph or email me at iolo003@yahoo.com c", anyways, she was asking about the laptops condition among others and so I replied to her promptly with grace. She then replied back and this time telling me details about herself, that she lives in United States, that she have a son in Nigeria and that the item will be send there.
Immediately warning bell rang in my head when I read the word Nigeria since in my months of being an eBay seller and buyer, I've read about post descriptions from other sellers telling prospect viewers and buyers that they don't ship to Nigeria and other African countries. After reading the mail, I immediately goggle about it and find out an organize fraud known as the Nigerian Scam.
The system, they contact eBay sellers like me via email, will site their interest to buy the product on a higher price than the bid price, asks you to send the item to Nigeria and pay you via Paypal, Western Union or Postal Check. They will then ask every information from you like your Bank Account, Address, etc and after a day send you a bogus email using Paypal or Western Union telling you that the buyer paid your item and that you need to send the item to the buyer before you can withdraw the money from them. This is a BIG SCAM since there was really no transaction done with Paypal etc. and that the email you receive was FAKE, made only by the buyer to deceive sellers. If you don't know anything about this, tendency is that you will think that the email was authentic and you will then send the item to Nigeria only to find out that you've been fooled and you can never bring your item back.
This is a very nasty scam that needs to be brought to public for everyone to know thus preventing them to be preys of this scrupulous people. I would have been a victim of this if I didn't care checking it out, I was just lucky that I was observant and curious enough. My well love Gateway Laptop worth Php30,000 might have bid goodbye without pay.
Please be vigilant friends! If you know other scams around, please don't hesitate to share it with us so we can avoid it right away.
Dec 27, 2008
ALERT!! BEWARE!! Nigerian Scam
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